Ref: 51/2023

Date: 25 September 2023

On Saturday, 23 September 2023, representatives of the Palestine’s Children Council-Gaza Strip, which is established and supervised by the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR), participated in a dialogue with the United Nations (UN) Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Violence Against Children, Dr. Najat Maalla M’jid, along with dozens of children from the Middle East, Europe, and Africa. On the margins of the UN General Assembly 2023, Dr. Najat holds 3 dialogues, all designed with the same objectives and methodology: a dialogue with children from the Americas, another with children from Europe, Middle East, and Africa, and the last one with children from Asia and the Pacific.

Collaborating with civil society, Dr. Najat conducts these interactive sessions with children ensuring their voices are heard and engaging them by gathering their valuable perspectives and insights. These sessions will also address children’s queries, and seek their thoughts, actions, recommendations, and messages for decision-makers regarding travel, tourism, and violence against children. The outcomes of these meetings will be directly reviewed by the Special Representative in her presentation before the UN General Assembly 2023.

During the session, many children from countries participating in the dialogue talked about their suffering, the violence they are exposed to in their countries in the tourism and travel sector, and their experience in child rights advocacy.

Representative of Palestine’s Children Council, ‘Abdullah Tanira, talked about the special situation in Palestine due to the continued occupation and the suffering of children especially in the Gaza Strip which has been under the Israeli closure for 17 years and has become the largest open-air prison for more than 2.2 million people, 47% of whom are children. Tanira also highlighted the Israeli Occupation Forces’ (IOF) systematic measures and practices that have jeopardized all their rights, including their right to freedom of movement, tourism, and travel, have deprived Gaza children access to religious and tourist sites in the West Bank, including occupied East Jerusalem. Moreover, Tanira talked about denying Gaza children from their right to study in the Palestinian universities in the West Bank and vice versa.

Tanira also addressed IOF’s abuses and violence against children at the military checkpoints established between the Palestinian cities and the annexation wall during their movement between the Palestinian cities; negatively affecting children’s play and cultural activities. He also reviewed the challenges facing the Palestine’s children council members, including banning some of them from traveling abroad to participate in international conferences or meet their fellows in the West Bank. In the end, Tanira called for conveying the Palestinian children’s suffering to decision-makers in the world to work on solutions and achieve accountability and redress for children suffering.