(OSRSG-CAAC) – The year 2014 was marked by a multiplication of conflicts and made children even more vulnerable to the effects of war, the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict, Leila Zerrougui, told the Human Rights Council earlier today, as she presented her Annual Report covering the period from December 2013 to December 2014. In the six countries affected by the worst crises, the Central African Republic, Iraq, Nigeria, the State of Palestine, South Sudan and Syria, children were victims of the worst violations. “Ethnic or religious divisions, fuelled by power struggles also enabled the rise of extremist armed groups who use tactics of extreme violence targeting children and adults indiscriminately and with no distinction between civilians and combatants,” said the Special Representative during her presentation in Geneva.
