Comment by Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova on the UN Security Council open debate on children and armed conflict
On July 5, the United Nations Security Council held an open debate on how to protect children in an armed conflict, following the release of the UN Secretary-General's annual report on children and armed conflict for 2022.
We resolutely condemn Antonio Guterres’s biased political decision to include the Russian Armed Forces on the list of parties to the conflict responsible for violations committed against children in Ukraine, which is annexed to the report. The UN Secretariat has disregarded the established practice of verifying facts thoroughly, which is particularly important for handling the avalanche of misinformation that is being supplied by various biased pro-Western sources. It is also amazing that the Ukrainian Armed Forces are not on this list of violators, although UN officials hold them responsible for a significant number of murder and mutilation cases among children, as well as for attacks on schools and hospitals.
Nor in this context can we pass over the fact that the UN Secretariat consistently suppressed information about the crimes committed against underage children by Washington and its allies during their operations in Yugoslavia, Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya and Syria. In particular, there is much concern over the disastrous conditions for children in the camps for internally displaced persons located in the part of Syria which is occupied by the United States. Also, for many years, the issue of Israel’s impunity, despite its violations against Palestinian children, has been ignored.
Regardless of the level of impartiality of UN reports, the
Being a permanent member of the UN Security Council, Russia will continue to be actively involved in the Council’s efforts to develop and secure the approval of effective decisions aimed at protecting children in armed conflicts, including at the relevant Security Council Working Group.
