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UNICEF: 2017 a ‘nightmare year’ for children caught in war zones

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According to UNICEF, 2017 was one of the worst years for children caught in conflicts and besieged areas. From being deployed as human shields to acting as suicide bombers, children have become targets on a huge scale.

Warring parties in 2017 had a blatant disregarded for international law when it came to the protection of children, an official from the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) said on Wednesday.

A UNICEF report found that in conflict-ridden regions across the world, high numbers of children had been killed, used as human shields and recruited to fight.

“Children are being targeted and exposed to attacks and brutal violence in their homes, schools and playgrounds,” Manuel Fontaine, UNICEF’s director of emergency programs, said. “As these attacks continue year after year, we cannot become numb. Such brutality cannot be the new normal.”

UNICEF: Over 650 children were killed in Syria last year

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At least 652 children were killed in Syria in 2016, making it the worst year yet for the country’s rising generation, the United Nations’ child relief agency (UNICEFF) said on Monday, according to CBC News.

According to the source, there was no letup to attacks on schools, hospitals, playgrounds, parks and homes last year as the Syrian government, its opponents and the allies of both sides showed callous disregard for the laws of war.

UNICEF said at least 255 children were killed in or near schools last year and 1.7 million youngsters are out of school. One of every three schools in Syria is unusable, some because armed groups occupy them. An additional 2.3 million Syrian children are refugees elsewhere in the Middle East.

The figures come in a UNICEF report released two days before the sixth anniversary of the popular uprising that escalated into civil war.

The report warns that coping mechanisms and medical care are eroding quickly in Syria, driving children into child labour, early marriage and combat. Dozens are dying from preventable diseases.

1/3 of children in Armenia both poor and deprived: UNICEF

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children-poor-deprivedAlmost one in three children are both poor and socially deprived in Armenia, the United Nations’ children agency said in a report Monday, September 26.

For children, besides its monetary character, poverty can also mean being deprived in crucial aspects of their lives, such as nutrition, education, leisure or housing, the UNICEF said.

In Armenia, 64% of children are deprived in 2 or more dimensions. The headcount is as high as 82% in rural areas, while it is 53% in urban settings. Nationwide 12% of children are not deprived in any dimension. However this is true for only 3% of children in rural areas, while 18 per cent of children in urban areas do not suffer any deprivation. Children who are deprived, are deprived on average in three dimensions at the same time.

Most children are deprived in Utilities, Housing and Leisure.

Utilities is defined here as a combination of poor water supply and heating, while housing is defined by crowded living space and reported housing problems. Leisure is measured as a combination of recreation items and space to play.

There is a sharp rural/urban divide in the utilities dimension: 87 % of children in rural areas are deprived in utilities, a combination of poor access to water and heating. The second relevant divide is found in information: 57% of rural children are deprived of access to information, while this is true for only one third of children in urban settings. However, there are no differences in leisure deprivation rates by area of residence. At the same time, there are no significant gender differences either in deprivation distribution or particular dimensions.

28% of children are deprived (in 2 or more dimensions) and live in monetary-poor households. These children are the most vulnerable, and should be prioritized by social policies.

At the same time, 36% of children are deprived, but do not live in poor households. These children need direct intervention to tackle deprivation, and are at risk of being missed by policies that only address monetary poverty.

Younger children are mostly deprived in Nutrition. About one third of children aged 0-5 are deprived in nutrition, and 23% of children aged 3-5 are deprived in early childhood education. The highest deprivation rates for this age groups are found in information (49%), utilities (48%) and housing (51%).

Older children are mostly deprived in Leisure and Social Relations. Both children age 6-14 and aged 15-17 have their highest deprivation in leisure, defined as not having a space to play outside or not having books or toys. Almost one half of children age 6-14 are also deprived in social relations. 37% of children aged 6-14 are deprived in education (defined as education resources), while 12% of children aged 15-17 are not in education or training.

Related links:

Child Poverty in Armenia

Turkey ranks bottom on child inequality: UNICEF report

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AA photo

AA photo

Turkey ranks bottom out of 41 countries for child inequality in health and life satisfaction, according to a recent study by the United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF) measuring disparities between middle and low-income children. 

In its report titled “Fairness for Children: A league table of inequality in child well-being in rich countries,” UNICEF measured how far the gap has widened between the “average” children and those with lowest household income levels, rather than focusing on the gap between the richest and the poorest. For the report, data from 41 countries of the EU and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) were studied across four dimensions: Income, education, health and life satisfaction.

The most drastic negative results for Turkey were noted in health and life satisfaction, where in both cases the country was listed in the bottom two of all compared nations.

The largest relative health gaps, designated by comparing a child with frequent reporting of health symptoms and an “average” child at the median of the health scale, was found in Israel, with 38.9 percent, and Turkey, with 34.5 percent. However, Turkey performed worse than Israel in the frequency of health complaints from children at the bottom end, as some 53.3 percent of disadvantaged children reported one or more health symptoms a day. UNICEF also noted this pattern, remarking that “only Turkey shows both high bottom-end inequality and high frequency of reported health complaints.”

The country also ranked at the very bottom in terms of life satisfaction, where the relative gap between an average child and a disadvantaged child stood at 36 percent. Accordingly, the life satisfaction score of a child at the bottom is 36 percent lower than the average child.

Moreover, some 15.3 percent of Turkish children rate their life satisfaction below 4 on a scale of 0 (“worst possible life”) to 10 (“best possible life”). The figure is noteworthy as the second worst performer, Poland, only sees 10 percent of children report such high degree of dissatisfaction.

Income inequalities were also measured by comparing the household income of the median child and the household income of the child at the 10th percentile, who is poorer than 90 percent of children. The gap between the two was the indicator of income inequality between the average child and poorest children.
The data shows that 22.8 percent of Turkish children are members of households with incomes below 50 percent of the national median income, the highest ratio after Israel and Chile.

UNICEF noted that Turkey’s performance, along with that of Israel, was the worst among the 41 states studied.

“Israel and Turkey rank lowest in the overall league table. They have comparatively high bottom-end inequality in each of the four domains of child well-being for which they have valid data,” it said, arguing that social inequalities among children are unjustifiable as “merit cannot reasonably be advanced as justification for inequalities.”

April/15/2016

source: hurriyetdailynews