“We, representatives of the International Philosophy Olympiad 2026, strongly object to the ongoing war initiated by Israel and the United States against Iran, Palestine and Lebanon which is expanding across the Middle East and causing grave harm to civilian populations.

We call for an immediate end to hostilities and for all necessary measures to protect civilian life. We also reject any unilateral exercise of “righteousness” through military force.

We call for perpetuated peace grounded in international law, universal human rights and mutual respect and recognition between people and states.”

Accepted by the International Committee of IPO at the IPO 2026 (Warsaw, Poland)

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Statement Concerning the Scholasticide in Gaza.

A growing number of scholars of genocide and international law, non-governmental human rights organizations (e.g., B’tselem and Amnesty International) and UN experts have come to the conclusion that the acts of the state of Israel against the Palestinian people of Gaza meet the definition of genocide as stipulated in the United Nations Convention for the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide.

As an educational association, we are very concerned about the suffering of Palestinian scholars, teachers, and students as well as the destruction of education. Already in April 2024, UN experts expressed “grave concern over the pattern of attacks on schools, universities, teachers, and students in the Gaza Strip” including “the killing of 261 teachers and 95 university professors […] which may constitute an intentional effort to comprehensively destroy the Palestinian education system, an action known as scholasticide.(1)

The bases for this charge included in April 2024:

- The Israel Defense Forces’ (IDF) destruction of 80 percent of schools in Gaza, leaving 625,000 children with no educational access;

- The IDF’s destruction of all 12 Gaza university campuses;

- The IDF’s destruction of Gaza’s archives, libraries, cultural centers, museums, and bookstores, including 195 heritage sites, 227 mosques, three churches, and the al-Aqsa University library, which preserved crucial documents and other materials related to the history and culture of Gaza;

- The IDF’s repeated violent displacements of Gaza’s people, leading to the irreplaceable loss of students’ and teachers’ educational and research materials, which will extinguish the future study of Palestinian history.

Since the UN’s warning in April 2024, the ongoing campaign of the IDF in Gaza, beyond causing massive death and injury to Palestinian civilians and the collapse of basic life structures, has effectively obliterated Gaza’s education system.

In addition, looting and damaging of educational facilities by Israeli settlers and military in other parts of the Occupied Palestinian Territory (Westbank including East Jerusalem) have intensified to an unprecedented degree, including the targeting of staff and students through abduction, abuse and killing.

We, representatives of the International Philosophy Olympiad (IPO) 2026, therefore condemn the violence perpetrated by the state of Israel in Gaza and other parts of the Occupied Palestinian Territory that undermines among others the right to freely teach and learn. In line with international law (2), the IPO calls for a permanent ceasefire and the end of the illegal occupation of the Palestinian Territory in order to halt the scholasticide.

(1) Press release of OHCHR from 18 April 2024.

(2) Most notably, the International Court of Justice’s Advisory Opinion of 19 July 2024 on the “Legal Consequences Arising From the Policies and Practices of Israel in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, Including East Jerusalem and the court’s order concerning the Application of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide in the Gaza Strip (South Africa v. Israel).

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“We, the representatives of the countries participating in the International Philosophy Olympiad 2025, strongly object to the warfare affecting civilians in Gaza.

We demand an immediate end to the war and all hostilities, free access for humanitarian aid into the area, the release of all hostages, as well as protection of the civilian population, medical staff, aid workers and journalists in all situations.

The conflict must be solved and reconstruction must be carried out in accordance with international law and human rights agreements.”

Accepted by the International Committee of IPO at the IPO 2025 (Bari, Italy)

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“We, the representatives of the countries participating in the International Philosophy Olympiad 2022, strongly object to Russia’s military invasion of Ukraine and demand an immediate end to the war. We are convinced that all disputes between states must be settled peacefully on the basis of existing international law and in accordance with international human rights agreements.”

Signed by:
Joseph A. Murphy (USA), Ivan Kolev (Bulgaria), Thor Steinar Grødal (Norway), Bruno Ćurko (Croatia), Austria,  Lara Gafner (Switzerland), Sona Küçükyan (Turkey), Frosina Postoloska (Macedonia), Ricardo Gutierrez Aguilar (Spain), Floris Velema (Netherlands), Márta Takács (Hungary), Dirk Oosthoek (Netherlands), Attila Pato (Hungary), Miha Andric, Alenka Hladnik and Marjan Šimenc (Slovenia), Alloy S. Ihuah (Nigeria), Marc Foglia (France), Elmana Cerić (Bosnia and Herzegovina), Jan Hrkut (Slovakia), Francesca Gambetti (Italy), Shinji Kajitani (Japan), Matthew Hammerton (Singapore), Ji-Aeh LEE, Yeri HONG (The Republic of Korea), Gadi Prudovsky (Israel), Michael Paroussis (Greece),  Danny Praet (Belgium), Leo Luks (Estonia), Ukri Pulliainen, Ilmari Hirvonen (Finland), Portugal, Frank Murphy (USA), Panagiotis Tsirigotis (Greece), Gustavo Coelho (Brasil), Assia Tryfona (Greece), Emidio Spinelli (Italy), Olav Birkeland (Norway), Nuran Direk (Turkey), Larisa T. Retyuskikh (Russia), Florina Otet (Romania), Magdalena Gawin (Poland), Kentaro Sakakibara (Japan), Soraj Hongladarom (Thailand), Stéphanie Gomes (Switzerland), Petra Chudárková (Czech Republic), Artis Svece (Latvia), Soraj Hongladaromр (Thailand), Kentaro Sakakibara (Japan), liraz laor (Israel), Marcelo Lobosco, (Argentina), Virginia Schagen (Argentina), Christine Martin (France), Kristina Roppelt (Russia), Michail Zavadsky (Belarus), Eugen Stoica (Romania)

 

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