News and press releases

The Palau de Congressos de Palma, managed by Meliá Hotels International, opened the doors to one of the most important events held to date in the destination: the III International Conference on Safe Schools, with the support of the United Nations, which aims to protect students, teachers and educational institutions during armed conflicts. The Conference was celebrated in Spain for the first time and representatives of dozens of governments and UN and civil society organizations were gathered in Palma de Mallorca.

The Vice President and CEO of Meliá Hotels International, Gabriel Escarrer, has expressed his pride in having hosted an event of this relevance, which was attended by the Queen of Spain, the Spanish Minister of Foreign Affairs, European Union and Cooperation in functions, representatives of the United Nations and numerous international experts. "This forum has brought into the debate one of the issues that, as a company of the tourism sector, we care most, which is the protection of children, and it's been held for the first time in Spain and in our house, Mallorca, giving us the opportunity to show the world that Palma is a tier 1 international destination we can be very proud of" said the hotel's first executive.

Spain has hosted this Conference after those held in Oslo (2015) and Buenos Aires (2017). The Conference is aimed at internationally promoting the Safe Schools Declaration; a public instrument created to protect students, teachers and educational institutions during armed conflicts. To date, 84 States have signed the Declaration.

UNICEF notes that, out of the over 55,000 children released after being recruited for armed conflicts in different countries of the world during the past five years, only 42,000 have benefited from reintegration programmes. Ensuring access to an educational system under safe conditions, taking into consideration the gender and age of the minors affected by armed conflicts is one of the priorities for action in this area.