E-7/8. International Day.of Innocent Children Victims of Aggression
The General Assembly,
Having considered the question of Palestine at its resumed seventh emergency special session, 31st plenary meeting 19 August 1982
Apalled by the great number.of innocent Palestinian and Lebanese children victims of Israel’s acts of aggression,
Decides to commemorate 4 June of each year as the International pay of Innocent Children Victims of Aggression.
31st plenary meeting
19 August 1982
Appalled by the great number of innocent Palestinian and Lebanese children victims of Israel's acts of aggression, on 19 August 1983, the United Nations General Assembly decided to commemorate 4 June of each year as the International Day of Innocent Children Victims of Aggression. It reminds people that throughout the world there are many children suffering from different forms of abuse, and there is an urgent need to protect the rights of children.
Some Facts
The World of Children at a Glance
Refugees, Volume 1, Number 122, 2001
* There are approximately 50 million uprooted people around the world - refugees who have sought safety in another country, and people displaced within their own country. Around half of this displaced population are children.
* The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees cares for 22.3 million of these people. An estimated 10 million are children under the age of 18.
* The majority of people flee their homes because of war. It is estimated that more than two million children were killed in conflict in the last decade. Another six million are believed to have been wounded and one million orphaned.
* In recent decades the proportion of war victims who are civilians rather than combatants has leaped from five percent to more than 90 percent.
* Children in 87 countries live among 60 million land mines. As many as 10,000 per year continue to become victims of mines.
* More than 300,000 youths and girls currently are serving as child soldiers around the world. Many are less than 10 years old. Many girl soldiers are forced into different forms of sexual slavery.
* The 1989 Convention on the Rights of the Child is the most important legal framework for the protection of children. The Convention has the highest number of state parties of any human rights treaty, being ratified by all countries except the United States and Somalia.
* Last year, the U.N. General Assembly approved two Optional Protocols to the Convention, one on the sale of children and child pornography and another establishing 18 as the minimum age for participation of children in hostilities.
* UNHCR has recognized the special needs of refugee children and youngsters uprooted in their own countries. In the last few years, the agency has introduced many new programs, expanded others and attempted to incorporate all of them into its operations.
* Children, whether accompanied by parents or on their own, account for as many as half of all asylum seekers in the industrialized world. In 1996, Canada became the first country with a refugee determination system to issue specific guidelines on children seeking asylum.
* At any one time there may be up to 100,000 separated children in western Europe alone. As many as 20,000 separated children lodge asylum applications every year in Europe, North America and Oceanic.
* Between 1994 and 1999, the U.N. requested $13.5 billion in emergency relief funding, much of it for children. It received less than $9 billion.
* The amount of assistance varied dramatically by region. Donors provided the equivalent of 59 U.S. cents per person per day for 3.5 million people in Kosovo and Southeastern European 1999, compared with 13 cents per person per day for 12 million African victims.
* AIDs has killed more than 3.8 million children and orphaned another 13 million. In the last five years HIV/AIDS has become the greatest threat to children, especially in countries ravaged by war. In the worst affected countries, it is estimated that as many as half of today's 15-year-olds will die from the disease.
* In 1998 donor countries allocated $300 million to combat AIDS, though an estimated $3 billion was needed.
* More than 67,000 children was reunited with their families in Africa's Great Lakes region between 1994-2000, thanks to a global tracing program organized by humanitarian organizations.
* An estimated 45,000 households in Rwanda today are headed by children, 90 percent of them girls.
* School buildings, like teachers and children, have become deliberate targets in war. During the Mozambique conflict in the 1980s-90s, for instance, 45 percent of schools were destroyed.
* If developed countries met an agreed aid target of 0.7 percent of their gross national product, an extra $100 billion would be available to help the world's poorest nations. An estimated 1.2 billion people worldwide survive on less than $1 per day. Half of them are children.
* Ten million children under the age of five die each year, the majority from preventable diseases and malnutrition.
* Around 40 million children each year are not registered at birth, depriving them of a nationality and a legal name.
The United Nations' (UN) International Day of Innocent Children Victims of Aggression is observed on June 4 each year. The purpose of the day is to acknowledge the pain suffered by children throughout the world who are the victims of physical, mental and emotional abuse. This day affirms the UN's commitment to protect the rights of children.
What do people do?
The International Day of Innocent Children Victims of Aggression celebrates the millions of individuals and organizations working to protect and preserve the rights of children. For example, the Global Movement for Children, with leadership from Nelson Mandela and Graca Machel, is an inspiring force for change that involves ordinary people and families worldwide. The ''Say Yes for Children'' campaign, endorsed by more than 94 million people, calls for 10 positive actions to be taken to improve the lives of children.
This day is a time for individuals and organizations all over the world to become aware of the impact of monstrosity of abuse, in all its forms, against children. It is also a time when organizations and individuals learn from or take part in awareness campaigns centered on protecting children's rights.
