Arab bodies urge protecting Palestinian children

Several Arab organizations on Tuesday called on all Arab countries to work in unison in a bid to provide the necessary protection and social justice to everyone, chiefly Palestinian children. The call was made by the Arab League, Arab Labor Organization, and Arab Council for Childhood and Development in a joint statement, marking the World Day Against Child Labour, which falls on June 12. The Arab bodies vehemently decried the crimes committed by Israeli occupation forces against childhood and humanity in the war-torn Gaza Strip in a flagrant breach of human rights, billing such violations as a stigma to the international community and human rights organizations. In this context, they cited a recent report by the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) announcing that nearly 13,500 Palestinian children were killed in the Gaza Strip and that approximately 1.9 million people, 50 percent of them are children, across the world can hardly find water, food, fuel, and medicine. The devastation of houses in the P alestinian enclave, displacement of families, and worsening living conditions would egregiously affect Gaza children for decades to come, forcing them to seek work, rather than schools, in pursuit of livelihood, they lamented. Every 12 June, the International Labour Organization (ILO) joins forces with ILO constituents and partners around the world to commemorate the World Day Against Child Labour. Source: Kuwait News Agency