Lebanon Pledge to protect children must be Geneva II priority
"I will tell you my story. It starts with the death of my two sons. There was shooting in my town, and shelling. Both of my sons were killed. A short while later, Amal, my daughter - the third one - died the same way. About a thousand shells fell on us that day. She was six years old."
Za'ahir, a Syrian refugee in Lebanon
Save the Children and other leading humanitarian agencies have published an open letter today [Tuesday 21st Jan], calling on the parties meeting in Switzerland for Syria talks to urgently focus on the plight of children.
The 14 signatories include Archbishop Desmond Tutu; Antonio Gutteres, UN High Commissioner for Refugees; David Miliband, President of the International Rescue Committee; Valerie Amos, UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Justin Forsyth, CEO, Save the Children.
For the first time, top humanitarian agencies have come together to publically call on all sides to take measures to allow life-saving aid to reach children trapped inside Syria and prevent them from being targets of violence.
More than 11,000 children have died in this conflict already, 71% of them killed indiscriminately by explosive weapons used in towns and cities.
Save the Children wants the Geneva II participants to make protecting children the first item on their agenda.
We are calling on all parties to commit to the following:
- Allow life-saving aid to reach children inside Syria
- Protect schools and health facilities
- Prevent the use of explosive weapons in populated areas
Save the Children CEO Justin Forsyth said: “Every day in Syria, children are experiencing the brutality of war: injury, death and displacement. Scandalously, hundreds of thousands are trapped in besieged or hard-to-reach areas and receiving little or no aid. This tragedy is man-made, and it is within the power of the warring parties to stop it.
"The first item on the agenda at Geneva II must be protecting children. The parties have already demonstrated the power of political will when they began moving chemical weapons out of Syria this month. We need to see the same political will to ensure that even if the fighting continues, children and other civilians are no longer targeted.” “Save the Children’s three point plan to protect the children of Syria is about ending the appalling situation that places the most vulnerable directly in harm’s way. If parties to the talks come together to make these three things happen, fewer children will die. It is that simple,” Justin Forsyth concluded.
Save the Children spokespeople are available in London, Geneva and the Middle East. For more information or to arrange an interview, please contact 0207 012 6841. or 07785527663.
Case studies of Syrian refugees – including Za’ahir, the bereaved father quoted above – are available.
Notes to editors
- To date we have reached over 900,000 people through our regional response, including over 300,000 inside Syria itself. Approximately 4,500,000 children need our help inside Syria.
- We are providing new mothers with support to ensure their babies are kept healthy and fed, helping to prevent malnutrition and providing communities with food, safe water, medicine and shelter.
- Our specialist teams are also helping children to overcome their traumatic experiences through emotional support and play therapy, and we’re helping children to return to education.
The letter will be published in The Times of London and other papers around the world on 21/01/2013. The full text and list of signatories is below:
Sir,
With the parties in Syria’s conflict meeting in Geneva tomorrow, we believe the time has come to urgently focus on the plight of children. Over eleven thousand Syrian children have already lost their lives. From the shelling of residential areas to attacks on schools and hospitals, children are being targeted.
More than 4 million children have been forced to flee their homes, including over a million who have fled the country altogether. Many are traumatised, hungry, and in urgent need of shelter and protection. Scandalously, aid cannot reach the children who need it the most. Hundreds of thousands of children are trapped in conflict zones and are receiving little or no humanitarian assistance at all.
As they arrive in Geneva, we urgently call on the parties to the conflict not to target children, and to commit to a three-point plan to protect them:
- Do not prevent life-saving aid from reaching children.
- Do not target, or allow military use of, schools or health facilities.
- Do not use explosive weapons in populated areas.
Every child in Syria who is hurt, or killed, or loses a loved one, represents yet another failure by the international community. We hereby commit to becoming champions for Syria’s children, speaking out for their rights at every opportunity.
An entire generation is being lost to violence. All of us bear a responsibility to save these children.
- Desmond Tutu, Archbishop Emeritus of Cape Town and Nobel Peace Laureate
- Valerie Amos, UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs
- Anthony Lake, Executive Director, UNICEF
- Antonio Gutteres, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
- Kristalina Georgieva, European Commissioner for International Cooperation, Humanitarian Aid and Crisis Response
- Margaret Chan, Director-General of the World Health Organization
- Ertharin Cousin, Executive Director, World Food Programme
- Leila Zerrougui, Special Representative for the United Nations Secretary General on Children and Armed Conflict
- Mark Malloch Brown, former United Nations Deputy Secretary General and Administrator of the United Nations Development Programme
- Jan Egeland, Secretary General, Norwegian Refugee Council
- Louise Arbour, President and CEO, International Crisis Group
- David Miliband, President and CEO, International Rescue Committee
- Justin Forsyth, Chief Executive, Save the Children
- Winnie Byanyima, Executive Director, Oxfam International
- Kevin Jenkins, President and CEO, World Vision International
