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Reports of children recruited into the ranks of the so-called Islamic State (IS) continue to emerge. A video recently posted online shows children shooting 25 men in Palmyra in Syria. Another video shows a boy beheading a Syrian soldier under adult supervision. According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, at least 1,100 Syrian children under 17 have joined the terrorist group in the past year. Around 52 are believed to have been killed in the fighting.
Meanwhile in the United Kingdom, the High Court has ruled that a schoolgirl who attempted to join IS in Syria to marry one of its fighters was ‘radicalised’ by her parents in their London home and must therefore be taken away from them for her protection.
Yet the demand for brides within the extremist group has allowed some to swindle its members, with a group of Chechen girls reportedly scamming the group out of $3,300. The girls pretended to be willing to travel to war-torn Syria to wed fighters and were wired travel expenses by several members. Local law enforcement arrested one of the girls, who now faces a maximum of six years in prison for illegally soliciting money and remains under house arrest. The girl revealed that friends of hers had been recruited by IS online and did travel to Syria: "many people I know did go, but I know no one for whom it turned out well."
Evidence has emerged that a paramilitary organisation associated with the Iraqi government has set up summer camps to train children as young as 10 to fight IS. The Popular Mobilisation Forces (PMF) was formed by the Iraqi Interior Ministry in June 2014, as IS overran large swathes of the country. The PMF receives funding, weapons and military training from the Iraqi government. The summer camps have gained support through a fatwa by Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani urging school students to use their summer holidays to "contribute to (the country's) preservation by training to take up arms and prepare to fend off risk." Children wearing military uniforms and carrying weapons have been spotted daily alongside the PMF.
Ongoing fighting and the presence of armed groups continues to cause displacement across Central African Republic (CAR) and has left women and girls vulnerable to forced marriage, rape and other extreme forms of violence, including by peacekeepers. Despite recent commitments from governments, UN agencies and NGOs to prioritise protecting women and girls from sexual and physical violence, current efforts in CAR remain underfunded.
The UN’s failure to protect child victims of sexual abuse has been under scrutiny since April this year, following disturbing accounts of sexual abuse of young boys by French, Chadian, and Equatorial Guinean peacekeepers at a displaced persons camp in Central African Republic (CAR). In the wake of these allegations UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon ordered the UN peacekeeping chief in CAR, Babacar Gaye, to resign and called a UN Security Council special meeting about allegations of sexual abuse by peacekeepers. Read the the whole story behind the sexual abuse revelations in CAR.
Stories of UN cover-ups in other areas have also made recent news. For instance, last month, leaked confidential documents revealed that the UN has spent over $500 million on contracts with a Russian aviation company despite discovering that one of its helicopter crew members in Democratic Republic of the Congo drugged and raped a teenage girl. The documents show how the UN’s internal complaints unit uncovered evidence that the girl was physically and sexually abused and warned of a possible “culture of sexual exploitation and abuse” at the company. Copies of the report were circulated among top officials at the UN, including the office of the Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon.
A UN official has confirmed the authenticity of a price list for women and children captured by Islamic State (IS) and traded as slaves. The UN special envoy on sexual violence in conflict, Zainab Bangura, was given an IS pamphlet including the price list on a trip to Iraq in April. Bidders include the group’s own fighters and wealthy Middle Easterners who peddle girls “like barrels of petrol”, said Ms Bangura. The information shows that IS fighters buy and sell boys and girls aged between one and nine for around $165.
President Salva Kiir of South Sudan has signed a peace deal with rebel leader, Riek Machar, under the pressure of potential UN sanctions. Fighting between forces loyal to the two men over the last 20 months has forced more than 2.2 million people from their homes. In a briefing to the Security Council, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, Stephen O’Brien, told members that “allegations [of attacks] include rampant killing, rape, abduction, looting, arson, forced displacement, and even such horrific acts as burning of people inside their own homes.” These attacks were part of a campaign of reprisals against women and girls; hundreds of whom have been abducted and hundreds more subjected to sexual violence, including gang-rape. The outline of the deal includes an immediate end to the fighting and the demilitarisation of children. It also sets up a Commission for Truth, Reconciliation and Healing and a "hybrid court", set up in collaboration with the African Union to try crimes, including possible genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes.
In the first six months of 2015, civilians increasingly suffered the consequences of the armed conflict in Afghanistan. The UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) documented 1,270 child casualties, including 320 deaths between 1 January and 30 June 2015. This represents a 13 percent increase compared to the first six months of 2014 and reveals that one in four civilian casualties is a child. The report also shows that ground fighting and Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) are the most frequent causes of child casualties. Children are also at greater risk of falling victim to unexploded ammunition due to their innate curiosity and their lack of understanding of the danger of unexploded ordnance.
The Syrian crisis has become the largest humanitarian emergency in the world today, threatening peace and security in the region, according to the UN Security Council. Some 250,000 people have been killed, including well over 10,000 children, and 12 million people have been forced to flee their homes. Both the UN special envoy for the country and the UN Security Council have urged the parties to the conflict in Syria to cease attacks affecting civilians. They also reiterated their call to stop using indiscriminate weapons for instance to shell populated areas, and to work towards a Syrian-led political process to end the crisis, as recommended by the special envoy. The Security Council also approved the establishment of a Joint Investigative Mechanism to identify those responsible for the use of chemical weapons in Syria. In March 2015, the Council had expressed deep concern that toxic chemicals, such as chlorine, had been used as a weapon in the country.
