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Despite considerable progress in Mali, the UN peacekeeping chief has warned that the peace process in the country is still fragile. The country's government has been seeking to restore stability following a series of setbacks since early 2012, including a military coup d'état and renewed fighting between government forces and rebels. According to a UN report, progress has been more notable in the field of education. In the three northern regions, 89 percent of schools that were operating before the crisis are currently functional. Yet, one in five schools remains closed in areas affected by insecurity, mainly because of the absence of teachers. Access to a quality education for about 400,000 children continues to be hampered by a lack of qualified teachers, infrastructure and school materials.
Colombia’s government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) have marked another milestone in their rapidly advancing peace talks, with a joint request that the UN establish an international observer mission to monitor a disarmament process. This step could end Latin America’s longest-running guerrilla conflict in a matter of weeks. Negotiators for the two sides announced at peace talks in Havana last month that the 12-month mission would be made up of unarmed observers from Latin American and Caribbean nations. It would monitor adherence to an eventual bilateral ceasefire and resolve disputes that emerge from the expected demobilisation of some 7,000 fighters belonging to the FARC. Around 2,000 children are thought to remain in FARC’s ranks.
The UN Security Council has decided to cut 1,500 troops from the UN peacekeeping Mission in Côte d’Ivoire, reflecting the “considerable and continued progress” in consolidating peace and stability after the violence that erupted following the disputed elections in 2010. A few months after the elections, a UN report highlighted that women and children were the most affected by post-election conflict. Between January and December 2014, the UN was able to verify 18 cases of rape and other forms of sexual violence committed by members of the armed forces against girls aged 2 to 17, mostly in the western part of the country.
The Dutch government announced last week that a special court would be set up in The Hague to investigate and try alleged war crimes committed during and after Kosovo's 1998-99 guerrilla war. The conflict pitted ethnic Albanian rebels against Serbian forces. Years of tensions turned into open conflict in 1998, when the Serbian government launched a crackdown on the rebels. It eventually withdrew its troops from Kosovo after a two-month campaign of air-strikes by Nato in 1999. Kosovo declared independence from Serbia in 2008, although Serbia has never recognised its autonomy. An estimated 10,000 people died in the conflict and about 1,700 remain missing.
The hearing for the confirmation of charges against Dominic Ongwen, a Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) commander, began yesterday before judges at the International Criminal Court (ICC). Ongwen faces 70 charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity. 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 Central African Republic for over two decades. 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 soldier 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 factors could be relevant to his legal defence and mitigating circumstances in possible sentencing should he be tried and convicted.
The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) plans to prosecute former rebel leader Germain Katanga, who was scheduled to leave prison in Kinshasa this week after completing a sentence handed down by the ICC. Katanga, the former chief of staff of a Congolese rebel group, the Patriotic Force of Resistance in Ituri (FRPI), was tried at the ICC on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity. The ICC found Katanga guilty, as an accessory, of one count of a crime against humanity (murder) and four counts of war crimes (murder, attacking a civilian population, destruction of property and pillaging). Regarding the crime of using child soldiers, the court found that although there were children within the Ngiti militia, the evidence presented in support of the accused’s guilt was not satisfied beyond reasonable doubt. Rights groups are calling on the authorities in the DRC to ensure that Katanga receives a fair and speedy trial following his return to the country.
A UN report released this week details the severe and extensive impact on civilians of the ongoing conflict in Iraq, with at least 18,802 civilians killed and another 36,245 wounded between 1 January 2014 and 31 October 2015. Another 3.2 million people have been internally displaced, including more than a million children. The report details numerous examples of killings by the so-called Islamic State (IS) in gruesome public spectacles, including by shooting, beheading, bulldozing, burning alive and throwing people off the top of buildings. The UN also found evidence of unlawful killings and abductions perpetrated by some elements associated with pro-government forces. Thousands of children have been recruited as soldiers by IS while others were abducted and subjected to sexual violence, particularly sexual slavery.
According to the UN, more than 700 children have been killed in Yemen, with more than 1,000 injured since last March. In addition, about 700 have been forced to become soldiers. The ongoing deadly violence has left nearly 10 million children facing threats of malnutrition and disease a lack of education, according to UNICEF. Children, who make up about half of the 2.3 million people in Yemen displaced from their homes, are also struggling to get water on a daily basis, and face the risk of acute malnutrition and respiratory tract infections. Despite some progress in identifying a framework for negotiations, UN-facilitated peace talks in December 2015 had to be adjourned until a ceasefire could take hold.
