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STORY: UN / CHILDREN IN ARMED CONFLICT
TRT: 2.21
SOURCE; UNTV
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS
DATELINE: 22 JULY 2013, NEW YORK CITY, UNITED STATES
RECENT, UNITED NATIONS HEADQUARTERS, NEW YORK CITY
1. Wide shot, exterior United Nations Headquarters
22 JULY 2013, NEW YORK CITY, UNITED STATES
2. Wide shot, Leila Zerrougui takes her seat at a press conference
3. Cutaway, journalist
4. SOUNDBITE (English) Leila Zerrougui, Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict, UN:
“Children in Syria not only are affected in their daily basis, they lost their family, they lost their house but they’ve lost their hope. They are full of anger, I repeat this, they are full of anger and if this continues we will face a generation of illiterate. This is a serious matter and this is what is happening in Syria and in neighbouring countries because even those who are trying to open days schools –like Lebanon- to the Syrian there is a problem of curricula, there is a problem of capacity, there is a problem of language.”
5. Cutaway, reporters
6. SOUNDBITE (English) Leila Zerrougui, Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict, UN:
“I think it’s now very clear that many children are involved in different functions from many armed groups that are operating inside Syria and even I would add, even in some camps the recruitment are ongoing, outside Syria to send people inside.”
7. Cutaway, reporters
8. SOUNDBITE (English) Leila Zerrougui, Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict, UN:
“Those who are violating the right of children they have to pay on day and they have to know that we have a system that allow us to gather in a very professional way the information that we receive and asses the credibility of this information. I was very vocal with the government. I was very clear them and I have a very fruitful discussion to say this is your responsibility, this is the responsibility, we cannot just consider that you are fighting terrorism, you have to also work with part of your population that is not happy with the way it is treated.”
9. Med shot, journalists
10. Wide shot, press conference ends
The United Nations (UN) Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict said today that children in Syria not only were affected in their daily lives “but they’ve lost their hope. They are full of anger.”
Having just returned from a month trip to Syria and the neighbouring countries Jordan, Iraq Turkey and Lebanon who have been hosting scores of refugees Leila Zerrougui briefed reporters on her findings.
Thousands of children, inside Syria and in neighboring countries, have been out of school for months, or even years. Considerable efforts have been deployed by Governments, the UN and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to help children go back to school, but more needs to be done.
Zerrougui told reporters that as long as the conflict in Syria continued “we will face a generation of illiterate”, due to the lack of an educational infrastructure because of “a problem of curricula, there is a problem of capacity, there is a problem of language.”
.
While noting that talking with the population she was told that boys between the ages of 15 and 18 were being recruited, Zerrougui said that “I think it’s now very clear that many children are involved in different functions from many armed groups that are operating inside Syria, and she added that “even in some camps the recruitment are ongoing, outside Syria to send people inside.”
Noting that one of the purposes of the trip was to gather information Zerrougui stressed that “those who are violating the right of children they have to pay one day and they have to know that we have a system that allow us to gather in a very professional way the information that we receive and asses the credibility of this information.”
She said that in her meetings with government authorities she was “very vocal” to say that it was their responsibility to protect their population. She told authorities that their “population is not happy with the way it is treated.”
Since fighting began in March 2011 between the Syrian Government and opposition groups seeking to oust President Bashar Al-Assad as many as 100,000 people have been killed, almost 2 million have fled to neighboring countries and a further 4 million have been internally displaced.
Inside Syria, 6.8 million people require urgent humanitarian assistance, half of whom are children.
