Lucens Castle

[1] The castle's strategic location allowed it to control the Broye valley, which was an important transit corridor.

[2] On 26–28 November 2012, experts from around the world met at Lucens Castle, to discuss developing international guidelines to better protect schools and universities from military use.

[3] The resulting document is known as the Draft Lucens Guidelines for Protecting Schools and Universities from Military Use during Armed Conflict.

The Draft Lucens Guidelines urge all parties to armed conflict "not to use schools and universities for any purpose in support of the military effort", and then provides six guidelines of "responsible practice" for parties so as to avoid impinging on students' safety and education.

[4] The finalized guidelines then became available for countries to endorse through the Safe Schools Declaration, and have gone on to influence national legislation and military doctrine and policy.

Town of Lucens with the Castle on its hill