Children are affected most when landmines and explosives are used in conflicts, UN children’s agency UNICEF says. A new report from the agency says the landmine and explosive legacy in Myanmar (formerly Burma) killed or maimed at least 210 children last year. Those children represent over 20 percent of last year’s 1,052 civilian casualties in Read more
Allegations of systematic attacks by the Russian military against Ukrainian religious leaders and deliberate destruction of churches have sparked outrage. The outrage follows the death last month of a 59-year-old Orthodox priest, Fr Stepan Podolchak (pictured). The Tablet reports he was tortured to death by Russian soldiers. Human rights groups condemned his death and those Read more
Cardinal Konrad Krajewski and those working with him emerged unscathed after they came under fire on Saturday, near the Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia. Krajewski, was sent by Pope Francis to Ukraine to show the pope’s “closeness” to the Ukrainian people. “It would be good if you could go again to Ukraine, to the war zones, Read more
Hopefully, you didn’t forget that there is (still) a war going on in Ukraine. It isn’t just any war, of course, but a war of conquest perpetrated by Russia invading a sovereign nation. And it is a war that has seen massive numbers of unspeakable war crimes. These war crimes have included, among other things, Read more
The transitional government in Sudan has agreed to turn over former President Omar al-Bashir and two other ex-government officials responsible for the genocide in Darfur to face prosecution at the International Criminal Court in the Netherlands. The Associated Press reports that a member of Sudan’s sovereign council announced Tuesday that transitional authorities and rebel groups Read more
Syria continues to suffer deadly government-initiated airstrikes in its rebel-held north-west, while ordinary citizens bear the brunt of the carnage. Syrian opposition activists and a war monitor say five people died and 21 were wounded on Sunday as the government continued its air campaign against the region. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a war Read more
International children’s rights organisation, Save the Children, is demanding the Australian government immediately stop exporting weapons to Saudi Arabia. It says 85,000 children have died in the Yemen conflict since 2015. Last August the United Nations (UN) found actions taken by the Saudi- and UAE-led coalition in Yemen might amount to war crimes. They include Read more
The Catholic Church on Wednesday warned Sri Lanka’s government of foreign intervention unless it worked towards reconciliation and addressed allegations of war crimes during the war against Tamil separatists. Malcolm Ranjith, the archbishop of Colombo, said he was urging President Mahinda Rajapakse and the main ethnic Tamil party to hammer out a political settlement or Read more