Guterres denounces the “grave” violations of the Assad regime against Syrian children
The Secretary-General of the United Nations, Antonio Guterres, said, “The Assad regime and more than 32 other poles of the ongoing war in Syria are carrying out grave violations against children in the region.”
This came in the third report presented by Guterres to the UN Security Council today on children and armed conflict in Syria.
In the report, the Secretary-General of the United Nations presents trends and patterns of grave violations committed against children by all parties to the conflict, and violations of the right of children include “killing, maiming, forced conscription, enforced disappearance, torture and kidnapping,” between 2018 and 2020.
Guterres explained that the United Nations has verified the killing of 1557 children, 847 of whom are males, 356 females, and 354 of unknown sex, and the mutilation of 1,160 children, 754 boys, 211 girls, and 195 persons of unknown sex, indicating that “these incidents occurred in 12 governorates, most of them in Idlib (1152). ), Aleppo (632) and Deir Ezzor (220).
He stressed: “The recruitment and use of children in combat continues on a widespread and systematic scale, as 1423 cases (1,306 boys and 117 girls) have been verified, including 274 cases in the second half of 2018, 837 cases in 2019 and 312 cases in the first half of the year. Year 2020 ”.
Guterres added that 73% of these cases have been verified in the northwestern part of Syria, represented by Idlib, Aleppo and Deir Hama, and 26% in the northern part (Raqqa – Hasaka – Deir Ezzor).
He called on all actors to “abide by their obligations under international humanitarian law and international human rights law, and take all necessary measures to improve the protection of children in Syria.”
Guterres also urged all parties to the conflict in Syria to stop attacks on schools, hospitals, humanitarian facilities, people working in this field, and objects used in humanitarian relief operations, at a time when the Syrian child has become one of the main victims of the war due to the difficult conditions in which he lives.
