After Three Years, UN Secretary-General Issues His First Report on Children in Syrian War

After 3 years of violence, for the first time the UN Secretary-General has reported to the Security Council on the horrendous violations of children's rights in Syria. Covering the period from 1 March 2011 to 15 November 2013, the report provides information on grave violations against children committed by Assad's forces and members of the opposition.

The UN report concludes that "suffering endured by Syrian children is unspeakable." Yet John Kerry and the State Department are spending more time and energy speaking about (and pressuring) democratic Israel than any other nation - as has the UN. What can Syria's children now expect? Another report next year.

Here are just some of the facts:
• "By 2013, landscape of parties in Syria completely changed, w/ increased al-Qaida affiliates."
• "By early October 2013, there were 6.5 million people displaced and in need of assistance inside the Syrian Arab Republic, including approximately 3 million children, and over 2.1 million Syrian refugees in neighbouring countries, including 1.1 million children."
• As of October 2013, "more than 100,000 individuals had been killed, including more than 10,000 children, and many more injured since March 2011.
• There are "patterns of killing and maiming of children and for recurrent attacks against schools..."
• Government forces "were responsible for the arrest, arbitrary detention and torture of children for their perceived or actual association with the opposition, and for using children as human shields."
• Children "as young as 11 years old suffered ill treatment and acts tantamount to torture to extract confessions or humiliate them or to pressure a relative to surrender or confess."
• Government forces committed "grave sexual violence against children."
• "An estimated 2.26 million children in the Syrian Arab Republic were not attending school or were attending irregularly."
• In Homs, "50 per cent of all doctors were believed to have fled. In the Aleppo area, 36 doctors remained practising, compared to 5,000 before the conflict."
• "13 United Nations national staff had been killed, while another 22 remained detained, missing or abducted."