As tensions continue in the war-torn country, a number of Iraqi children being victimized by countless bombings and abuses in Baghdad remain a major problem.
In a recent report of UNICEF, a UN children’s agency, the daily siege that Iraq is facing has put the lives of two million Iraqi children at risk.
International Criminal Court (ICC) will once again fail to deliver justice to gross Child rights and Human rights violation cases in Congo. Armed wing of UPC (Union of Congolese Patriots) in Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) allegedly kidnapped and forced children(even ten year olds) to take up arms and fight in ethnic conflicts. They were forced to fight and sometimes even kill their enemies. Those who tried to escape were killed. Due to legal loopholes such lack of document evidence placed by prosecution, the court is instead set to conduct a hearing on possible release of Thomas Lubanga, the militia head and the man behind forcing children to take up arms and fight a battle they hardly understand.
Emmanuel Jal’s life is a story depicting journey from rag to riches, inspiring all who suffer from sordid miseries of life yet couldn’t gather strength to bounce back. A ray of hope for millions distressed worldwide dreaming of making to the big league one day, Jal suffered a lot in his childhood. But forgetting all the hollowing terror that he once confronted during his days in civil war and terror struck Africa, Jal like a phoenix has risen from the ashes and established himself as a rapper known for his short dreadlocks, stylishly askew and haunting soundtracks.
Several thousand people in Burma (also called Myanmar) were severely affected as they completely lost their homes and livelihood after Cyclone Nargis devastated the area last May. Complete villages were razed to the ground, and among the worst sufferers are the children who have lost both their parents and have become orphans. There are thousands of children who have no one now to live with, no one to take care of them. Three year old Than Than Nues is one of them, and she has lost both her parents to the cyclone which destroyed her home in the delta of river Irrawaddy. High rise waves swept through her home in the small hamlet outside Rangoon (also called Yangon) and her parents were among the many who were carried away by the waters.
What is the most that you can do for your child to give him a good future? The probable answers would be securing his future by making good investments to make funds available when he needs it or imparting good knowledge so that he is at par with the rest of the world.
Well the Iraqis think or rather are forced to think otherwise. In a war struck nation where the living conditions are worsening by the passing day the best thing its citizens can do for their children is to sell them away. Yes, as shocking it may sound it is a harsh reality that is stigmatizing Iraq in recent times.
With the army destroying even the civilian areas of Iraq the people are left without any shelter and are forced to stay in make-shift refugee camps. People are left unemployed with the economic status of the country slumping dangerously. The hygiene of these areas is in a very poor condition leading the residents to lead unhealthy lifestyles and putting them at risk of an epidemic. The children here are malnourished and have to drop their education as their parents cannot afford the fees.
In such conditions the parents are resorting to selling off their children to foreigners in order to get some money and secure the child’s future. On questioning they justify their actions by saying that by selling off their child they have ensured their healthy upbringing along with providing monetarily to the remaining kids.
In some countries children use guns for fun-shootings. If a few classmates die, one can even get famous. In other countries children wielding guns are so common that when Times Online reports that, hardly anyone cares to mention any names. If you are born in the wrong side of the globe then even if you shoot your whole city down, no one will bat an eyelid.
So cliches justify the violent games that kids are playing in the Gaza strip. Only these children do not need the television to learn guerrilla warfare. Everything is happening right in front of their eyes. And unlike the sociopaths in the West, who kill for pleasure, these kids may have to kill someday for necessity. They may have to defend their communities in the future against US and Zionist aggression.
They are playing ‘raid-the-houses’, ‘torture-the-prisoner’ and ‘curfew’ games. The innocent world of the child has been stained by the dark stain of human blood. Palestinian kids are being forced to grow up before their time. Each child who is born brings us the message that God has not yet tired of humans. Children are the only hope for our blighted planet. But when these kids are being sucked into violence so soon in their lives, we are reminded of something Christ said. The Lord had said that if anyone misleads these tiny ones then it is better for that person to hang a grindstone around his neck and drown.
A recent national poll in Israel revealed that around 100,000 children are being victimized and sexually abused. It seems most parents in Jerusalem cannot protect their children from harm. If they can’t do it, who will? Parents should be held responsible about the welfare of their children.
Based on the polls, only a fraction of about 2.5 percent of 100,000 abused children cases in Israel was reported to the police. Such percentage was too small to consider the issue as a national concern if we would only rely on statistics. Some may even think of them as isolated cases.
Such findings were presented at the National Council for the Child conference in Be’er Sheva, where around 500 parents joined the polls. In addition, the poll showed that only 5 percent of the parents alerted the authorities that their kids were sexually harassed. A quarter of the parents had never told their children to avoid entertaining strangers.
Yuli Tamir, Education Minister, presented the data from the Central Bureau Statistics. He said for the last three years, there has been a decreasing dropout of 25 percent in high school. Last year, there were about 22,000 or 4 percent of the population of Israeli children who stopped studying. But Tamir said the Education Ministry is currently adopting a program to augment the declining dropout rates.
Abortion is banned in Indonesia except for some medical cases, to save a mother’s life. Despite this tough law, many unmarried women get pregnant and go for illegal abortion by doctor, using herbal remedies and vigorous massage. They could not reach to professional medical gynecologists because abortion is only permitted to save a mother’s life and not to terminate unwanted pregnancy. Currently, a doctor can face up to 15 years in prison for performing an abortion and a woman wanting a termination, up to 4 years.
In some failed abortion cases, the fetus could not be terminated successfully and pregnancy survived and grew in the uterus. These babies had born with mental and physical disability like hydrocephalus - a condition causing spinal fluid to swell patient’s brain. These children, living in orphanage had been left by their parents.
The brutal 14-year Liberian civil war, known locally as ‘World War Three’, may be a history but the country is facing a new conflict. Orphanages all over the west African country are in dire need of international help. Years of poverty, conflicts and corruption have made the orphanages run out of vital finances to feed a large number of deprived children. Liberia is known for the presence of a large number of orphanages for the civil war had ripped up thousands of families and children got separated from their parents while fleeing from war zones.
The Mekong river area is turning out to be the global hotspot of human trafficking. The countries where this is occurring are China, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam. Most of the victims are lured from China’s poorer neighbours with promises of a better living. They are then used as forced labour [to feed the hunger for cheap hands for the booming Chinese economy] and also used in the sex trade.
The United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund estimates that roughly 1 million children are bought and sold every year, mostly for sexual exploitation and forced labor. Tens of thousands of local women and children in Vietnam, one member nation of the GMS, have been trafficked abroad, mainly for disadvantaged marriage, child adoption, and labor and sex slavery, over the past decade.
