Rights of children/Statements – GA Third Cttee debate – Summary record (excerpts)

Third Committee 

Summary record of the 16th meeting 

Held at Headquarters, New York, on Thursday, 17 October 2013, at 3 p.m. 

 Chair:  Mr. Tafrov …………………………………………………………….  (Bulgaria) 

 later:  Mr. von Haff (Vice-Chair) …………………………………………..  (Angola) 

Contents 

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Agenda item 65: Promotion and protection of the rights of children (continued) 

(a)  Promotion and protection of the rights of children (continued) ( A/68/253 , A/68/257 , A/68/263 , A/68/267 , A/68/274 , A/68/275 and A/68/487 )

(b)  Follow-up to the outcome of the special session on children (continued) ( A/68/269 )

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28.  Mr. Thórsson (Iceland) …

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29.  Children in conflict situations were at greater risk of abuse, neglect, violence, exploitation, trafficking and forced military recruitment. In the Syrian Arab Republic, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Somalia, millions of children had been forced to flee their homes; Palestinian children living under occupation could not fully enjoy their human rights and fundamental freedoms. The international community should do more to help those children. It should focus on the rights and empowerment of girls, especially through universal education. 

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43.  Mr. Al-Himali (Saudi Arabia) …

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44.  His Government had contributed US $47,860,000 to the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) over a 10-year period for humanitarian work in other countries, and $500,000 in support of child-protection programmes, including a programme to train teachers in the early detection of abuse. It sought to guarantee children’s rights in all areas, in particular in situations of armed conflict; that issue should be a priority in the work of the United Nations and its child-related bodies, and the States responsible for violations must be held to account. His Government condemned both the violence committed by the Israeli authorities against Palestinian children living in refugee camps, and the violence committed by the Syrian authorities against over 1 million children, including immigrant and internally displaced children. It urged the international community to shoulder its responsibility to put an end to that aggression and bring the perpetrators to justice. 

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48.  Ms. Al-Temimi (Qatar) …

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50.  Her Government was deeply concerned about violations committed against children in the occupied Syrian Golan and the Occupied Palestinian Territory. The flagrant violations committed by the Syrian regime against the Syrian people and vulnerable groups could not be ignored. Children were being subjected to heinous violence and were being killed, mutilated, tortured, and subject to arbitrary detention, abuse and sexual violence. Her Government called for continued efforts to prevent all violence against children and for those responsible for such violence to be brought to international justice. 

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71.  Ms. Bar-Sadeh (Israel), speaking in exercise of the right of reply, expressed surprise at the Syrian representative’s decision to lecture other nations on the protection of children, in particular as Israeli hospitals had been treating Syrian children wounded by the Syrian regime. She noted that in Israel, Palestinians and non-governmental organizations wishing to do so could file appeals with the High Court of Justice; that was an example of true adherence to the rule of law. 

72.  Ms. Alsaleh (Syrian Arab Republic), speaking in exercise of the right of reply, said that the blatant lies of the occupying Power could not go unanswered. The Israeli representative had neglected to mention that Zionist children were taught to kill Palestinian children by having them fire at effigies during celebrations. The Syrian Arab Republic was responsible for protecting its people, and would do what was possible, within the scope of its legislation and its international commitments, to rescue the Syrian people from terrorism financed from abroad, including that perpetrated by Israel. Israeli leaders were cooperating with armed terrorist groups in the area of separation in the Golan, transporting wounded terrorists over the line of separation to Israeli hospitals and covering up abduction of United Nations Disengagement Observer Force peacekeepers.