Syria

Wed
22
Oct
2014
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Submitted by hannah

Photo: YPJ soldier, Hevedar Mohammed, aged 12. Image Credit: Marie Claire.

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Thu
07
Apr

Daraa youth refuse to join compulsory 'murderous' Syrian regime military service, fear for uncertain future

Young men in Syria fear being conscripted into the regime's army

Many young men in Syria's southern Daraa province are refusing to join the Assad regime's military forces and now fear for their fate as a conscription deadline approaches.

Young men refusing to enrol in compulsory military service with the Syrian regime feel under threat of arrest as the deadline for the postponement of their conscription expires, The New Arab's Arabic language service Al-Araby Al-Jadeed reported.
The regime in April 2021 granted men aged between 18 and 36, who are wanted for military service in the southern Daraa province, a period of one year in which they were free to travel before enrolling in the army.
During this period, thousands of young men left the area.

Tue
18
Jan

SNA: “Controlling Child Recruitment is Difficult”

An Education Department activity in the Department of Moral Guidance (Tawjih) in Martyr Abdul Qadir Al-Saleh Camp. Credit: Tawjih Syria.

Dozens of children are still serving within the ranks of the opposition’s Syrian National Army despite Ankara’s measures to end child recruitment

 

Syrians for Truth and Justice (STJ) verified that factions operating under the opposition’s Syrian National Army (SNA) have been recruiting children among their ranks. Field researchers with STJ obtained information and testimonies confirming that at least 20 minors are currently commissioned within the ranks of the SNA. When our researchers interviewed faction commanders, they claimed it is difficult to control child recruitment despite difficult steps taken to end the practice.

Several of the recruited minors were deployed on the front lines during Operation Peace Spring. Others were trained in military camps across Azaz and Afrin and are still carrying out the tasks they were assigned despite the SNA’s decision to demobilize all child soldiers.

Wed
01
Dec

Syrian Kurds Demand End to Child Recruitment

Photo: Flickr Creative Commons

Dozens of Kurdish parents and activists protested outside the United Nations offices in Qamishli, Syria, on Sunday against the recruitment of children by local military groups.

The demonstration took place after several teenage girls were reportedly recruited by groups affiliated with the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), a Kurdish-led military organization that has been a key U.S. ally in the battle against Islamic State.

In June 2019, the SDF signed a joint action plan with the U.N. to end and prevent the recruitment and use of children under the age of 18 in areas under its control. But the U.N. said since then, at least 160 cases have been documented.

Khaled Jabir, co-chairman of the child protection unit at the Kurdish-led Autonomous Administration in North and East Syria, confirmed that his office recently received several complaints about child recruitment.

Tue
14
Mar

UNICEF says 2016 Was Worst Year Yet for Syria's Children

In Syria, last year was the worst yet for the country's rising generation, with at least 652 children killed in 2016, the United Nations' child relief agency said Monday.

There was no letup to attacks on schools, hospitals, playgrounds, parks and homes as the Syrian government, its opponents and the allies of both sides showed callous disregard for the laws of war.

UNICEF said at least 255 children were killed in or near schools last year and 1.7 million youngsters are out of school. One of every three schools in Syria is unusable, some because armed groups occupy them. An additional 2.3 million Syrian children are refugees elsewhere in the Middle East.

Read the full article here.

Sat
26
Nov

Syrian Refugees, 2014/2016

Toy children in Syrian refugee camp

Of the total 4.3 million refugees from Syria, one quarter are currently living in Lebanon, most in quasi-legal camps located within sight of the eastern border. With little-to-no government support for the refugees, NGOs like the Kayany Foundation have had to provide for basic needs. They’ve built schools within the camps to give children some sense of normalcy and a path towards a meaningful future. In late 2014 and again in early 2016, Kayany provided support for WAR-TOYS and facilitated a series of art-based interviews and group activities with children at their schools. Despite the gravity of the subject matter (and sometimes harsh weather outside), the interview sessions with the girls and boys were positive, empowering, and energetic thanks to the involvement of Lebanese Art Therapist Myra Saad.

Tue
04
Oct

‘Bunker-buster’ bombs in eastern Aleppo mean children not even safe underground, UN experts warn

The killing and maiming of children in eastern Aleppo by the Syrian Government and its allies is not only a brutal abdication of international human rights obligations, it will have a long-lasting impact on the young victims for generations to come, United Nations child rights experts warned today.

“Even if the war were to end today, it will take decades to recover from the destruction wrought on Aleppo and across Syria and the psychological wounds to heal from the trauma inflicted on these children,” said Benyam Dawit Mezmur, Chair of the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC).

“We are probably not talking of a lost generation, but quite possibly of lost generations,” he added in a news release.

Fri
06
Nov

Kurdish YPG militia recruiting child soldiers in Syria: HRW

A Kurdish youth holds a picture of a YPG (People's Protection Units) fighter killed in Kobane during a celebration in Diyarbakir on 26 January 2015 (AFP)

A Syrian Kurdish militia is using child soldiers despite international law prohibiting its practice, Human Rights Watch said on Wednesday.

The New York-based body said it documented at least 59 children under 18 recruited by the People's Protection Units (YPG) militia and the YPJ, its female branch.

Some of the children died in combat in June, it said.

“The YPG promised to stop sending children to war and it should carry out its promise," said Fred Abrahams, a special adviser at Human Rights Watch (HRW).

“Of course the Kurdish forces are fighting groups like ISIS that flout the laws of war, but that’s no excuse to tolerate abuses by its own forces," he added.

As the armed branch of the Democratic Union Party (PYD), the YPG has a sizable presence in Syria's north and has been backed by US airstrikes in a conflict that has killed more than 230,000 people and forced almost four million to flee the country.

Thu
16
Jul

More than 50 IS child soldiers killed in Syria in 2015

More than 50 child soldiers recruited by the Islamic State group in Syria have been killed since the beginning of this year, a monitoring group said Wednesday.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said it had documented the deaths of 52 child soldiers, all under the age of 16, who had been part of IS's "Cubs of the Caliphate" program.

The programme provides intense military and religious training to children throughout IS's areas of control in Syria, the Britain-based Observatory said.

As many as 31 were killed in July alone, in explosions, clashes, and air strikes by Syria's regime and the US-led coalition.

Thu
23
Apr

‘Raising tomorrow’s mujahideen’: the horrific world of Isis’s child soldiers

By Jessica Stern and JM Berger, The Guardian

Isis’s bid to build a society hasn’t stopped at the recruitment of women. Foreigners have been encouraged to bring their whole families to Iraq and Syria to “live under the shade of the caliphate”.

Wed
15
Apr

Yazidi sex slaves reveal Isis militants picked who to rape in twisted 'lottery' in distressing accounts

By Heather Saul, The Independent

Isis fighters are committing widespread, organised and systematic rape and sexual assault on Yazidi women and girls in what may amount to a crime against humanity, a report by Human Rights Watch (HRW) has found.

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