(Reuters/SBS) – Iraqi security forces are forcibly returning civilians from refugee camps to unsafe areas in the predominantly Sunni Anbar province, exposing them to death from booby-traps or acts of vigilantism, refugees and aid workers say. Managing more than two million Iraqis displaced by the war against IS State is one of Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi’s […]
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(Independent) – Imagine that you are trapped with your family in a town under siege. Food and fuel are running out. Your children are hungry, cold and terrified by air raids and artillery. In the chaos, hundreds of people in urgent need of medical care have little prospect of treatment. Link
(Theirworld) – Children always need protection – but never more so than during a conflict. Some are orphaned, many abandoned, most are frightened and in distress. They may be displaced, hungry, cold and left to survive on their own – which means they are at risk of violence, exploitation, disease or recruitment by armed groups. Link
(The New York Times) – In wars around the globe, thousands of children were front-line targets, used as human shields and recruited to fight this year on “a shocking scale,” Unicef said on Thursday. The United Nations agency warned against normalizing the brutality, a sentiment it has echoed in reports year after year. Link
(CNN) – They have been killed, recruited to fight, used as human shields, forced into marriage and enslaved. 2017 has been a “nightmare year” for children caught in the crosshairs of conflict, the UN’s agency for children has said. Link
(Medium) – 2017 has been a devastating year for children trapped in conflicts. They came under attack in spaces where they should be safe — in homes, schools and hospitals and on playgrounds. Children were deliberately targeted in many conflicts: They were used as human shields, killed, maimed, abducted and recruited to fight. Millions of children also […]
(UN News Centre) – The scale of attack on children in conflict zones throughout 2017 is “shocking” said the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), calling on all parties to conflict to abide by their obligations under international law and immediately end violations and attacks against children.“Children are being targeted and exposed to attacks and brutal violence […]
(UN Women) – Sexual violence against women and girls in conflict-affected countries[1] is being used as a tactic of war, with devastating consequences for women across the globe. This form of violence is the weapon of choice for armed actors looking to destabilize societies, given its ability to traumatize individuals, generate stigmatization, and fragment family and […]
(BBC) – In the breakfast room of Baghdad’s grandest hotel, among the businessmen and official delegations, they look so out of place – four pale-faced children, aged between about three and six. They’re wolfing down their bowls of cereal with determination, but in silence. You can tell they’re not on a family holiday. There are […]
(SRSG CAAC) – The Special Representatives of the United Nations Secretary-General (SRSG) on Sexual Violence in Conflict (SVC), Pramila Patten, and for Children and Armed Conflict, Virginia Gamba urged Iraq to reconsider the draft amendments to the Personal Status Law that alter fundamentally the legal provisions governing marriage. It is a matter of concern that these […]
