UNITED NATIONS –
The United Nations announced Monday that it will begin monitoring the war in Ukraine and conflicts in Ethiopia, Mozambique and Africa’s central Sahel region for violations against children, including murder, injury, recruitment, rape and other forms of sexual violence. .
Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said in his annual report to the Security Council on children and armed conflict that those four new conflicts have added to 21 conflicts the UN is already monitoring for child rights violations. He said these latest conflicts saw “a lot of serious violations” in 2021.
The UN chief said that the protection of children has been seriously affected by the escalation of conflicts, the multiplication of armed groups, landmines and improvised explosive devices, explosive weapons in populated areas, the intensification of humanitarian crises and violations of humanitarian and human rights law.
Virginia Gamba, UN Special Envoy for Children and Armed Conflict, told a news conference that “incursions by extremely violent armed groups, military coups and instability, and violent electoral processes in fragile states left 19,100 children victims of serious violations during 2021 in the 21 countries and regional situations that we monitor”.
The UN said it verified nearly 24,000 “serious violations” against children in 2021, including more than 1,300 previously committed.
The highest figures for violations last year were 2,515 murders and 5,555 injuries to children, followed by the recruitment and use of 6,310 youth in conflict, according to the report.
Last year, he said, the number of child abductions increased by more than 20% and cases of sexual violence against children continued to rise, also by more than 20%.
The largest number of “serious violations” verified by the UN were recorded in Afghanistan, Congo, Israel, the Palestinian territories, Somalia, Syria and Yemen, it said.
While 70% of grave violations were against boys, that number decreased and “the number of girls who were victims of murder and maiming, or who were victims of abduction and sexual violence, increased, particularly in the Lake Chad basin”, says the report.
Guterres said in the report that Ukraine was being added to the monitoring effort “because of the high intensity of this conflict” and in light of violations against civilians, including children. He called on Gamba to urgently engage with all parties to address the protection of children and the prevention of violations against them.
He said Mozambique was being added because of “the severity and number of reported violations,” including the recruitment and use of children, killing and maiming, rape and other forms of sexual violence, attacks on schools and kidnappings.
The UN chief said Ethiopia was being added in view of “the seriousness of the clashes in 2021” between government forces and the police, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Tigray and other parties, including militias and regional forces. . He cited violence against children, including murder, rape, sexual assault, kidnapping and attacks on schools.
Gamba said the central Sahel region, which covers parts of Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger, was being added to the list of monitoring and reporting of grave violations against children.
Human Rights Watch and Watchlist on Children and Armed Conflict, a coalition of non-governmental groups, criticized Guterres for failing to provide meaningful information on violations against children in Ukraine, Ethiopia and Mozambique.
Human Rights Watch’s Jo Becker also criticized the secretary-general for not including perpetrators of armed conflict in the three countries on the UN blacklist of those who commit grave violations against children. Watchlist director Adrianne Lapar said Guterres squandered “an opportunity to shine a light on abuses and hold parties to account.”
Both organizations also harshly criticized the UN chief for excluding Israel from the “list of shame” for the killing of 78 Palestinian children and the injury of 982 in 2021.
In the report, Guterres said that if the high numbers of violations committed by Israel in 2021 are repeated in 2022, it should be added to the list. He also said that if a significant increase in the number of cases of violence against Israeli children last year is repeated this year, Palestinian armed groups, including Hamas’s al-Qassam Brigades and Palestinian Islamic Jihad’s al-Quds Brigades, should be included in the list.
Becker called Israel’s failure to be listed “another missed opportunity for accountability,” saying “other armed forces or groups have been listed for far fewer violations.” Lapar said that “year after year, Israeli government forces have gotten away with committing serious crimes against children, with virtual impunity” and “the secretary-general must hold the Israeli government to the same standard as any other party in conflict”. the
The UN sanctions blacklist in the report’s annex adds some new armed groups, including the Colombian dissident group Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia-Ejército del Pueblo for recruiting and using children and the Burkina Faso militant group Jama Nusrat Ul-Islam. wa Al-Muslimin for serious violations.
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