UN Children and Armed Conflict report to blacklist Russia, not Israel

The United Nations annual report on Children and Armed Conflict due out next Tuesday is expected to blacklist Russia but not Israel, according to an advanced copy of the document seen by Reuters. 

The report on children and armed conflict includes the list intended to shame parties to conflicts in the hope of pushing them to implement measures to protect children. It has long been controversial, with diplomats saying Saudi Arabia and Israel exerted pressure in recent years in a bid to stay off the list.

Israel has never been on the list, while a Saudi-led military coalition was removed from the list in 2020 several years after it was first named for killing and injuring children in Yemen.

The report found that Israeli forces killed 42 children and injured 933 children in 2022. Israel is not the offenders list.

"I note a meaningful decrease in the number of children killed by Israeli forces, including by air strikes," Guterres wrote. "Nevertheless, I remain deeply concerned by the number of children killed and maimed by Israeli forces."

To prevent Israel’s inclusion in the blacklist attached to the report, Ambassador to the UN Gilad Erdan and the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories Maj.-Gen. Ghassan Alian met with Guterres last month in New York. They presented him with data to back up their position that Israel should not be blacklisted.

Human Rights Watch advocacy director Joe Becker charged that Guterres had done Palestinian children “a terrible disservice by leaving Israel off his list of shame. 

“The past year was the deadliest for Palestinian children in the West Bank in 15 years, yet the Secretary-General failed to list Israel’s forces," she said.

“His unwillingness year after year to hold Israeli forces accountable for their grave violations against children has backfired, only emboldening Israeli forces to use unlawful lethal force against Palestinian children. Israel obviously should have been on the list. Its absence fuels impunity and puts more children at risk,” Becker said.

“The UN needs to hold to account all governments, no matter how powerful, for their violations,” Becker added.

Israel has explained to the US that many of the minors who had been killed were engaged in violence and were not innocent bystanders to the conflict.

During a press briefing in New York Guterres’ deputy spokesperson Farhan Haq dismissed a question about Israel’s exclusion from the blacklist noting only that the report would be published on Tuesday.

UN accuses Russia of using children as human shields 

Guterres’ office did blacklist Russian forces for killing 136 children in Ukraine in 2022.

The United Nations also verified that Russian armed forces and affiliated groups maimed 518 children and carried out 480 attacks on schools and hospitals. Russian armed forces also used 91 children as human shields, according to the report.

Russia has denied targeting civilians since it invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022.

The report also verified that Ukrainian armed forces killed 80 children, maimed 175 children and carried out 212 attacks on schools and hospitals. The Ukrainian armed forces are not on the global offenders list.

Guterres said in the report that he was "particularly shocked" by the high number of children killed and maimed and attacks on schools and hospitals by Russian armed forces.

He also said he was "particularly disturbed" by the high number of such offenses against children by Ukrainian armed forces.

Russia's mission to the United Nations in New York did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the report.

Guterres' annual report to the 15-member Security Council on children and armed conflict covers the killing, maiming, sexual abuse, abduction or recruitment of children, denial of aid access and targeting of schools and hospitals.

The report was compiled by Virginia Gamba, Guterres' special representative for children and armed conflict.

Gamba last month visited Ukraine and Russia, where she met with Russia's envoy for children's rights, Maria Lvova-Belova - whom the International Criminal Court wants to arrest on war crimes charges.

The International Criminal Court last month issued an arrest warrant against Russian President Vladimir Putin and Lvova-Belova, accusing them of illegally deporting children from Ukraine and the unlawful transfer of people to Russia from Ukraine since Russia invaded on Feb. 24, 2022.

Moscow said the warrants were legally void as Russia was not a signatory to the treaty that established the ICC.

24,300 violations committed against children in 2022

The UN report on children and armed conflict verified the abduction of 91 children by Russian armed forces; all of them were subsequently released. The report also verified the transfer of 46 children to Russia from Ukraine.

Moscow has not concealed a program under which it has brought thousands of Ukrainian children to Russia, but presents it as a humanitarian campaign to protect orphans and children abandoned in the war zone.

In an effort to dampen controversy surrounding the report, the list released in 2017 by Guterres was split into two categories. One lists parties that have put in place measures to protect children and the other includes parties that have not.

Russia was placed on the list of parties that have put in place measures aimed at improving the protection of children.

The report overall verified that 24,300 violations had been committed against children in 2022.

The most violations were verified in Democratic Republic of Congo, Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories, Somalia, Syria, Ukraine, Afghanistan and Yemen.

"While non-state armed groups were responsible for 50% of the grave violations, government forces were the main perpetrator of the killing and maiming of children, attacks on schools and hospitals, and the denial of humanitarian access," Guterres said in the report.