Public life
The UN International Day of Innocent Children Victims of Aggression is a global observance and not a public holiday.
Background
On 19 August 1982, at its emergency special session on the question of Palestine, the General Assembly, appalled at the great number of innocent Palestinian and Lebanese children victims of Israel's acts of aggression, decided to commemorate June 4 of each year as the International Day of Innocent Children Victims of Aggression. According to the United Nations in China, the statistics of child abuse include:
* More than two million children killed in conflict in the last two decades.
* About 10 million child refugees cared for by the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR).
* In the Latin America and in the Caribbean region about 80 thousand children die annually from violence that breaks out within the family.
Child abuse is now in the spotlight of global attention and the UN is working hard to help protect children around the world. One key factor is the process of international negotiation and action centered around the Convention on the Rights of the Child.
On the occasion of the International Day of Innocent Children Victims of Aggression the IRCT calls for increased efforts to end torture against children and urges the UN General Assembly to swiftly appoint a person to the position as UN Special Representative on Violence against Children.
In 1982 the United Nations General Assembly decided to commemorate 4 June of each year as the International Day of Innocent Children Victims of Aggression. The decision was taken in the context of an emergency special session on the question of Palestine, where the General Assembly stated in connection with Israel’s ongoing military invasion of Lebanon that it was "appalled at the great number of innocent Palestinian and Lebanese children victims of Israel's acts of aggression".
Unfortunately, commemorating the day is as relevant now as it was then. Torture against children remains a hidden but widespread crime, about which there is little awareness with regard to protection as well as access to rehabilitation and redress.
4 June acknowledges child victims of physical, mental and emotional abuse and affirms the world’s commitment to protecting the rights of all children, including the right to freedom from torture. Over the past several years the IRCT has campaigned for the establishment of a Special Representative on Violence against Children. In its 62nd session in November 2007, the UN adopted a revised resolution for the promotion and protection of the rights of children, which included the creation of a Special Representative - though a person has not yet been appointed to fill this post.
The IRCT urges the UN to make an appointment as soon as possible. The IRCT is committed to preventing and putting an end to torture and ill-treatment against children and to providing specific treatment and rehabilitation for this population. Within the IRCT Council, a working group on primary and secondary child victims of torture has been established, dedicated to collect data, study the scope of the issue and highlight this invisible crime. The IRCT also is seeking ways to fine tune and increase rehabilitation services for children who have been tortured or have witnessed torture.
On this 4 June the IRCT reminds states to take all necessary measures to protect our most vulnerable citizens from torture, ill-treatment and other forms of violence, in order to ensure that human rights also are children’s rights.
Stop Killing Children: End the Occupation
Suspend Military Aid to Israel
To mark June 4th -- UN Int'l Day of Innocent Children Victims of Aggession -- approximately 160 child-size coffins were laid out in rows on San Francisco's U.N. Plaza. On them were Israeli or Palestinian flags, in the same proportion as the number of children who have died since September 2000. (According to information from B'Tselem and LAW there are at least 318 Palestinians and Israelis under the age of 18 who fit this category, in approximately a 5:1 ratio of Palestinians to Israelis.) Additionally, we had a wall of names with each child, his/her age, date of death, and circumstances of death.
While the coffins and wall of names were designed to convey the magnitude and facts of the situation, the program at our noon and 5:00 rallies was designed to speak "from the heart" and to call for an end to 35 years of Occupation. (This week is the anniversary of the beginning of the Occupation.) We had JVP speakers; religious leaders who gave Muslim, Jewish and Christian prayers; poetry -- including poems by seventh graders who had been studying the situation; music; Palestinian and Israeli speakers from dialogue groups; speakers from the Break the Silence Mural and Arts Project; and a speaker from JVP's Suspend Military Aid campaign. The event was sponsored by JVP and endorsed by: Alliance for a Just Peace in the Middle East, East Bay Jewish-Palestinian Dialogue Group, and People for Justice and Peace in Palestine.
We also had tables with JVP literature and the Suspend Aid petitions, sample letters, and sign-up sheets for JVP's e-email lists.
Attendance was good at both rallies (though stronger at noon), though there appeared to be far fewer people than were actually there given that U.N. Plaza is very large and the coffins were in the center of the group. (About 75 people at noon and 50 at 5:00.)
We had a good turnout from the media as well -- several TV and radiostations and a handful of newspaper photographers -- although I didn't have a chance to see any of the coverage myself. (Please e-mail if you have online links to any articles or stories you saw.)
Sources:
http://daccessdds.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/NL8/204/01/PDF/NL820401.pdf?OpenElement
http://www.acpp.org/sevents/0604.html
http://www.timeanddate.com/holidays/un/international-innocent-children-victims-day
http://www.irct.org/Default.aspx?ID=3558&M=News&NewsID=1391
http://www.jewishvoiceforpeace.org/publish/article_97.shtml