UN: More Than 5 Million Children In Iraq Lack ‘Basic Rights’

[Purveyor]

Source: Agence France-Presse

More than five million children in Iraq are deprived of “basic rights,” the United Nations said in a statement on Tuesday, calling for urgent action.

“One in every third child in Iraq, 5.3 million children, is still currently deprived of many of their fundamental rights,” it quoted Marzio Babille, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) Iraq representative, as saying.

“UNICEF calls on all stakeholders — in government, civil society, the private sector and the international community — to urgently invest in these children to respect their dignity and give them an equal chance to become healthy, productive young citizens of the new Iraq,” Babille said.

Violations of children’s rights in Iraq include inadequate access to and promotion of health services, lack of access to quality education, violence in schools and families, and psychological trauma from years of bloody unrest, the statement said.

Read more: http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/11/20/un-more-than-5-million-children-in-iraq-lack-basic-rights/

[Dont call me Shirley]

1. This is so sad. Wonder when the bushes and neos will be forced to visit the

human devastation they have created, sick men, sick!

[Purveyor]

6. Ha. None of them will have the guts to step foot in Iraq. eom

[CanSocDem]

2. Yeah, basic rights like...

...food, health and safety. Thank the Bush embargo's and The War on Terror for this.

.

[LeftishBrit]

3. Horrible.

[midnight]

4. k&R

[DaniDubois]

5. But how can that possibly be? I thought we just spent billions to bomb them into democracy.

[Igel]

7. Easy.

The embargo from 1990 to 2003 was hard on Iraq. They could import a lot of things under the UN sanctions, but Saddam found that the PR of saying the West was denying them food and medicine was useful. When he wasn't saying that, he was playing up the national humiliation of having to ask outsiders for permission to spend their own money.

This came on the heels of the Iran/Iraq war, which was also hard on Iraq. School attendance plummeted during the conflict as monies were used for bombs and not books. One result of this war was Saddam's dismantling of much of the secular nature of the Iraqi state, openly favoring Sunnis and openly favoring specific Sunni Arab tribes to create divisions: The Sunni Arabs vied with each other, but were privileged and united against the Shi'a and Kurds.

During all this time overall infrastructure didn't keep up with population growth, making things even worse.

After the main hostilities ceased in 2003, there was a lot of infrastructure damage. During the "resistance" a lot of infrastructure repairs were thwarted, and a lot of undamaged or mildly damaged infrastructure was destroyed. Sometimes by bombs and the intent to destroy, sometimes by those who decided to "harvest" equipment or metals like copper.

Health care, education, sanitation aren't like free speech or the right to be free from unreasonable searches. Depriving one of free speech takes effort and is infringing on a right that is independent of government and others. Depriving one of health care presupposes that there's abundant health care to be had. In the OP, "depriving" means "failing to supply in adequate quantities."

[G_j]

8. massive child abuse

thank you America!