Skip to main content

UN Report Details Grave Violations Against Children In Afghanistan



Hundreds of boys and girls have been killed or injured over the past two years amid the deteriorating political and security situation in Afghanistan, says a UN report.

The report on Children and Armed Conflict issued on Monday, a day after the Taliban consolidated control over the country found that 5,770 Afghan youngsters were killed or maimed between January 2019 and December 2020.
Meanwhile, the study stated that child casualties hit their highest levels ever during the first half of 2021.
Virginia Gamba, the UN Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict, said Afghanistan continued to be one of the most dangerous places to be a child.

Armed groups, particularly the Taliban, were responsible for most incidents, or 46 per cent, with government and pro-government forces accounting for 35 per cent, followed by landmines and explosive remnants of war.
“It is urgent that all parties take the necessary actions to minimise harm to children and prioritise their protection in the conduct of hostilities as well as protect schools and hospitals.
“Such harm is otherwise bound to affect generations to come, when Afghan children have already had their childhood taken away from them.
“With figures already alarmingly high and the Taliban identified in the report as a major perpetrator of violence against children, the future of children, especially girls in Afghanistan is dark,” Gamba said.
The UN also verified more than 6,470 grave violations against children during the reporting period, with nearly half attributed to the Taliban. Some 297 attacks on schools and hospitals were also verified.
Despite a decrease in assaults on schools, the report’s authors noted that attacks on hospitals and protected personnel rose, which they found particularly egregious, given the fragile state of the Afghan healthcare system and the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic.
According to Gamba, deliberate Taliban attacks on girls’ schools remain “a worrisome trend.”
She appealed to the group, and all other parties to the conflict, to respect human rights, including the right to education for girls.
Warring sides, mainly the Taliban, also recruited 260 boys into the hostilities, mostly in combat roles.
Gamba explained that the pandemic exacerbated boys’ vulnerability: a situation she said would deepen given the current levels of violence.
“Today, I call on all parties, especially the Taliban, to prevent recruitment and use, abduction, and the killing and maiming of children and to cease all violations and urgently take concrete measures to protect children, schools, and hospitals, and mitigate child casualties,” she said.
The UN Special Representative further called for Afghanistan to uphold the criminalisation of the practice of “bacha bazi,” a form of sexual abuse against boys, in line with revisions to the penal code in 2018.
She stressed that true protection for Afghanistan’s children will only come through peaceful resolution of the conflict.
“I call on all parties, especially the Taliban today, to ensure that child protection issues are prioritised by all actors involved in peace negotiations to sustainably prevent grave violations against children from occurring again and contribute to enhancing the viability of peace,”Gamba said.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

EndSARS: Protesters In New York Want SARS Operatives Sacked

 Hundreds of young anti-SARS protesters on Sunday stormed the Nigeria House in New York demanding transparency in the disbandment of the police unit back home. The protesters said operatives of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad found wanting should be sacked and not redeployed. Among them was Stephen “Papi” Ojo, the artist, model, and choreographer who stole the show as the ‘blue-guy’ in Beyoncé’s “Already” music video. The protest started shortly after the Inspector-General of Police, Mohammed Adamu, announced the dissolution of the Federal Special Anti-Robbery Squad. Adamu also announced plans for a new arrangement to address anticipated policing gaps following the disbandment, and the constitution of an investigative team to probe the alleged cases of rights violations, among others. But the protesters, who bore placards with different inscriptions including, “We no want audio ban”, said they were not buying it. They argued that previous commitments announced by the force to change...

Open grazing ban in South irreversible, Akeredolu replies Malami

  The Ondo State Governor, Rotimi Akeredolu, has tackled the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Mr Shehu Malami, for faulting the ban placed on open grazing in the Southern part of the country. The Southern Governors had at a meeting in Asaba last week banned open grazing and asked the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), to address the nation over the increasing rate of insecurity in the country. However, Malami who appeared as a guest on Channels Television on Wednesday faulted the ban, arguing that the governor had no right to do that. Akeredolu, who is the Chairman of Southern Governors’ Forum, spoke in a statement he personally signed on Thursday, titled, ‘ Our decision is irreversible and will be enforced ’. He asked the AGF to challenge the governor’s position on open grazing in court, adding that Malami’s comments were “ unfortunate and wicked ”. Part of the statement read, “I have just read the press statement credited to the Attorney...

Biden Announces Purchase Of 200M Vaccine Doses

  President Joe Biden announced a series of measures on Tuesday aimed at ramping up coronavirus vaccine allocation and distribution, including the purchase of 200 million more vaccine doses and increased distribution to states by millions of doses next week. With those additional doses, Biden said there would be enough to fully vaccinate 300 million Americans -- nearly the entire US population -- by the end of summer or early fall. He described efforts to combat Covid-19 as a "wartime undertaking." We now have a national strategy to beat Covid-19. It's comprehensive. It's based on science, not politics. It's based on truth, not denial, and it is detailed," he said. As part of the new efforts announced Tuesday, the US will buy 100 million more doses from Pfizer/BioNTech and 100 million more from Moderna -- the two-dose vaccines that have been granted emergency use authorization by the US Food and Drug Administration. Pfizer and Moderna are working to step up p...