As Yemen plunges deeper into conflict, UNICEF has reported that at least 398 children were killed and 605 injured since the conflict escalated in March. A new report by Amnesty International found that all sides in the conflict have left a "trail of civilian death and destruction" and may have committed war crimes. The report documents eight air strikes that took place in June and July and resulted in the deaths of 141 people, mostly women and children. Evidence gathered had revealed a pattern of raids targeting heavily-populated sites, including a mosque, a school and a market. In the majority of cases, no military target could be located nearby. The Special Representative of the Secretary-General (SRSG) for Children and Armed Conflict urged all parties to put an end to grave violations against children. She also deplored the number of attacks on schools with the closure of nearly 3,600 schools, affecting over 1.8 million children’s right to education. The SRSG was furthermore alarmed by the increasing use and recruitment of children in the conflict by all parties, with 377 fighters, a figure that has doubled since 2014.
The US has announced its intention to sponsor a resolution at next month's UN Human Rights Council’s session in support of the Sri Lankan government’s proposal to conduct its own investigation into alleged war crimes in the 2009 war. The announcement presents a major shift in Washington’s policy compared to previous UN resolutions on the country. This includes the latest resolution calling for an international independent investigation into the alleged international crimes. There has been a softening of relations between Sri Lanka and the international community, particularly the US and the UN, in recent years. However, past concerns surrounding the lack of transparency and politicisation of investigations, particularly those relating to violations of children's rights in armed conflict, raise concerns about how independent, transparent and effective any state-run investigation can be.
Israeli soldiers shot dead a Palestinian teenager in the West Bank after he threw stones at their patrol. Mohammad Kosba, 17, was killed by two bullets. An Israeli army spokesman said the soldiers had opened fire after their vehicle was damaged. In another incident in the West Bank, a baby was killed in an arson attack blamed on Jewish settlers. The 18-month-old boy died in the night-time attack on two homes in the village of Duma. Slogans in Hebrew, including the word "revenge", were found sprayed on a wall of one of the houses. Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called the attack an act of terrorism. But the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO), which dominates the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank, said the attack "is a direct consequence of decades of impunity given by the Israeli government to settler terrorism".
Sudanese government forces “definitely” committed war crimes against civilian populations according to a new report by Amnesty International, four years after the UN first warned of "egregious" war crimes in the Sudanese state of South Kordofan. The report details alleged instances in which the Sudanese armed forces used prohibited weapons and attacked civilians, schools and hospitals between January and April 2015. South Kordofan is at the centre of fighting between the Sudanese armed forces and the Sudanese People's Liberation Movement-North (SPLM-N), a rebel organisation controlling territories in the area.
Kosovo's Parliament has approved the creation of a war crimes court which will investigate alleged war crimes committed by ethnic Albanians during the 1998-99 guerrilla war. The Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA), a rebel group of mostly ethnic Albanians who fought for independence from Serbia, has for years been accused of past war crimes and intimidating witnesses. Many former members of the KLA are now high-ranking politicians. Although the court will be under Kosovo law, it will be located in the Netherlands, funded by the European Union, and the judges and prosecutors will be made up of foreigners.
Peruvian security forces have rescued 54 women and children, mostly members of the Ashaninka indigenous group, being held captive by Shining Path rebels in a remote jungle region. The adults were kidnapped between 20 and 30 years ago from Puerto Ocopa and nearby towns. Their children were born in captivity. Anti-terrorism police chief General Jose Baella said the women were used to produce child soldiers for the guerrillas and grow crops for them. The oldest of the 34 children was 14. The Shining Path is a communist insurgent group in Peru that has declined in recent years, although one faction remains dedicated to drug trafficking activities and extortion. In the 1980s, the group conducted a number of attacks against police stations and communities they considered to oppose their struggle.
In Egypt, a military court has tried at least 12 children under a new regulation that assigns all cases of violations of “vital state property” to military courts. The case, in which 147 defendants, including 12 or more children, were tried, was regarding “offences against public property and intimidating civilians through force and violence”, according to the Egyptian Foundation for the Advancement of Childhood Conditions. While three of the children were proven innocent and three others were declared as falling outside the jurisdiction of the court, six others received a 15-year prison sentence.
Pakistan's Supreme Court ruled this month to allow military trials for terror suspects. This is the latest in the government's intensified campaign against terrorism in the wake of last year's Taliban attack on a school that killed nearly 150 people, almost all of them children. While Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif welcomed the decision, critics and rights activists say it goes against the constitution and civil rights. The ruling prompts concerns that the military courts could now sentence civilians to death in speedy trials held in secret, without due process or the oversight of human rights experts, the media or the public. Principle 5 of the UN Draft Principles Governing the Administration of Justice through Military Tribunals sets out the principle that military courts should have no jurisdiction to try civilians.
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Closing
"I am concerned about the gap ... between the duty to ensure respect for international humanitarian law in arms transfers and the actual transfer practices of too many States," said the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) president Peter Maurer in a statement delivered to States which are parties to the Arms Trade Treaty (ATT), meeting in Mexico this week.
According to the ICRC, many countries are still involved in illegal arms transfers despite having committed themselves to an international treaty to regulate the flow of such weapons. The organisation says that hundreds of thousands of civilians are being killed, injured or forcibly displaced in conflicts fuelled by such transfers.
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