The 58th session of the UN Human Rights Council

General Debate on Agenda Item 7:

Human rights situation in Palestine and other occupied Arab territories

Joint Statement by Association Ma’onah for Human Rights and Immigration and Geneva International Centre for Justice 

By Shyla Gheek / GICJ  

When this session began, Gaza was clinging to a fragile ceasefire. Yet within days that illusion of moving forward, of peace, was shattered. In a single night at least 174 children were killed. In one night. One of the highest single-day child death tolls in modern history.

Since October 7th 2023 over 16,000 children have been killed, more than a million have been displaced and thousands remain lost. Children are not just casualties of this war, they are its deliberate targets. We need to recognize the genocidal nature of this man-made humanitarian crisis, a moral crisis, a crisis in which the international community has failed to uphold the most basic principles of human dignity and international law.

The war on Gaza has been called many things but what it is at its core, a war on children, a war on the future of the Palestinian population. Schools lay in ruins. Hospitals reduced to dust. Weaponization of starvation. Declaration of famine acute malnutrition, and many more violations, that are constantly buried beneath the bombed land, that is now left unrecognizable under the weight of violence and destruction.

On behalf of Ma’onah and Geneva International Centre for Justice, we demand accountability for the crimes committed, bring an end to the war, justice for the lives lost, and protection of all Palestinian people, especially women, children and all other civilians.

Thank you.