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In this issue:
Paramilitary and government forces in Iraq have committed serious human rights violations, including war crimes, by torturing, arbitrarily detaining, forcibly disappearing and extrajudicially executing thousands of civilians who have escaped areas controlled by the armed group calling itself the Islamic State (IS), according to a new Amnesty International report. Thousands of men and boys, fleeing IS territory, have been rounded up by security forces or militias on suspicion of links to IS. Some have been extrajudicially executed, while the fate of others remains unknown amid concerns for their lives and safety.
Also in Iraq, civilians fleeing the Iraqi city of Mosul, many of them children, have been exposed to toxic smoke from burning oil wells and chemical plants ignited by IS fighters. Fighting in and around the city has intensified recently as Iraqi security forces, Kurdish Peshmerga fighters and local militias engaged in a major offensive to drive out militants from the so-called Islamic State. Some sources have also claimed that children are among hundreds of people used as human shields and then executed by IS during the battle, though this has not yet been independently verified.
In Syria, attacks against civilian areas continue to kill children and other non-combatants at a shocking rate, with at least nine children killed in two separate attacks on or near schools in the past two weeks. One, a mortar attack near the Hatem Al Taai primary school in Aleppo, killed four children and injured three others while they were on the way to school. The other saw five children killed inside their school in Dara’a, during one of many ongoing strikes on civilian buildings and infrastructure across Syria.
In eastern Aleppo, since 29 September, 400 Syrians have been killed and close to 2,000 injured. In a statement, UNICEF warned that between 23 and 28 September, at least 96 children had been killed and 223 had been injured. Aleppo, which is besieged by the Syrian Government, has had no UN assistance in nearly four months and faces regular bombing by Syrian and Russian forces. UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein described the ongoing bombardment and siege of eastern Aleppo as “crimes of historic proportions”. Last week, the Human Rights Council adopted a resolution in which it requested the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Syrian Arab Republic to conduct a comprehensive, independent special inquiry into the events in Aleppo, and identify all those responsible for alleged violations and abuses of international human rights law.
Barely a fortnight after the Saudi-led coalition admitted that it had wrongly targeted a funeral, killing more than 140 people in Yemen, the sixth attempt at a ceasefire in the conflict has broken down. The UN-negotiated truce was reportedly violated on both sides before coalition jets resumed their bombing runs and fighting restarted in earnest. The ceasefire was negotiated in the wake of a Saudi airstrike which killed a huge number of civilians, many of them children, in the country’s capital Sana’a. Earlier this month and despite evidence of grave violations of children’s rights during the ongoing conflict, the Human Rights Council refused to establish an independent inquiry into rights abuses in Yemen. The Council instead called for a national inquiry, established by the ousted President Hadi in 2015, to investigate alleged violations on all sides of the conflict between Houthi rebels in Yemen and the Saudi Arabia-led coalition fighting them for control of the country. UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein had previously called on the international community to establish an international, independent body to carry out comprehensive investigations in Yemen, including the alleged bombing of residential areas, schools and hospitals by the Saudi-led coalition, which the UN blames for 60 percent of some 3,800 civilian deaths since March 2015.
Children represent the fastest growing group among civilians killed and injured in Afghanistan’s long-running armed conflict. The latest update from the UN Assistance Mission to Afghanistan (UNAMA) documents 639 conflict-related deaths and 1,822 injuries among children in the first nine months of this year – 15 percent higher than the same period in 2015, which was also a record-setting year for deaths and injuries to children. In fact, child casualties in Afghanistan have risen every year since 2013. Ground fighting between Taliban and Afghan government forces, which has increased as more districts have become battlegrounds, caused more than half of all child casualties in 2016. Moreover, 84 percent of civilians killed or injured by unexploded ordnance were children. These weapons effectively become landmines, which detonate on contact, remain lethal for months or years after the fighting ends, and turn open areas into minefields. The Taliban remains responsible for most civilian casualties.
Sudanese government forces have used chemical weapons repeatedly against civilians, including babies and young children, in one of the most remote regions of Darfur over the past eight months, according to allegations documented by Amnesty International. The alleged chemical attacks, believed to have killed up to 250 people, mostly children, represent a “new low” in the catalogue of serious abuses perpetrated by government forces in the region, said the human rights group. Amnesty said they were told the bombs were dropped from planes and rockets. Most of the 200 survivors they spoke to reported that the smoke from the weapons changed colour between five and 20 minutes after impact. Witnesses said it started very dark and then became lighter. Every survivor said the smoke smelled noxious. Using satellite imagery, the report concluded that up to 171 villages were destroyed or damaged as a result of the eight-month campaign.
