UN report urges greater protection of Iraq's children

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - A recent United Nations report on children and armed conflict in Iraq shows a “sharp increase” in the total number of children detained in the country on national security charges and alleged links to the Islamic State group (ISIS), although it finds that the number of grave violations committed directly against children has decreased significantly between the summers of 2019 and 2021 as compared to previous years.

The fourth report of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict in Iraq, shared on Wednesday, outlines the progress made in the country so far in addressing crimes against children, highlighting key violations committed between the period of August 2019 to June 2021 and - crucially - naming the main perpetrators: ISIS, Iraq’s security forces, the Turkish Armed Forces’ “Operation Claw,” and the Iran-backed militia, the Popular Mobilisation Forces (PMF, or Hashd al-Shaabi).

During the time frame, the report finds, at least 317 grave violations were committed against 254 children;  four of whom were abducted, 98 of whom killed, and 151 maimed; the explosive remnants of war (121) and improvised explosive devices (46) being the leading causes of these casualties. It notes that the actual number of violations is likely to be far higher than the report can accurately show, but is nonetheless a dramatic decrease on the previous report’s total of 2,114, and the lowest number verified in the country since the UN began monitoring grave violations against children in 2009.

Most violations - 65 - are attributed to ISIS, but the Iraqi security forces bear responsibility for 58, along with 10 caused by the PMF, and 8 resulting from “Operation Claw.” The majority of grave violations (238) were committed in areas previously under ISIS control, including Kirkuk (96), Salahaddin (52), Nineveh (52), Diyala (42), and Anbar (19), as well as Muthanna (12), Basra (11) and Baghdad (10). Three child casualties, the report notes without providing further details, were later-verified and attributed to the Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS. The broader decrease in violations, it appears, can be linked to the progress made in countering ISIS, but this is also a mortal threat to the country’s minors.

In most cases, children were harmed while herding livestock in the surrounding areas of villages or while playing, by accidentally triggering the devices when they picked them up or stepped on them. But there was one major attack on a healthcare centre on 26 May 2020, in Mawat in the Kurdistan Region’s Sulaimani governorate, the report notes, during Turkey's cross-border military operation into the Region against the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK). While no children - or indeed civilians - were injured as a result of the operation, the centre remains non-functional. 

“Despite a significant decrease, incidents of killing and maiming of children continue to be disturbingly high, and it is distressing that most of these child casualties were caused by explosive remnants of war and improvised explosive devices,” the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict Virginia Gamba said, urging the Iraqi government to continue efforts to clear mines, and especially before the return of internally displaced persons to the area. 

Between October 2020 and March 2021, the Iraqi government’s decision to close 16 camps for internally displaced people in Anbar, Baghdad, Diyala, Karbala, Kirkuk, Nineveh and Salahaddin has exacerbated an already vulnerable protection environment for children.

Perhaps most concerningly, the report finds that a total of 1,091 children (1,048 boys, 43 girls) - some as young as nine-years-old - were held in detention by Iraqi security forces on national-security-related charges in this time, mostly for their alleged association with armed groups, primarily ISIS. As of June 2021, 35 of those children were of foreign origin. Most of the detained were boys aged between 15 and 18 years-old, representing both a sharp increase and a serious protection concern.

The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) arrested thousands of ISIS fighters and their wives and children when they took control of the group’s last stronghold in Syria in March 2019. Most are held at al-Hol camp, which is home to over 56,000 people - mostly women and children of different nationalities - as well as the nearby Roj camp.

The repatriation of foreign children from Iraq continued with a total of 627 children repatriated to their country of origin during the reporting period, the report states, and an initial repatriation of Iraqi families from al-Hol by Iraq’s government, which included 245 children.

“Children under 18 actually or allegedly associated with armed groups, including those designated as terrorist by the United Nations, such as Da’esh, should be considered and treated primarily as victims,” the Special Representative said, using an acronym for ISIS and adding her support for repatriation efforts.

Previous research by Human Rights Watch (HRW) into the detention of children in Iraq found that many minors had been tortured into confessions, with Iraqi and Kurdistan Regional Government authorities charging hundreds of children with terrorism for alleged ISIS affiliation on the basis of dubious accusations. 

The UN report concludes with a series of recommendations to all parties involved in conflict, aimed at protecting children, particularly those in detention. In addition, the UN pledges to continue to engage with Iraq’s government “to strengthen the protection of children as well as for the purpose of finalizing and adopting an action plan to end and prevent the recruitment and use of children by the Popular Mobilization Forces.”

Additional reporting by Aveen Karim