UN sees tripling of children killed in conflict in one year
The Peninsula
Geneva: Global conflicts killed three times as many children and twice as many women in 2023 than in the previous year, as overall civilian fatalities...
Geneva: Global conflicts killed three times as many children and twice as many women in 2023 than in the previous year, as overall civilian fatalities swelled 72 percent, the UN said Tuesday.
Warring parties were increasingly "pushing beyond boundaries of what is acceptable -- and legal", United Nations rights chief Volker Turk told the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva.
They are showing "utter contempt for the other, trampling human rights at their core", he said. "Killings and injuries of civilians have become a daily occurrence. Destruction of vital infrastructure a daily occurrence".
"Children shot at. Hospitals bombed. Heavy artillery launched on entire communities. All along with hateful, divisive, and dehumanising rhetoric."
The UN rights chief said his office had gathered data indicating that last year, "the number of civilian deaths in armed conflict soared by 72 percent".