The UK is one of fewer than 20 countries worldwide which still allows recruitment of children into armed forces from age 16 – the lowest age permissible under international law. In a new report, MEDACT - Health professionals for a safer, fairer and better world, describes the biological and physiological reasons why children should not be encouraged to make a decision to join the armed forces. The report explains that this period of development is characterised by more impulsive and emotionally driven decision-making, which is only tempered by cognitive and rational decision-making processes further on in the developmental trajectory. The report describes how military recruitment is concentrated among 16 and 17 year olds who may be particularly vulnerable to marketing techniques and materials that glamorise war, and fall short of being comprehensively truthful about life in the military.
On the same topic, a British army veteran explained that military training in itself is designed to damage a human being and is hugely psychologically damaging: “I have gathered many testimonies and accounts and from that information I can conclude that I think it’s inappropriate to allow a 16 year old to be subjected to this kind of training. [...] According to studies [...] you are twice as likely to be killed if you join at 16 than later in life. This is due to the lack of qualifications to gain a trade and the larger likelihood of going into a front line roll.[...] I joined the Army based on watching a documentary on the Iraq war. This documentary was a highly glamorised one sided view of the conflict and I made a quick decision wanting to seek adventure and approval. Reports show that at a young age you are more likely to make risky decisions with a greater risk for adventure. An attribute the military advertising uses very well to draw the youth into recruitment.”
The recruitment of children as soldiers is rampant in South Sudan, where civil war erupted in late 2013 and fighting continues despite a peace deal. The UN says around 16,000 children have been recruited since the fighting began. According to an internal UN document obtained by The Associated Press (AP), in August, a senior politician appointed by the country’s President led the recruitment of an entire village of boys as young as 12 using intimidation. AP has also reportedly spoken to teens who said they took up arms. A UN official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, told AP that both South Sudan's government and opposition forces have recruited "hundreds" of children in the past month as the country prepares for another round of fighting, even after diplomats from the UN Security Council made the issue a high priority during their visit to the country in September. According to UNICEF, 650 children have been recruited into armed groups since January.
The International Criminal Court (ICC) conducted its first ever reparations hearing this month in the case of Thomas Lubanga. Lubanga was found guilty of the war crime of enlisting and conscripting children under 15 in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) into the Forces patriotiques pour la libération du Congo (FPLC) amid armed conflict in the Ituri region of the DRC between 2002 and 2003.
The Trust Fund for Victims (TFV) will spend US $1.1 million over three years to support affected communities and individuals in eastern Congo. However, the funds allocated for reparations are limited, and victims will not receive individual reparations, which many had expected. Moreover, continuing insecurity and the influence of Lubanga's party in Ituri district could deter victims from participating in the reparations programme.
Burundi, South Africa and Gambia have initiated the process to withdraw from the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court (ICC).
Burundi’s parliament has overwhelmingly voted to withdraw fromthe Court’s jurisdiction. The ICC launched a preliminary investigation into Burundi in April this year following the reported deaths of 430 people and the exodus of 230,000 Burundians to neighbouring countries. Reports of serious violence against children have emerged in recent months, including reports from Human Rights Watch that the ruling party’s youth league, the Imbonerakure, committed gang rape against women and that women and girls have been subjected to sexual violence in refugee camps formed as a result of the violence. Since violence erupted, Burundi has denied access to UN investigators and condemned the decision of the UN Human Rights Council to set up a commission of inquiry into violence in the country. The Bill will now proceed to the upper house of the parliament and would have to be signed by the President before the withdrawal notice may be made.
South Africa is also pulling out of the court, because the “court’s obligations are inconsistent with domestic laws giving sitting leaders diplomatic immunity”, says the justice minister. The country announced last year its plan to leave the ICC after receiving criticism for ignoring a court order to arrest the visiting Sudanese president, Omar Hassan al-Bashir, who is accused of genocide and war crimes by the ICC. Under the Rome Statute, which governs the ICC, countries have a legal obligation to arrest anyone sought by the tribunal.
