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Wed
20
Jan

Thailand: Kids play with army weaponry on Children's Day

January 9 is celebrated as Children's Day in Thailand. Here is a video showing Thai Army's agenda for the day: Children playing with machine guns and other weaponry belonging to the military. According to Ruptly TV the event was held to mark Children's Day at an army base in Sanam Pao, Bangkok.  

Thailand has been governed by a military junta since the coup d'état in May 2014.

Source: RT Ruptly TV

Thailand: Kids play with army weaponry on Children's Day
Wed
20
Jan

When did you get the gun?

Highschool studants waving israeli flags in Treblinka extermination camp as part of the Holocast remembrance trip to Poland

By Or Segal, Israel Social TV

Hello to you, little girl with a gun. You, who were dressed in a uniform, who was placed second row on the side, between your fellow pre-schoolers. You who marched to the beat and saluted to the sound of parents clapping in the Independence Day party. You wanted to make the largest Purim food package1 in class, you wrapped all the sweets in colourful paper. One older kid passed between the classroom and asked for an “educational shekel”2. You didn't even know what that was, but you gave three shekels anyway.

Tue
19
Jan

SkoolLive - School Jive - A new, interactive digital invasion of our high schools by corporations and the military

High school students line up to use the new SkoolLive kiosks

Pat Elder -

For years DOD recruiting commanders have attempted to circumvent student privacy protections that are designed to shield minors from the wholesale transfer of student information from the nation's high schools to the Pentagon's Military Entrance Processing Command.

The DOD markets "career opportunities" through the schools, relying on a variety of methods, from Channel One, a 12-minute, highly commercialized, daily TV program that reaches as many as 5 million children a day, to various posters and announcements touting military service or other schemes like the Career Exploration Program. For the most part, however, these outreach efforts ultimately rely on the schools as a third party from which to extract student data. Until now, the DOD's quest for greater access to children has been somewhat stymied by pesky state and federal laws that regulate the flow of student information from the schools.

English translation unavailable for .
Wed
30
Dec

Joint Declaration by Human Rights Organisations in Turkey: “We Don’t Want War! We Don’t Want Children To Die!”

"Peace Forever"

The ongoing armed-conflicts in provinces and districts, in Turkey, in which civilians also live, have resulted in the death and injury of many children, or of their parents. In consideration of this grave situation, we must remind the State of the Republic of Turkey of their responsibilities arising from the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (art. 38) and Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the Involvement of Children in Armed Conflict:

  1. To respect and to ensure respect for rules of international humanitarian law applicable to them in armed conflicts.

Wed
30
Dec

The Situation of Children Affected by Armed Conflicts in Turkey

Report prepared by Humanist Bureau*

Introduction

We have been for years witnessing children losing their lives or getting injured during demonstrations or interventions by security forces. This report focuses on the time period after July 2015. Its objective is to make visible both the children who lost their lives or got injured and the leading factors since 26.07.2015, when Beytullah Aydın fell off the 7th floor of the building he was hiding in to escape from the police forces intervening with a demonstration in Diyarbakır and died. We also aim to make visible the victimization of children due to violation of their basic rights, including right to education, and losing their parents. It is expected that those who work in this area and those who live in this country become aware of their responsibilities regarding this end result and fulfill their obligations to protect children.

Mon
21
Dec

Uganda: Visiting the rehabilitation centre using art as therapy for children freed from a brutal militia

By Jacqui Thornton, The Independent 

The pictures are drawn in a childish hand, but they are visions that no child should have to witness: militia shooting captives tied to trees; army helicopters above firing on their enemy; the central African bush in flames.

These are all artworks produced by children held in captivity after they, or their parents, were abducted by the feared Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) in northern Uganda. Many of those taken spent years in the bush, constantly on the move to evade capture, walking barefoot carrying heavy loads for the commanders and even fighting for the militia.

Fri
18
Dec

British Army urged to stop using armed teenagers to guard barracks

By Shiv Malik, The Guardian

ForcesWatch report calls on UK military to stop recruiting minors altogether, as armed forces bill due for third reading

Britain’s military should stop using armed under-18s to guard soldiers’ barracks, a report into Ministry of Defence recruitment practices is set to say.

English translation unavailable for .
Tue
15
Dec

As Civil War Rages in South Sudan, Kids Struggle to Hold On to Their Youth

Nonviolent Peaceforce staff members gather with a group of children in Ulang.  (Photo: Fellipe Abreu)

By Fellipe Abreu, TakePart

At least 16,000 children have been recruited into the military since the conflict began in 2013.

As herds of cattle come and go on a narrow trail across a row of huts made from straw, mud, and wood, they pass a boy of about 15 sleeping in a chair near the main entrance. He is wearing black pants, rubber sandals, and an Ethiopian soccer team shirt. In his lap: an AK-47 rifle folding stock.

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