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Over 270 girls are still missing in Nigeria, one year after their abduction. Educators worldwide have not forgotten about them and reiterate that schools everywhere must remain safe sanctuaries.

The girls were abducted on 14 April 2014 by the terrorist group Boko Haram at the Chibok government secondary school. One year after their abduction, a vigil and a silent march will be held today at 6pm EST at the UN Church Centre, in New York, USA.

Join in the #DearSisters letter-writing action

The 2014 Nobel Peace Prize co-winner Malala Yousafzai also shared on 13 April 2015 an audio recording of a letter she wrote to the missing Chibok girls as a symbol of solidarity. She is asking the public to join her in writing a message of hope to the girls too. You can share the #DearSisters letter-writing action with your social media audience. All the letters will be sent to the families of the missing girls at the end of the month.

EI: right to education and safe teaching and learning environment for all

Education International (EI) once again urges the Nigerian public authorities to ensure the safe return of these girls within their families and communities.

While currently 10,5 million children are still not going to school in Nigeria, EI reaffirms that every child in Nigeria and elsewhere must be given the opportunity of education in a safe learning environment.

Education International stresses that all peoples in all nations should live in peace, free from wars, conflicts, violence and exploitation. Education is an essential condition for peace, sustainable development, equality and global citizenship.

The persistence of armed conflicts, extremism, militarism, sectarianism and terrorism, demands continued efforts in organised civil society, in which trade union organisations have a considerable presence, to promote a culture of peace, respect, tolerance and non-violence which is fundamental to human rights.

Schools are also a workplace and teachers, males and females, need to be supported and feel safe. Education institutions everywhere should therefore be recognised, by all parties to conflicts, as safe sanctuaries in which all have an equal opportunity to develop their potential in safety, secure from violence in all of its forms. All children and adults have the right to education in a safe peaceful learning and teaching environment.

UNICEF: too many Nigerian refugee children

A new report released by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), entitled Missing Childhoods –  The impact of armed conflict on children in Nigeria and beyond, further reveals that least 800,000 children have been forced to flee their homes as a result of the conflict in northeast Nigeria between Boko Haram, military forces and civilian self-defence groups.

According to UNICEF’s Missing Childhoods, the number of children running for their lives within Nigeria, or crossing over the border to Chad, Niger and Cameroon, has more than doubled in just less than a year. More than 300 schools were damaged or destroyed and at least 196 teachers and 314 schoolchildren killed by the end of 2014.

Amnesty: Boko Haram’s multiple war crimes and crimes against humanity

Based on nearly 200 witness accounts, including 28 with abducted women and girls who escaped captivity, a new 90-page report by Amnesty International, 'Our job is to shoot, slaughter and kill': Boko Haram’s reign of terror, documents multiple war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by Boko Haram, including the killing of at least 5,500 civilians, as it rampaged across north-east Nigeria during 2014 and early 2015.

The report sheds new light on the brutal methods used by the armed group in north-east Nigeria where men and boys are regularly conscripted or systematically executed and young women and girls are abducted, imprisoned and in some cases raped, forcibly married and made to participate in armed attacks, sometimes on their own towns and villages.

Sign the petition #bringbackourgirls

Education International also invites all concerned citizens to sign a petition calling on all World Leaders and enabled parties to rescue these girls.

By signing this petition, you can express solidarity with the kidnapped girls and implore the world not to forget them, support all efforts to ensure their safe return, and that efforts are made to ensure all schools are safe places to learn, protected from attack.

You can sign the petition here