Earlier this week, Gambia said it will also pull out of the International Criminal Court (ICC) after accusing the tribunal of persecuting and humiliating Africans. Gambian Information Minister Sheriff Bojang said the court had ignored Western war crimes. The country has been unsuccessfully trying to have the European Union indicted by the court over the deaths of thousands of African migrants trying to reach the continent by boat. The ICC's chief prosecutor, Fatou Bensouda, is a former Gambian justice minister.
To withdraw from the Rome Statute, States must notify the UN Secretary-General of their intention to withdraw from the jurisdiction of the court and withdrawal does not enter into force until a year after making this notification. Withdrawing from the treaty does not discharge any of the obligations under the treaty while it was in force.
The Inter-American Court recently held a series of hearings on pending cases. One of the cases deals with a police raid in Brazil where 26 people were executed, six of them children. The executions took place in Rio de Janeiro on 18 October 1994 and 8 May 1995 in the Favela Nova Brasilia. Evidence suggests that three children were tortured and sexually assaulted by the police during the first raid.
Last week, 21 of the 219 girls abducted by Boko Haram in Nigeria two and a half years ago were released, traumatised and distressed after 30 months in captivity. Little is known about the fates of the almost 200 others who are still missing. Even less is known about children suffering abuses perpetrated by the Nigerian government. Human Rights Watch reported back in May that 11 children under the age of six, including four babies, are among 149 people to have died this year following their detention in horrendous conditions in the notorious Giwa military detention centre in Maiduguri, Nigeria. At least 120 of those detained were children. Five months on, there has still been no investigation into the detention of children, or into the deaths of adults and children at Giwa. Amnesty International’s research shows that the cells at Giwa are still being filled, and adults and children are still dying there.
Since 2009, Boko Haram has wreaked havoc in the region, killing thousands of people. Around 2.4 million have been displaced, the majority of whom are children. UNICEF says there are 244,000 children suffering from severe acute malnutrition in Borno, north-east of the country, and that an estimated 49,000 children will die if they don't receive treatment.
French authorities have begun to close the refugee camp in Calais known as ‘the Jungle,” and deemed an “environment not fit for human habitation”. The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) is assisting the French authorities, stressing the vital importance of finding proper alternative accommodation for the thousands of people there. “Asylum-seekers need to be given proper information and prompt access to asylum procedures,” said Adrian Edwards, spokesperson for UNHCR. The site, estimated to host some 6,000 people, has been problematic for a number of years, and UNHCR has long recommended its closure, Mr. Edwards said, pointing out that the living conditions are “appalling,” with the most basic shelter, inadequate hygiene facilities, poor security and a lack of basic services.
The agency is also urging France to provide special arrangements to ensure the safety and welfare of hundreds of unaccompanied children. “This is important so that children don’t move on to other destinations and risk becoming exploited by human traffickers or end up living on the streets without support,” said William Spindler, spokesperson for UNHCR. He added that all efforts, including family tracing, must be made to reunite children with their relatives in Europe so long as it remains in the best interest of the children. Some 200 unaccompanied children have already left the Calais camp for the United Kingdom.
Armed groups in the Central African Republic have been told to leave the schools they are occupying or face forceful eviction by UN troops. The UN claims that 10,000 children have been unable to resume their education this year because militiamen have set up camp in their schools. One third of all schools have either been struck by bullets, set on fire, looted or occupied by armed groups. The UN mission in the country, known as MINUSCA, said all armed groups should not come within 500 metres of schools and warned them not to hinder educational activities.
Children across the country returned to class last week, but insecurity in some areas outside the capital, Bangui, has disrupted the start of the school year. Displacement and a lack of teachers were also contributing to the problem.
A group of mostly Muslim rebels in the Seleka movement briefly took control of the country in 2013, sparking reprisal attacks from a mainly Christian militia, called the anti-Balaka.
Faustin Touadera won elections in February in a contest that was seen as an important step towards restoring peace.
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Closing
“The scale and brutality of these attacks is hard to put into words. The images and videos we have seen in the course of our research are truly shocking; in one, a young child is screaming with pain before dying. Many photos show young children covered in lesions and blisters. Some were unable to breathe and [were] vomiting blood.
“It is hard to exaggerate just how cruel the effects of these chemicals are when they come into contact with the human body. Chemical weapons have been banned for decades in recognition of the fact that the level of suffering they cause can never be justified. That Sudan’s government is now repeatedly using them against their own people simply cannot be ignored and demands action.”
Tirana Hassan, Amnesty International’s director of crisis research, responding the Sudanese government’s denial that any chemical weapon attacks had taken place in Darfur.
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