June 28. () –
The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has verified more than 266,000 serious violations against children in fifteen years committed by the parties in more than 30 conflict situations in Africa, Asia, the Middle East and Latin America.
According to a statement from the organization, the annual number of rapes has gradually increased since 2005, exceeding
for the first time the 20,000 in a year in 2014 and reaching 26,425 in 2020. Between 2016 and 2020, the daily global average of serious violations verified stood at 71 violations.
“The high number of violations observed in recent years demonstrates the serious consequences that armed conflicts and increasingly complex and protracted protection crises have on children,” UNICEF said.
“This report exposes as starkly as possible the world’s failure to protect its children from grave violations in times of armed conflict,” said UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell.
In addition, it has added that these “serious” violations produce “devastation” in children, their families and communities, which “makes it even more difficult to restore and maintain peace, security and stability.” “We must refuse to accept violations against children as an inevitable result of war,” she has said.
Between 2005 and 2020, more than 104,100 boys and girls have been killed or maimed in situations of armed conflict; more than 93,000 minors have been recruited and used by the parties to the conflict; at least 25,700 have been kidnapped; and the parties to the conflict have raped, forced marriages, sexually exploited and committed other serious forms of sexual violence against at least 14,200 minors.
Likewise, the UN has verified more than 13,900 attacks against schools and hospitals and no less than 14,900 incidents of denial of humanitarian access to minors since 2005, according to a UNICEF statement.
Another of the report’s findings is that agents
State actors, including national and international forces and coalitions, were responsible for at least 26 percent of all violations of the safety and integrity of minors between 2016 and 2020. The remaining percentage corresponds to non-state actors.
Research has also found that children from the poorest backgrounds and children in vulnerable conditions, such as refugees, internally displaced persons and indigenous people, are at higher risk of serious violations.
On the other hand, boys represented 73 percent of child victims in 2020, while girls in that year suffered 98 percent of sexual violations. Also, between 2016 and 2020, 79 percent of all victims were recorded in Afghanistan (30 percent), Israel and the Palestinian part (14), Syria (13), Yemen (13), and Somalia (9).
“UNICEF and our partners will not waver in the task of preventing grave violations against children,” said Russell, adding that this task “has never been more urgent” due to the greater number of children “affected by conflict, violence and crises since the Second World War”.
Add Comment