what is non international armed conflict

Given these numbers, Syria ranks fourth in terms of violations against children during this period, only being surpassed by the Congo, Israel and the State of Palestine, and Somalia, and second in terms of the number of children affected by those violations. On Syria, the report says that in 2022, “the United Nations verified 2,438 grave violations against 2,407 children that had occurred in previous years”, with these violations including killing and maiming, recruitment, detention and abduction, sexual violence, attacks on schools and hospitals, using schools and hospitals for military purposes, and denial of humanitarian access.

The UN Secretary-General’s annual report on children and armed conflict uses SNHR as a primary source for its data on violations against children in Syria, thanks to SNHR’s cooperation and partnership in the Monitoring and Reporting Mechanism (MRM) at the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF).

The report also assigns culpability for these violations, which include child recruitment and use of children, killing and maiming, rape and other forms of sexual violence, attacks on schools and hospitals, and child abductions. To that end, it summarizes the violations committed against children by parties to conflicts in various states, including Syria, in 2022, whether by government forces, pro-government groups, or anti-government groups. The report sheds light on the prevalent trends in relation to the impact of armed conflicts on children. The UN Secretary-General recently submitted his annual report on ‘Children and Armed Conflict’ for the year 2022.

What is non international armed conflict