The Syrian Observatory For Human Rights

SOHR exclusive | Nearly 160 children were killed in acts of violence and at least 25 arrested and kidnapped in all zones of influence across Syria in the first half of 2022

SOHR renew its calls for protecting children’s rights and keeping them away from military actions

Surrounded by threats, tragedies, death, poverty and illiteracy, Syrian children have fallen victims to terrorism and displacement and robbed of their basic rights. A devastating war, which has been raging for over 11 years, has badly impacted an entire generation of Syrians, while atrocities by the state and local dictatorial regimes and intervention of greedy foreign powers and jihadist organisations have further complicated and worsened the situation of Syrian children at all levels.

 

For over 11 years, all successive catastrophes and chronic crises have been met by inaction of major powers which failed so far to reach a political settlement in Syria, despite the plethora of international decisions. Specifically, the Resolution 2254 which stipulates supporting a Syrian-led and UN-sponsored political process with the aim of reaching a regime representing all segments of Syrian society and putting an end to ethnic hatred and discrimination. However, the implementation of this resolution faces challenges and obstacles manifested in intransigence by the Syrian regime and the opposition, where the two sides have not reached an agreement meeting the popular demands and stopping the tragedy. The sever repercussions of that war, which was described by the UN as the most violent in the 21st Century, have affected the Syrian children the most by killing thousands and forcing hundreds of thousands to displace.

 

It seems that all negotiations and condemnations against killing and assaulting children and bombarding schools have failed so far to protect Syrian children, many of whom have turned to take up arms to protect their families. Moreover, war lords have saved no efforts exploiting the dreadful conditions of this generation, turning Syria into one of the most dangerous regions around the world known for rampant proliferation of arms and manufacturing and exporting drugs, mainly captagon.

 

 

158 children killed in the first half of 2022

 

In the first six month of 2022, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights has managed to document the death of 158 children (33 females and 125 males); they are distributed as follows:

 

  • 54 children, including seven females, were killed in explosions of old ordnance.

 

  • 24 children, including seven females, were killed in indiscriminate gunfire during armed infightings.

 

  • 12 children died of poor healthcare.

 

  • 11 children, including four females, were killed by SDF and Kurdish forces.

 

  • 11 children, including three females, were killed in gunfire and bombardment by regime forces.

 

  • 11 children, including five females, were murdered.

 

  • Ten children, including two females, were killed in unknown circumstances.

 

  • Nine children, including a female, were killed in gunfire by unknown gunmen.

 

  • Six children, including a female, were killed by opposition factions.

 

  • Three children were killed in Turkish bombardment.

 

  • Three children, all females, were killed in Russian airstrikes.

 

  • Three children were killed in gunfire by Turkish Jandarma.

 

  • A child was killed in an IED explosion.

 

SOHR also documented the kidnapping of 23 children in the same period, from early January, 2022, to late June. Here is a regional distribution of the kidnapped children:

 

  • Areas under control of Ankara-backed factions: One childe.

 

  • Regime-controlled areas: Two children.

 

  • Areas under the control of the Autonomous Administration: 20 children were kidnapped by “Al-Shabiba Al-Thawriyah” (the Revolutionary Youth) in Al-Hasakah, Al-Raqqah and Aleppo.

 

Moreover, SOHR documented the arrest of two children under the age of eighteen by Turkish-backed factions in “Olive Branch” area. These arrests violate the international law which Ankara claims that it respects.

 

 

Syrian children badly hit with hunger

 

Children in Syria are struggling with hunger and poverty, where nearly 6.6 million children are in urgent need of humanitarian assistance. In a report issued this year by UNICEF, the international organisation explained that humanitarian assistance which is needed for those children in different areas suffering from tragic situations across Syria estimated to value 20 million USD.

 

In many reports, SOHR has highlighted the sufferings of children who have been deprived of decent standards of living. Even babies have been hit hard with the acute lack of essentials, where many mothers have nothing to feed their babies but water-diluted cow milk, and such scenes can be observed only in Syria.

 

On the other hand, diseases and infections are strewn everywhere in refugee camps because of the shortage of medicines, poor medical care and challenges which relief teams face to reach some isolate camps; let alone the strict measures imposed by military forces and security checkpoints on roads leading to other camps. In addition, the prohibitively high prices of basic products and ongoing freefall of the Syrian pound against the US dollar have exacerbated the situation further.

 

 

Little detainees

 

Since the beginning of the crisis, the Syrian regime and opposition have continued systematic political arrests of children, although Damascus has signed several international agreements, mainly the Juvenile Offenders Act No. 18 of 1974 which prohibiting detention of children under the age of eighteen in prisons. Accordingly, the policy of stifling voices has included even the children who participated in demonstrations, although they have not been aware of the disastrous conditions and hardships which the country was going through and the meaning of revolutionary slogans chanted by demonstrators.

 

As a human rights organisation concerned with and defending the dignity of every human being and their right to live peacefully in their homeland, the Syrian Observatory has been all along warning against the arrest of children with their mothers and condemning all methods of torture and sexual abuse practiced by security authorities against children to punish their mothers who oppose the ruling regime. SOHR has documented testimonies of many women and survivors who have told of horrific stories in this regard.

 

All warring parties, including the Syrian regime, opposition factions, rebels, extremist organisations and foreign powers have showed their barbaric side when it comes to children. One example of the reprehensible practices against children, among many, was the regime intelligence service’s savage treatment of Daraa’s children who left graffiti which read “no to injustice” on the walls of a school in the city. Those children, whose ages did not exceed ten then, were arrested, tortured and beat brutally, burnt with cigarettes and had their fingernails extracted.

 

 

Recruitment of children

 

SOHR reports have frequently shed light on recruitment of children by all conflicting players, while the Syrian Observatory has warned against the unwelcome repercussions of involvement of children into military actions. “Al-Shabiba Al-Thawriyah” (the Revolutionary Youth) which operates in areas controlled by the Autonomous Administration, regime forces and their proxy militias, jihadist organisations and Turkish-backed factions have competed each other to recruit children in all zones of influence throughout Syria, throwing them mercilessly into frontlines.

 

SOHR renews its calls upon all warring powers in Syria to stop involving children into conflicts and military actions and focus their efforts on the reconstruction of Syria, rehabilitation of schools and hospitals, improvement of services and provision of psychological and social protection. SOHR also stresses the importance of reaching a UN-sponsored Syrian-Syrian political settlement with cooperation by all players in order to bring the crisis to an end and save all Syrians.