Pathfinder
Editor, Senior Moderator
Syria: A War on Childhood
Publication Date:
22 Jul 2012
...
By the time we see the end of the conflict in Syria it will be clear that children have paid a heavy price for the right to live in peace, go to school, and feel safe in their homes and communities. Children have not been spared and it is particularly alarming the extent to which children have been directly targeted. War Child has a long history of finding ways to help children who have been caught up in the crossfire of wars waged by adults. In Syria, we have been outraged by the violence directly aimed at children and young people, and have responded by setting up a programme with our implementing partner, War Child Holland in Lebanon, to provide emergency assistance to children fleeing the violence. Neither side in this conflict has distinguished itself by protecting children in the areas they control. The Assad regime and the militias it sponsors have shot, detained, tortured and sexually abused children throughout the 16 months since the uprising began. But opposition forces also stand charged with including children in their ranks, and failing to properly protect children when engaging inhostilities in civilian areas. Children in conflict countries should be able to rely on adults, both inside and outside of the country, to take decisive steps to ensure their safety. This protection is their entitlement under humanitarian and human rights law, including the Geneva Conventions, and the Convention on the Rights of the Child. The conflict in Syria is distinct in the degree to which these legal instruments, and the international community who signed up to them, have proved completely unable to furnish any measure of security for children. We have a right to ask questions about this failure, and to demand more from our leaders than the current diplomatic stalemate and humanitarian disaster.
This report illustrates how the growing civil war in Syria ranks as one of the worst for the depth and scale of abuses perpetrated against children, with little response from the International Community. The situation in Syria is, however, a moving target; so the report does not attempt to be conclusive but to draw existing strands of evidence together in order to explicitly demonstrate the severity of the impact the Syrian conflict is having on children and young people (based also on War Child?s extensive experience of operating in contexts of conflict and insecurity) and to encourage practicable action towards its eventual peaceful resolution.
We are failing Syria?s children.
We must not continue to fail them in the future.
Rob Williams
Chief Executive, War Child UK
...
4 A CHILDREN?S CRISIS
" We are really quite shocked. Killing and maiming of children in cross-fire is something we come across in many conflicts but this torture of children in detention, children as young as 10, is something quite extraordinary, which we don't really see in other places."
UN Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict
The Syrian crisis has distinguished itself from recent clashes in the Middle East for all the wrong reasons. Children and young people are always disproportionally affected by the direct and indirect impacts of violent conflict, but injury and death tend to be as a consequence of children being used in direct hostilities as combatants, or incidental victims caught up in crossfire. Syria is no exception on these counts, but reports document additional human rights abuses that are surprisingly grave. Let alone not being protected from the violence, children?s lives are deliberately being targeted. In this sense, the case of Syria is disturbingly unique. Evidence on the ground shows that children have been treated with zero tolerance: a detained thirteen year old recalls his torturers words - ?they said, ?remember this saying, always keep it in mind: we take both kids and adults, and we kill them both??.
? Between 500 and over a 1300 children
have already been killed.
? 49 children were massacred in one incident
alone.
? 635 children put into detention centres, 9 where
torture has been repeatedly testified
? Children, girls and boys, as young as 8 have
been forcefully involved in hostilities.
? There are an estimated 470,000 children and
young people affected by the crisis.
? It is estimated that around 50% of all displaced
Syrians are children and young people.
? Girls and boys as young as 12 have been
sexually abused.
...
Full report:
http://www.warchild.org.uk/sites/default/files/Syria - War on Children(final).pdf
http://www.warchild.org.uk/news/syria-war-childhood-report-published
Publication Date:
22 Jul 2012
...
By the time we see the end of the conflict in Syria it will be clear that children have paid a heavy price for the right to live in peace, go to school, and feel safe in their homes and communities. Children have not been spared and it is particularly alarming the extent to which children have been directly targeted. War Child has a long history of finding ways to help children who have been caught up in the crossfire of wars waged by adults. In Syria, we have been outraged by the violence directly aimed at children and young people, and have responded by setting up a programme with our implementing partner, War Child Holland in Lebanon, to provide emergency assistance to children fleeing the violence. Neither side in this conflict has distinguished itself by protecting children in the areas they control. The Assad regime and the militias it sponsors have shot, detained, tortured and sexually abused children throughout the 16 months since the uprising began. But opposition forces also stand charged with including children in their ranks, and failing to properly protect children when engaging inhostilities in civilian areas. Children in conflict countries should be able to rely on adults, both inside and outside of the country, to take decisive steps to ensure their safety. This protection is their entitlement under humanitarian and human rights law, including the Geneva Conventions, and the Convention on the Rights of the Child. The conflict in Syria is distinct in the degree to which these legal instruments, and the international community who signed up to them, have proved completely unable to furnish any measure of security for children. We have a right to ask questions about this failure, and to demand more from our leaders than the current diplomatic stalemate and humanitarian disaster.
This report illustrates how the growing civil war in Syria ranks as one of the worst for the depth and scale of abuses perpetrated against children, with little response from the International Community. The situation in Syria is, however, a moving target; so the report does not attempt to be conclusive but to draw existing strands of evidence together in order to explicitly demonstrate the severity of the impact the Syrian conflict is having on children and young people (based also on War Child?s extensive experience of operating in contexts of conflict and insecurity) and to encourage practicable action towards its eventual peaceful resolution.
We are failing Syria?s children.
We must not continue to fail them in the future.
Rob Williams
Chief Executive, War Child UK
...
4 A CHILDREN?S CRISIS
" We are really quite shocked. Killing and maiming of children in cross-fire is something we come across in many conflicts but this torture of children in detention, children as young as 10, is something quite extraordinary, which we don't really see in other places."
UN Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict
The Syrian crisis has distinguished itself from recent clashes in the Middle East for all the wrong reasons. Children and young people are always disproportionally affected by the direct and indirect impacts of violent conflict, but injury and death tend to be as a consequence of children being used in direct hostilities as combatants, or incidental victims caught up in crossfire. Syria is no exception on these counts, but reports document additional human rights abuses that are surprisingly grave. Let alone not being protected from the violence, children?s lives are deliberately being targeted. In this sense, the case of Syria is disturbingly unique. Evidence on the ground shows that children have been treated with zero tolerance: a detained thirteen year old recalls his torturers words - ?they said, ?remember this saying, always keep it in mind: we take both kids and adults, and we kill them both??.
? Between 500 and over a 1300 children
have already been killed.
? 49 children were massacred in one incident
alone.
? 635 children put into detention centres, 9 where
torture has been repeatedly testified
? Children, girls and boys, as young as 8 have
been forcefully involved in hostilities.
? There are an estimated 470,000 children and
young people affected by the crisis.
? It is estimated that around 50% of all displaced
Syrians are children and young people.
? Girls and boys as young as 12 have been
sexually abused.
...
Full report:
http://www.warchild.org.uk/sites/default/files/Syria - War on Children(final).pdf
http://www.warchild.org.uk/news/syria-war-childhood-report-published