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Since January 3, Boko Haram militants have attacked – on an almost daily basis – the area surrounding Baga, a fishing settlement on the shores of Lake Chad in Nigeria’s northeast Borno State. The exact death toll in Baga and 16 surrounding villages is unknown, with estimates ranging from “dozens” to 2,000 or more.
According to Amnesty International, the massacre is possibly the most deadly in the group’s history. District head Baba Abba Hassan said most of the victims were children, women or elderly people who were unable to escape when insurgents forced their way into the town by firing rocket-propelled grenades and assault rifles.
Meanwhile, last weekend at least 19 people were killed in a bomb blast at a crowded market in the northeastern city of Maiduguri, with reports suggesting that a child was used as a suicide bomber. The attacks come five weeks ahead of presidential elections, which are expected to trigger even more bloodshed.
This is not the first time that the Baga area has been attacked. Human Rights Watch reported that a Nigerian military raid in April 2013 resulted in the killing of local residents and the large-scale and deliberate destruction of property. The raid was carried out in response to a Boko Haram attack that had killed a soldier.
Boko Haram has been active in Nigeria since 2009 in a violent bid to impose Islamic law, mostly in the northeast of the country.
In 2013, the UN Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict (SRSG) received reports of the recruitment and use of children as young as 12 by the group.
The prosecutor of the International Criminal Court opened a preliminary examination of the situation in Nigeria in November 2010 and is yet to take a decision on whether or not to initiate an investigation.
Last week Dominic Ongwen, a Ugandan commander of the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), an armed group led by Joseph Kony surrendered to the African Union (AU) Regional Task Force in the Central African Republic.
In 2005, the ICC issued an arrest warrant for Dominic Ongwen for crimes against humanity and war crimes.
The LRA has killed, maimed, and abducted thousands of civilians, many of them children, in remote regions of northern Uganda, northeastern Democratic Republic of Congo, South Sudan, and the Central African Republic for over two decades.
In December 2003, President Yoweri Museveni of Uganda referred the LRA situation to the ICC, which opened an investigation into the situation in northern Uganda and issued warrants for Ongwen and four other LRA leaders, including Kony, in 2005. Since that time, three suspects are believed to have been killed. Kony remains at large.
The Ugandan authorities confirmed that they will hand Ongwen over to the International Criminal Court (ICC).
Ongwen was himself abducted into LRA ranks at age 10 when he was on his way to school.
Ongwen is believed to be the only former child abductee to face charges before the ICC. Judicial proceedings against Ongwen would raise important issues regarding a defendant who was himself a former child soldier, even though the crimes Ongwen is charged with were committed as an adult. Ongwen’s abduction was a war crime, and he was denied parental care and spent his formative years under the control of a group notorious for extreme brutality. These are mitigating factors that should be considered during possible sentencing in the event of trial and conviction, and may also be relevant to his legal defense.
“Ongwen is both a victim and alleged perpetrator of LRA atrocities,” said Daniel Bekele, Human Rights Watch’s Africa director. “Judicial proceedings need to take into account not only Ongwen’s alleged crimes, but also the LRA’s brutal indoctrination of children and its possible impact on Ongwen.”
Palestine joined the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC) this month.
The Court will be competent to prosecute crimes that fall under its mandate committed in or from Palestinian territory.
President Mahmoud Abbas also lodged a declaration recognising the jurisdiction of the Court from June 13, 2014. This date was chosen in the resolution adopted by the UN Human Rights Council to establish a fact-finding mission to begin an inquiry into the origins of last year’s hostilities in Gaza. The fact-finding mission is due to present its report to the Human Rights Council in March 2015. This means that the mission will be able to take Palestine's accession to the Rome Statute into account while compiling its report.
The UN mission is investigating the seven-week conflict that left more than 2,200 people dead, the vast majority Palestinian civilians, including more than 470 children. On the Israeli side, 69 people died, among them five civilians, including one child. The UN said there is a “strong possibility” that Israel committed war crimes in Gaza, alluding to the bombing of schools, hospitals and residential areas without sufficient warning.
In addition to acceding to the Rome Statute on December 31, 2014, Abbas also signed accession instruments for another 16 treaties, including the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) and the Optional Protocol to the CRC on the involvement of children in armed conflict.
Civilian casualties in Afghanistan increased by nearly 20 percent in 2014 compared to the previous year and were expected to rise to more than 10,000 by the end of December 2014. The highest figure since the UN mission in the country began keeping records in 2008.
The mission documented 3,188 civilian deaths and 6,429 civilian injuries between 1 January 2014 and the end of November.
Compared to figures for 2013, child casualties jumped 33 percent and female civilian casualties 14 percent. The shift in 2014 has come about because of the greater incidence of civilian casualties in ground engagements and fighting between Afghan forces and insurgents, as well as deaths and injuries from improvised explosive devices.
Footage released by Islamic State (IS) militants show scenes from inside one of their training camps where gun-wielding boys somersault across the floor and build human pyramids while waving the black flag of the extremist group.
A Human Rights Watch (HRW) report from June 2014 alleged that militants have been training children at camps in Syria and Iraq for some time. The report was based on interviews with four former child fighters and two adult fighters.
"[IS] has actively recruited children to send to their military training camps, and used them in military operations, including suicide bombing missions," the HRW report states. "The four children we interviewed said [IS] recruited them through public forums and ideological tools, rather than through community or family networks."
According to a report on children and armed conflict in South Sudan by the United Nations Secretary-General, the conflict that started in December 2013 in South Sudan has brought about major setbacks for the protection of children.
“The data collected and verified by the UN is devastating,” said Leila Zerrougui, the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict. “The children of South Sudan were not only affected by renewed violence, they have been directly targeted by all parties to the conflict.”
According to the report, over 600 children were killed between December 2013 and September 2014. During the same period, thousands of child soldiers were seen with state and non-state armed groups.
The UN documented dozens of cases of boys and girls who were victims of sexual violence committed by all parties to the conflict, although the actual number is likely to be higher due to underreporting.
Schools were attacked, used for military purposes or as places to recruit children. Hospitals were also targeted by insurgents. There are currently 6,000 children registered as separated from their family, unaccompanied or missing.
In mid-2014, the Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) formally recommitted to its Action Plan with the United Nations to end and prevent the recruitment and use of children as well as all grave violations against children. The SPLA in Opposition (SPLA-IO), led by Riek Machar, also committed to protect children from the impact of conflict.
“Six months later, we are still waiting to see boys and girls released and other meaningful actions that will help shield the country’s children from the violence,” the Special Representative added.
The report identifies the “persistent and widespread impunity benefitting perpetrators” as a grave concern and urges the Government of South Sudan to ensure that perpetrators of grave child rights violations are held to account.
According to new research by Child Soldiers International and the Cross Cultural Foundation, children as young as 14 have been recruited and used by the Barisan Revolusi Nasional Melayu Patani (BRN) and other armed groups operating in southern Thailand.
The report details patterns of children being recruited into the BRN for diverse roles which include: working as lookouts to gather intelligence on state security forces; engaging in the use of firearms or in active combat during insurgent operations; and performing other support roles as informers. The number of children recruited and used by armed groups in Southern Thailand is not known. Both girls and boys are known to be recruited.
Armed groups and forces have obligations under international law to stop, prohibit and prevent the recruitment of children or their use in hostilities.
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