GCPEA News

Press Statement: SRSG Coomaraswamy calls on Syria to immediately halt all violations against children

Office of the Special Representative of the Secretary General for Children and Armed Conflict, February 9, 2012

New York, 9 February 2012 – Following another violent day in Syria, the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict, Radhika Coomaraswamy reiterated her call to the Syria authorities to stop the killing and maiming of children.

“Over the past months, the number of child victims in Syria has climbed into the hundreds and the rate is increasing,” SRSG Coomaraswamy said. “The situation is particularly harrowing in Homs where reports of the killing of children and shelling of civilian infrastructure, including hospitals, are received daily.”

“The violations committed against children go beyond killing and maiming. We also have reported cases of detention of children charged with alleged association with armed groups, ill-treatment, and acts tantamount to torture which have resulted in some child deaths,” the Special Representative stressed. Additional reports point to the military use of schools by security forces.

The killing and maiming of children, in contravention of international law, as well as attacks on schools and hospitals count among the six grave violations against children defined by the Security Council in 2005. “My Office and partners will continue to report on the violations committed against children by all parties in Syria,” said SRSG Coomaraswamy.

For further information, please contact:

Timothy La Rose
Communications Officer,
Office of the Special Representative of the Secretary General for Children and Armed Conflict
+1 917-346-3404
larose@un.org

Muriel Gschwend
Associate Communications Officer
Office of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict
+1 917-367-3562
gschwend@un.org

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