Universal Children’s Day, also known as World Children’s Day, takes place on November 20th. This was the date in 1959 when the UN General Assembly adopted the Declaration of the Rights of the Child. On the same day in 1989, the UN General Assembly adopted the Convention on the Rights of the Child.
It is really upsetting that while children in the world are remembering this day, the children in Gaza, who have been under relentless Zionist regime’s bombardment since October 7, need to be remembered.
Palestinian Education Ministry said on Monday that “On World Children’s Day, 5,500 Palestinian children have been martyred in the Israeli aggression, including 3,000 students.”
Half of Gaza’s population of 2.3 million people are children, and the number of children martyred in this enclave so far in past few weeks in Israel’s attacks is higher than the average number of children killed in the entire world in the last 3 years. According to Palestinian sources, 5 Palestinian children are killed every hour in Gaza. More than 3,000 children have been martyred in Palestine over the past 3 weeks, according to data from the UK-based NGO “Save the Children,” citing health officials in Gaza.
Meanwhile, the World Health Organization (WHO) announced that a big part the nearly 40,000 people injured in Palestine since October 7 are children.
In 2022, 2, 985 children in 24 countries, in 2021, 2,515 children and in 2020, 2, 674 children have lost their lives. According to the 2019 United Nations report, 4,190 children were killed in conflicts around the world.
The Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza released a 212-page report containing the names, identification information and ages of victims of Israeli attacks on Gaza between October 7 and 26, 2023. According to the report, 2,913 of the 7,028 people killed in Palestine were children.
The Zionist Israeli regime is known for killing children over the past seven decades since its founding. However, the occupying regime has killed the most Palestinian children more than any other time in the ongoing aggression on Gaza Strip.
One of the challenges faced by Palestinian children these days is the lack of support for their rights by relevant international organizations. UNICEF is a global organization that cares about children. More than 60 years have passed since the establishment of this institution, and it has become the first international body among other governmental and non-governmental organizations, and it is more interested in collecting information and research about children than any other international organization.
However, many groups, governments and observers have criticized UNICEF for its poor performance on children’s issues. One of the most surprising inactions of this organization has been in dealing with the killing of Palestinian children in Gaza in the recently launched Israeli aggression.
Education Above All Foundation (EAA) is another organization supporting children in the world. This organization has performed much even weaker than UNICEF. Moza bint Nasser, mother of Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, the Emir of Qatar, who heads this foundation, because of the inability of this organization to fulfill its role and support Palestinian children in Gaza, resigned from her post as UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador.
KI
