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Conflict-Affected Children at Heightened Risk of Grave Violations due to COVID-19, as 2020 Marked OPAC’s 20th Anniversary
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The COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated children’s vulnerability to grave violations in situations of armed conflict and restricted the realization of their rights, highlighted the Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict in her annual report to the Human Rights Council, which covers the period from December 2019 to December 2020.
While children continued to suffer the consequences of atrocious wars, the response to the outbreak often had an unintended adverse impact on children’s fulfilment of their rights to education and health, as well as their access to justice, social services, and humanitarian aid. School closures made children even more vulnerable to other grave violations, in particular recruitment and use, and children in camps for internally displaced people and those deprived of their liberty have bee
Myanmar: Armed Clashes Escalate while Children Suffer in the Rakhine
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New York, 14 January 2021 – The escalation of armed clashes severely impacted the lives of children and their communities, resulting in a significant increase in grave violations, particularly in 2019. This was highlighted by the sixth report of the Secretary-General on Children and Armed Conflict in Myanmar released today.
A total of 994 grave violations against children were verified across the country between September 2018 and June 2020, mostly in Rakhine State in 2019. Access restrictions for the United Nations remained a major challenge to monitor and verify grave violations.
“Parties to conflict in Myanmar must abide by their obligations under international law,” stated Virginia Gamba, the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict. “Measures to end and prevent grave violations against children need to be put in place and strengthened when they exist. Th
Residents of the Burma border town of Myawaddy told
Karen News that fighting broke out at Aung Shwe Bo section between government soldiers and Karen armed groups.
A woman resident said, “fighting took place at Aung Shwe Bo section where both the Burma Army and BGF [Border Guard Force] are based. [Burma] army had now shut down all road access during the day time.”
Residents said that the fighting broke out after mortar shells were launched into the Aung Shwe Bo area – where the government troops and its militias, the BGF have army camps.
At the time of writing,
Karen News is led to understand that it has not been confirmed which Karen armed group had fired the mortar shells.
Thailand’s New COVID-19 Outbreak: Myanmar Migrants Mustn’t Be Scapegoated
Myanmar migrant workers return from Thailand via the Mae Sot-Myawaddy border post in July amid COVID-19. / The Irrawaddy
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By The Irrawaddy 22 December 2020
The outbreak of COVID-19 that has infected hundreds of Myanmar migrants working in Thailand’s Samut Sakhon province, southwest of Bangkok, is now the kingdom’s worst. Thai Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha has instructed health authorities to come up with a working plan in case the country needs to go into full lockdown. Already, worrying signs are emerging that the Myanmar migrant population in Thailand will be targeted and discriminated against.