Washington, D.C. — Activists, academics and authors have urged the United States Congress to put more attention on universal basic education for children in areas of conflict.

Speaking at a panel discussion in Washington, DC to mark World Refugee Day, they argued that the U.S. needs to increase aid for such children. Forty-three million children worldwide are not in school due to conflict, according to Save the Children, the group which convened the panel.

“Children who lack basic education tend to become victims of armed groups, child labor, child trafficking, child abuse, and devastating diseases such as HIV/Aids and malaria,” said Emily Vargas-Barón, director of the Institute for Reconstruction and International Security through Education.

Aid in conflict-affected regions is disproportionately low, but desperately needed, according to panelists and Save the Children.

Vargas-Barón said the lack of education in conflict-ridden areas was a matter of national security, because it made them a “seed bed of potential future combatants.”

Gabriel Oling Olang of Save the Children Uganda said that for children returning home after being at war, “school provides a very good stabilizing environment… The best way to reintegrate former child soldiers is to ensure that they get [an education].”

All of the panelists supported the Education For All Act of 2007, which would increase the aid given to developing countries for universal basic education to $3 billion by the fiscal year 2012.

“Education will lay the groundwork for the rule of law and for preparing the future leaders and planners required to build sustainable systems of governance and economically productive societies,” Vargas-Barón said. She called the Education For All Act “enlightened legislation” and emphasized that the bill commits resources to “all developing countries,” and not simply those countries that are free of conflict.