PROTECT CHILDREN FROM VIOLENCE
Children are precious and deserve peace, protection and encouragement at all times. A child is an uncut diamond, once wrote Austin O’malley. Unfortunately, while countries marked the International Day of Innocent Children Victims of Aggression on Monday, one stark reality that assailed human conscience turned out to be the persistent attacks on children in conlict zones in blatant disregard of the most basic rule in war: protection of children.
Dr Hanif Hassan Al Qasim, Chairman of the Geneva Centre for Human Rights Advancement and Global Dialogue, is absolutely right in stressing the importance of stopping all forms of violence against children during armed conflicts.
Children are exposed to danger in many countries, including Palestine. Israel’s violent practices in Gaza and the West Bank have been continuing unabated despite repeated warnings by the international community.
Half of the children in Gaza depend on humanitarian aid, which was reduced by the Israeli siege that targeted civilians. The killing of children during the Gaza protests in 2018 is another glaring example of the violent Israeli practices against Palestinian children, as Dr Qasim points out.
The United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) estimates that around 43 per cent of internally displaced people are children, and around three million Syrian children are refugees, and over 40 per cent of Syrian refugees do not have access to education.
Another distressing fact is that nearly 3.7 million Afghan children are missing out on school, due to on-going conlict, grinding poverty and discrimination against girls, as per a new report from the UN Children’s Fund, Unicef.
That represents almost half of all children aged between seven and 17, and marks the irst time that the out-of-school rate has increased, since 2002.
To compound the worry, girls account for 60 per cent of those being denied an education, putting them at a particular disadvantage.
In the worse-affected provinces of Afghanistan, including Kandahar, Helmand, Wardak, Paktika, Zabul and Uruzgan, up to 85 per cent of girls are not going to school.
This situation is just not acceptable. None of us grow up to be man or woman without passing through that beautiful, carefree phase called childhood.
International decision-makers need to address the ethical and humanitarian issue of child protection with more seriousness. Nothing should be spared when it comes to stopping violence against children. They are the future. Adore them, nurture them, because children do not belong to their parents alone. They belong to society. ■■■