NEW YORK: Syria’s Permanent Representative to the UN Ibrahim Olabi said Syria remains committed to protecting children’s rights and strengthening cooperation with the UN in this field, including efforts to develop a national action plan aimed at preventing violations against children.
Speaking during the UN Security Council’s open debate on Children and Armed Conflict on Wednesday, Olabi thanked the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict Vanessa Frazier for her briefing and continued engagement with the Syrian government on the issue.
Olabi said Syrians remember that children were among the first victims of the deposed Assad regime 14 years ago, when security services arrested, tortured, and forcibly disappeared a number of children after they wrote slogans calling for the regime’s overthrow on a school wall.
He said those children ignited the spark of the Syrian revolution and became enduring symbols of it.
Since liberation, Syria has reaffirmed through the Constitutional Declaration issued in March last year that all rights contained in international human rights treaties and conventions ratified by the country form an integral part of the declaration, including the Convention on the Rights of the Child, Olabi added.
He said the February visit to Syria by Frazier was productive and successful.
During the visit, she met senior officials from the ministries of justice, emergency and disaster management, defense, interior, and social affairs and labor, and reviewed measures being taken to protect children and prevent violations against them.
Olabi added that Syria was working constructively with Frazier’s office to formulate a national action plan to prevent violations against children.
He said the Syrian government had also decided to join the “Prove It Matters” initiative launched by the Special Representative and is prepared to work with her office to ensure the full implementation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child.
He stressed that children’s lives in Syria continue to be threatened by landmines and unexploded ordnance, welcoming international efforts aimed at assisting the Syrian government in addressing the danger and protecting civilians.
Olabi said discussions on children in Syria cannot ignore conditions in Al-Hol and Roj camps, which house thousands of children and women of various nationalities who have been deprived of healthcare and education for more than seven years.
He called on all concerned countries to assume responsibility for their nationals in the camps and to cooperate urgently in finding lasting solutions, including accelerating their repatriation.
Olabi said an entire generation of Syrian children had known only war, destruction,, and insecurity.
He described them as the generation of the Syrian revolution and said they would play a central role in rebuilding a free, safe, and prosperous Syria.
