UN calls Syria to protect children from arrest, torture, and ill-treatment

[News_Editor]

UN calls Syria to protect children from arrest, torture, and ill-treatment

2011-06-03 21:15:31 GMT+7 (ICT)

UNITED NATIONS (BNO NEWS) -- The United Nations (UN) on Friday voiced deep concern at the ongoing violence against children as violent unrest in Syria continues.

Marta Santos Pais, the UN Secretary-General's Special Representative on Violence against Children, urged the Syrian Government to ensure the protection of all children.

"Violence against children must stop and children's safety must be upheld at all times," Santos Pais said. "Children need to be protected from unlawful arrest, torture and ill-treatment, and their lives should not be put at risk under any circumstance," she added.

During the recent anti-Government protests in Syria that are part of a broader uprising this year across North Africa and the Middle East, media reports said several hundred people, including women and children, have been killed.

Earlier this week, the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) said it had received, but could not independently confirm, information that the use of live ammunition against demonstrators has reportedly left at least 30 children dead.

On Friday, Santos Pais called on the Syrian Government to ensure the protection of all children from violence, in accordance with its obligations under the Convention on the Rights of the Child.

"Children's right to medical care and to social and protection services must be guaranteed. Child victims and witnesses of violence must be supported in their process of healing, recovery and reintegration," she stated.

In addition, Santos Pais also called for a thorough and impartial investigation of all reported child deaths and incidents of violence against children, including alleged cases of unlawful arrest in demonstrations, and torture in detention.

-- © BNO News All rights reserved 2011-06-03

[Steely Dan]

Fat chance of Syria not killing it's own people by the hundreds. They managed 25,000 in Hama in 1982, Friday alone they killed at least 130. Only Australia (Good on them) have stated Assad should be charged with crimes against humanity. Meanwhile the western press continues to thow a cone of silence over proceedings as those who criticize Israel's every move are also conspicuous in their absence.

http://www.yalibnan.com/2011/06/03/syrias-hama-is-drowning-in-blood-as-death-toll-rises-to-130-report/

The big Hama massacre occurred in February 1982, when the Syrian army, under the orders of the president of Syria Hafez al-Assad, father of the current president Bashar conducted a scorched earth policy against the town of Hama in order to quell a revolt by the Sunni Muslim community against the regime of al-Assad. Between 20,000 and 30000 were reportedly killed during that massacre