A teenager was killed this week in Burundi just as a UN Security Council delegation arrived to push for an end to months of political unrest. Last week the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights warned that deeply worrying new trends are emerging in Burundi, including cases of sexual violence by security forces and a sharp increase in enforced disappearances and torture. As of 14 January, at least 439 people had been killed since 26 April 2015. The crisis has already left 17 children dead and many more injured, according to UNICEF’s figures in December 2015. The latest round of violence is rooted in widespread discontent over President Pierre Nkurunziza’s third term in office, while the Constitution only allows for two terms.
With children now accounting for more than one in three of the tens of thousands of refugees and migrants flooding into Europe, UNICEF warned of the impact of recent sub-zero temperatures and snowy conditions. In 2015, more than one million refugees and migrants, including an estimated 253,700, crossed the Mediterranean and arrived on Europe’s shores. There are now a record 60 million refugees around the world, 85% of them hosted by developing countries. Speaking at World Economic Forum Annual Meeting this week, Alexander de Croo, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Development Cooperation, the Digital Agenda, Telecommunications and Postal Services of Belgium called for tearing down the wall between short-term humanitarian action and long-term development, so refugees can gain access to education, labour markets and other benefits.
In a groundbreaking decision, British judges have ordered, that three Syrian youths and an accompanying adult should be allowed entry to the UK immediately to join their relatives and escape the “living hell” of a refugee camp in Calais, France. The Court ruled they should be able to join family members in England while their asylum applications are being reviewed. The four young men fled Syria last September and arrived at the Calais “Jungle” camp in October.
Hundreds of extrajudicial killings, enforced disappearances, gang-rapes, cases of sexual slavery, forced abortion, massive child recruitment and indiscriminate attacks against civilians with entire villages burned down have been perpetrated by all sides in South Sudan, according to a new UN report. The report documents a sharp increase in child recruitment, with some 13,000 to 15,000 children recruited mainly, but not solely, by opposition forces, as of December 2015. The country was thrown into turmoil when conflict erupted between President Salva Kiir and his former Vice-President Riek Machar in December 2013, killing thousands and displacing over 2.4 million people, 650,000 of whom fled abroad.
The UN whistleblower who first exposed the sexual abuse of children by peacekeepers in Central African Republic (CAR) has been exonerated from charges that he breached confidentiality rules. Anders Kompass was suspended and faced dismissal after he passed confidential documents detailing the sexual abuse of children by French troops in CAR to French authorities because of the UN’s failure to stop the abuse. The UN repeatedly condemned his actions, insisting that he had breached protocols by sharing a secret internal document. He had been under a disciplinary investigation for nine months before the UN’s Office of Internal Oversight finally cleared him of all charges this week. Meanwhile, Congolese soldiers have been expelled from the UN peacekeeping mission in CAR following recent allegations that soldiers raped two women and a child in the city of Bambari in October 2015. The UN said inspections of the Congolese soldiers showed they failed to meet requirements for training, equipment and preparedness.
Nearly 24 million children living in crisis zones in 22 strife-torn countries are being deprived of education according to a new report published by UNICEF. The analysis highlights that nearly one in four of the 109.2 million children of primary and lower secondary school age – typically between six and 15 years – living in conflict areas are missing out on their education. South Sudan, which was thrown into turmoil when conflict erupted between President Salva Kiir and his former Vice-President Riek Machar two years ago, killing thousands of people and displacing over 2.4 million, is home to the highest proportion of out-of-school children. Over half (51 percent) of primary and lower secondary age children have no access to education.
Some children in the village of Zaytseve in eastern Ukraine have to resort to homeschooling because they are separated from their school by the front lines. The village is split down the middle by checkpoints and armed forces. Sporadic shelling strikes the town in spite of a cease-fire between the Russian-backed separatists who call themselves the Donetsk People's Republic and the Ukrainian government forces.
An attack by armed militants on a university in northeast Pakistan this week claimed the lives of 19 people and wounded dozens more. In a statement condemning the attack, the UN Secretary-General recalled “that just over a year ago Pakistan experienced one of the deadliest school attacks in its history near the city of Peshawar, where more than 150 people died, mostly children.” He reaffirmed “that attacks against students, teachers or schools can never be justified. The right to education for all must be firmly protected. Schools and educational facilities must be respected as safe and secure spaces.”
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Closing
Besieged Syrian cities need freedom, not a Band-Aid
On 12 January, the UN and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) were finally allowed to deliver aid to Madaya, the Syrian town that has been besieged by president Bashar al-Assad’s government forces and his allies for the last six months. The UN says an estimated 300 to 400 severely malnourished people in Madaya and two northern towns are living in “horrifying conditions.”
Rights groups are calling on the international community to intervene to end the siege on Syrian cities instead of simply delivering food and medicine to the victims.
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