Global conflicts killed three times as many children and twice as many women in 2023 than the previous year, as civilian fatalities rose by 72 percent, the United Nations said on Tuesday.
Parties to the conflict were increasingly “stepping beyond the boundaries of what is acceptable and legal,” UN human rights chief Volker Turk told the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva.
They are showing “absolute disregard for each other, trampling on human rights at their core,” he said. “The killing and injury of civilians has become a daily occurrence. The destruction of vital infrastructure is a daily occurrence.”
“Children shot. Hospitals bombed. Heavy artillery fired at entire communities. All wrapped up in hateful, divisive, dehumanizing rhetoric.”
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The UN rights chief said his office had compiled data indicating that last year, “the number of civilian deaths in armed conflict soared by 72%”.
“Horrifyingly, the data shows that the proportion of women killed in 2023 doubled and that of children tripled, compared to the previous year,” he said.
In the Gaza StripTurk said he was “horrified by the disregard for international human rights and humanitarian law by the parties to the conflict” and the “unacceptable death and suffering”.
Since war broke out following Hamas's unprecedented Oct. 7 attack on Israel, he said “more than 120,000 people in Gaza, mostly women and children, have been killed or injured … as a result of the intense Israeli offensives.”
“Since Israel escalated its operations in Rafah in early May, nearly one million Palestinians have been forcibly displaced again, while aid delivery and humanitarian access have further deteriorated,” he said. to say.
Gaza's Hamas health ministry said on Tuesday that Israel's military offensive in the besieged enclave had killed more than 37,372 Palestinians and wounded 85,452 since the war began. The ministry does not distinguish between civilian casualties and combatants.
The need for help is increasing, but the funding is not
Turk also pointed to a number of other conflicts, including in Ukrainethe Democratic Republic of the Congo and Syria.
Yen Sudanamid a more than year-long civil war, he warned that the country “is being destroyed before our eyes by two warring parties and affiliated groups… (who have) flagrantly disregarded the rights of their own people. .”
This devastation comes as funding to help the growing number of people in need is dwindling.
“At the end of May 2024, the gap between humanitarian funding requirements and available resources is $40.8 billion,” Turk said. “Appeals are only funded at an average of 16.1%,” he said.
“Contrast this with the nearly $2.5 trillion in global military spending in 2023, an increase of 6.8 percent in real terms from 2022,” Turk said, stressing that “this was the steepest year-over-year increase since 2009”.
“In addition to inflicting unbearable human suffering, war comes at a high price,” he said.
