The United Nations has put Russia’s military and allied armed groups on its “list of shame” for killing and maiming hundreds of children in its war against Ukraine, but left Israeli forces off the list despite killing more than 40 Palestinian children. last year, according to reports.
Human rights organizations have made repeated requests that Israel be added to the UN blacklist for killing and maiming Palestinian children in the occupied West Bank.
Palestinian Ambassador to the UN Riyad Mansour on Thursday called the decision of UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres to leave Israel on the list of shame a “big mistake”.
In the UN’s annual report on the treatment of children in conflict zones, which was distributed to members of the UN Security Council on Thursday, Guterres said he was “shocked by the high number of grave violations in the child of Ukraine” in 2022.
According to news organizations that have seen a copy of the report, 477 children were listed as killed in Ukraine last year, including 136 deaths directly attributed to Russian forces and allied groups.
The armed forces of Ukraine are responsible for killing 80 children, according to the report. Of the remaining child victims, neither of the two warring sides can be blamed with certainty. Children are often killed in airstrikes, the UN report said.
The UN also confirmed that Russian forces and allied groups maimed 518 children in Ukraine and carried out 480 attacks on schools and hospitals. The Russian armed forces also used 91 children as human shields, according to the report. Ukrainian armed forces maimed 175 children and carried out 212 attacks on schools and hospitals. Ukrainian forces are not listed.
The UN chief told the report that he was “deeply concerned” by the number of Palestinian children killed by Israeli forces in 2022.
According to the report, 42 Palestinian children were killed and 933 injured in 2022 by Israeli forces. In 2021, Israeli forces killed 78 Palestinian children.
Israel is not yet on the UN list of countries shamed for killing children.
Guterres said he noticed a “significant decrease in the number of children killed by Israeli forces, including airstrikes” last year compared to the previous report.
Human Rights Watch welcomed the UN’s decision to name Russian forces but criticized the UN chief’s decision to leave Israel off the list of shame, saying he had “once again failed Palestinian children”. .
“By adding the Russian forces to his list of shame, the Secretary General is holding them to account for terrible violations against children,” said Jo Becker, the advocacy director of the group for the rights of those child.
“Yes [Guterres’s] The unwillingness, year after year, to hold Israeli forces accountable for their grave violations against children has backfired, only emboldening Israeli forces to use unlawful lethal force against those Palestinian child,” Becker said.
“From 2015-2020, the UN attributed more than 6,700 child casualties to Israeli forces. He just confirmed 975 more by 2022. Yet he removed Israel from his ‘list of shame’,” Becker wrote in a tweet.
UN Secretary-General @antonioguterres the Palestinian children have failed again. From 2015-2020, the UN attributed more than 6,700 child casualties to Israeli forces. He just verified 975 more in 2022. But he still removed Israel from his “list of shame.”https://t.co/lCMSmkR9cg pic.twitter.com/3d48AOlsvj
— Jo Becker (@jobeckerhrw) June 22, 2023
Mansour, the Palestinian UN ambassador, said Israel’s withdrawal from the UN list “is very disappointing for the Palestinians and the Palestinian children”.
“The Secretary General made a big mistake in not listing the current government of Israel. It is the worst government, full of fascist elements. If you don’t list this government now, when will you list the government of Israel? Mansour said. “It’s very sad that he chose not to list them.”
The UN report has long been controversial, with diplomats saying Saudi Arabia and Israel have applied pressure in recent years in a bid to remain on the list of shame. A Saudi-led military coalition has been removed from the 2020 list several years after it was first named for killing and maiming children in Yemen.
Al Jazeera’s diplomatic editor James Bays said Russia’s inclusion marked the first time “a permanent member of the Security Council has been blacklisted”.
“Again the report is controversial. Part of that is because of Israel, which the report says killed 42 children in 2022. Now the Secretary General says that’s a significant reduction and he’s not putting them on the blacklist,” Bays said, but also informed that Israel’s war in Gaza in 2021 lasted 11 days and the war in August 2022 lasted only three days.
“The truth is #Israel is still killing many children,” Bays wrote in a tweet.
BUT only because of this #Gaza The war in May 2021 was 11 days long, and in August 2022 it lasted three days. The truth is #Israel still killing many children.
— JAMES BAYS (@baysontheroad) June 22, 2023
The UN report also condemned violence against children in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Somalia, Syria, Haiti and other countries.
