子どもへの「重大な人権侵害」に世界は傍観、国際ＮＧＯが各国に一層の対応要請

【ロンドンＡＦＰ＝時事】国際NGO「セーブ・ザ・チルドレン」は13日、「紛争下の子どもを守ろう」キャンペーンの調査報告書を発表し、各国政府に対して、紛争や深刻な暴力の影響から子どもを守るために一層の対応を求めた。（写真はシリア北東部の病院で手当てを受けたマリアムちゃん〈5〉）
　同報告書は、２０１８年に紛争地帯に住んでいた子どもの数が世界中で６人にほぼ１人の割合に相当（約４億１５００万人）し、１９９５年に記録した人数の２倍を上回ったと指摘している。
　セーブ・ザ・チルドレンは、子どもたちへの「重大な人権侵害」は２０１０年以降、１７０％増加したことを報告書で明らかにした。
　中でも最も影響を受けているのはアフリカ地域の子どもたちで、紛争地帯に住んでいた子どもの数が１億７０００万人に上っている。割合が最も高いのは中東地域で、３人に１人近い子どもが戦いに取り囲まれた中で暮らしていることが分かった。国別に見ると、最悪の状況にあるのはアフガニスタンで、次いで、中央アフリカ、コンゴ民主共和国（旧ザイール）、イラク、マリの順になっている。
　セーブ・ザ・チルドレンは、戦争が子どもにとってますます脅威となり、若者は死傷したり、武装集団に引き入れられたり、性的虐待を受けたりするリスクが高まっていると指摘。今回の調査では、男女別の脅威を初めて分析し、報告書は「女子は、児童婚・早婚・強制結婚を含む性暴力や、ジェンダーに基づくその他の形態の暴力を受ける危険性が非常に高く」、「男子は、殺害・身体障害・誘拐・武装グループへの引き入れの危険性が女子に比べると非常に高い」としている。
　セーブ・ザ・チルドレンのインガー・アッシング事務局長は、「子どもたちが標的にされながら誰も罰を受けず、世界がそれを傍観していることに驚かされる」として、「２００５年以降、少なくとも９万５０００人の子どもが殺害されるか障害を負い、数万人の子どもが誘拐され、数百万人の子どもが教育の機会を奪われ、病院を攻撃されて医療を受けられずにいる」と主張。
　このまま何もせず、犯罪に関与した者たちに責任が問われなければ、「子どもたちの命の破壊」は今後も続くと警鐘を鳴らした。【翻訳編集ＡＦＰＢＢＮｅｗｓ】
〔ＡＦＰ＝時事〕（2020/02/18-12:50）

Governments were on Thursday urged to do more to protect children from the effects of war and serious violence, after a new report suggested record numbers were living in a conflict zone.
Save the Children said wars were becoming more dangerous for children, with youngsters facing an increased risk of death and injury, being recruited by armed groups or sexual abuse.
It's staggering that the world stands by while children are targeted with impunity, the charity's chief executive Inger Ashing said in a statement to accompany the report.
Since 2005, at least 95,000 children were recorded to have been killed or maimed, tens of thousands of children abducted, and millions of children denied access to education or health services after their hospitals were attacked.
Ashing warned that the destruction of children's lives will continue if nothing is done and those responsible for crimes are not brought to account.
- Record numbers -
The report said nearly one in six children around the world -- some 415 million children -- were living in a conflict zone in 2018, more than double the figure recorded in 1995.
Incidents of grave violations against them had risen by 170 percent since 2010, the Stop the War on Children study found.
African children were the worst affected, with 170 million living in war zones, although a higher proportion were hit in the Middle East, where almost one in three were surrounded by conflict.
The report also found record numbers of children being subjected to grave violations: killing and maiming; recruitment by armed forces; abduction; attacks on schools or hospitals; denial of humanitarian access; and rape and other forms of sexual violence.
For individual countries, the situation was worst in Afghanistan followed by Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Iraq and Mali.
Different threats faced by boys and girls was analysed for the first time.
Girls are at far higher risk of sexual and other forms of gender-based violence, including child, early and forced marriage, the study found.
Boys are much more likely to be exposed to killing and maiming, abductions and recruitment, it added.
- Kidnapping, child soldiers -
Victims from both genders recounted their experiences in the report, including Samira, a 15-year-old Yazidi girl from Iraq who is mother to a two-year-old child.
She was kidnapped with her mother and sisters in 2016, kept in captivity and sold to at least three people who beat and sexually assaulted her.
She was then forced into marriage with an Islamic State fighter and gave birth, returning home while her child remained under the care of authorities in Syria.
I would prefer to stay in slavery and live in camps my whole life rather than leave my child, she was quoted as saying.
I did not want to leave her to live without (her) mother or to live the life that I lived. I wanted to give her the rights that I have been denied as a child.
Another recounted how a young boy called Peter was recruited by an armed group in South Sudan before escaping to Uganda.
They gave us weapons for shooting, he said. They trained you how to load a gun, how to put in the bullet and release the trigger for the gun to shoot.
My heart was happy when I arrived in Uganda, he added.
I saw schools and hospitals. I was excited and said, 'this is the place where you can at least study and get medication whenever you are sick'.