World observes International Day of Innocent Children Victims of Aggression

By Deborah Castellano Lubov

4 June is the International Day of Innocent Children Victims of Aggression. The United Nations General Assembly established the Day in 1982 to raise awareness and acknowledge the pain suffered by children throughout the world who are the victims of physical, mental and emotional abuse.

One billion children are victims of violence

According to UNICEF, the United Nations Children's Fund, one in two children in the world - that is to say, one billion children - is a victim of some form of violence.

According to the Summary of the UN Secretary-General’s 2023 "Children and Armed Conflict Report", in 2022 alone, over 8,630 children were killed or maimed, signifying a five per cent increase compared to 2021. Making up more than 25 per cent of the killing and maiming of children, the report stated, was the use of explosive ordinance, including explosive remnants of war, and improvised explosive devices and landmines.

That same year,  7,622 children were recruited or used, with 85 per cent of those recruited being boys. Criteria for recruitment or exploitation, it suggested, include age, sex, disability, ethnicity, religion, geopolitical location, and economic status.

Abductions, sexual violence, attacks

Moreover, the report asserts that 3,985 children were abducted, claiming that this phenomenon took place mostly in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Somalia, Burkina Faso, Myanmar, and Mozambique.

Also, 1,166 children were victims of sexual violence, 99 per cent of whom were girls. The statistics observed how girls are disproportionately affected by sexual violence and forced marriage, but that boys are also victims of sexual violence or often experience secondary trauma from becoming forced witnesses of sexual violence against family members.

In addition, there were 3,931 incidents of denial of humanitarian access, which, the UN report stated, occurred most in Israel, Palestine, Yemen, Afghanistan, Mali, and Burkina Faso.

The number of attacks on schools and hospitals, showed the sharpest increase - more than 110 per cent - of all grave violations, with the report verifying  1,846 incidents.

Bambino Gesù at forefront of helping abused minors from war

On this Day, the Holy See's Pediatric Hospital, Bambino Gesù, issued a statement recalling the suffering of abused minors, and acknowledging its long history of caring for numerous children and young people who are victims of violence, especially from war.

Bambino Gesù lamented that violence against minors occurs in some specific forms ranging from physical and psychological mistreatment to 'pathology of care,' i.e. the type of violence that goes from neglect to 'excess care.'

The concept of 'excess care' includes, for example administering to them unnecessary drugs. It also includes witnessed violence, when a minor witnesses violence exercised on reference figures such as a parent, brother or sister.

The statement explained that each year, the hospital, drawing on more than 40 years of experience working with abused children and teenagers, manages more than 100 new cases of abuse and mistreatment of minors, with many of the children experiencing war trauma.

"More than 3,000 cases have been registered in the last fifteen years," it noted, pointing to how the structure enables minors to access support, as per a specific screening procedure.

Drama of domestic violence against minors

Likewise, UNICEF Italy drew attention to the Day as it launched a short Italian film ‘House of Terror,’ directed by director Francesco Calabrese and produced by Think Cattleya and Saatchi & Saatchi, to draw attention to the issue of domestic violence against minors.

The video also welcomed the participation of the director and screenwriter Dario Argento and highlighted the ordeal of these children.

Turning to how to move forward, the UN stresses that "ending and preventing grave violations against children is central to the mandate on children and armed conflict," and that the most effective way to protect children from hostilities "is to eliminate the push and pull factors that lead to their involvement in armed conflict."