A consortium of human rights groups has urged UN secretary-general Antonio Guterres to add Israel and its army to a blacklist of entities and countries that have committed grave violations against children.
“Watchlist on Children and Armed Conflict” a global network of NGOs that strives to end violations against children in armed conflicts released its annual report ahead of the UN’s release of its annual report on children and armed conflicts.
“The new secretary-general has an opportunity to send a clear message to all member states that a party to conflict is listed for one reason alone a pattern of documented United Nations-verified evidence of grave violations against children” Dragica Mikavica advocacy officer for the organization said in the report.
The Watchlist which has recommended the Israeli army for blacklisting since 2005 focused on Israel’s 2014 military aggression against Gaza in its report stressing that Israel’s “attacks in Gaza have not ceased.”
“In his 2016 annual report on children and armed conflict covering the period of January 1 to December 31 2015 the secretary-general reported that 27 Palestinian children [23 boys and 4 girls] were killed in the West Bank almost double the number killed in 2014” the report noted.
It added that “the number of injuries to Palestinian children also increased mostly due to clashes with Israeli forces and military-led operations”.
In 2015 Israel escaped blacklisting by the UN after lobbying by the US and Israel.
