Vox Populi

The world has enough for everyone’s need, but not enough for everyone’s greed.” (Mahatma Gandhi)

Minab: The Massacre of Innocence

The Shajareh Tayyebeh girls’ primary school (also known as the Shajareye Tayabeh institute) was located in the city of Minab, in Iran’s southern province of Hormozgan. According to official sources and news agencies (such as IRNA and Xinhua), the death toll has risen dramatically in recent hours. The school was situated approximately 600 meters from a naval headquarters of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (Pasdaran), the likely military target of the joint U.S.-Israeli missile strike. The building was hit directly on Saturday morning, while classes were in session or during a passing period. Early reports from local media and teachers’ unions refer to girls aged between 7 and 12. While names are beginning to circulate on Iranian social media through prayer requests and family tributes, a full, officially translated public registry is not yet available.

Can a strategic military objective ever justify the sacrifice of 148 innocent lives? To define the extermination of 148 young girls as “collateral damage” is not merely a technical euphemism; it is a moral failure of conscience. To accept such logic is to admit that human life no longer holds intrinsic value when weighed against military calculation. Such a dangerous path should drive populations into the streets to reclaim our shared humanity and hold political leaders—whether directly responsible or silent accomplices—accountable for this massacre.

Our children were not born to arm themselves, even ideologically, nor to witness the violation of the rights of the most vulnerable. And the children of our children should not live in a world built on domination and intolerance.
https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/nearly-70-gaza-war-dead-women-children-un-rights-office-says-2024-11-08/?utm_source=chatgpt.com

Global Data on Child Victims of War After World War I

1. Grave Violations Against Children (2005–2022)

UNICEF has verified over 315,000 grave violations against children in armed conflict between 2005 and 2022, including:

• more than 120,000 children killed or maimed
• over 105,000 children recruited by armed groups
• more than 32,500 abducted
  (unicef.org)

2. Indirect Mortality in Africa (1995–2015)

A Stanford study estimates that between 1995 and 2015 in Africa:

• 3.1 – 3.5 million newborns (living within 30 km of conflict zones) died due to the indirect impact of war.
• 4.9 – 5.5 million children under five died from war-related causes (food insecurity, collapsed healthcare, preventable diseases).
  (med.stanford.edu, sickkids.ca)

3. Indirect Mortality (2013–2017)

According to Save the Children, in 10 of the worst conflict-affected countries:

• 550,000 newborns died due to indirect effects of war (over 100,000 each year).
• Extending to children under five, the estimated toll rises to 868,000.
  (savethechildren.net)

4. Child Victims in 2017

UNICEF recorded in 2017 alone more than 10,000 children killed or maimed in ongoing conflicts.
(timesofisrael.com, unicef.org)

5. Child Rights Violations in 2023

• Save the Children reports that in 2023 alone there were 31,721 grave violations against children in conflict zones, equal to about 86 per day.
• Among them: around 11,338 children killed or maimed.
• In 2023, 473 million children (19% of the world’s child population) lived in conflict areas — nearly double the figure in the 1990s.
  (savethechildren.net)

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Francesca Albanese

There are currently 11 Special Rapporteurs who hold the same type of role as Francesca Albanese (country-specific mandates) but operate in territories outside of European borders.

Rapporteurs and Areas of Jurisdiction:

Francesca Albanese: Occupied Palestinian Territories (since 1967)

Thomas Andrews: Myanmar

Javaid Rehman: Iran

Mohamed Abdelsalam Babiker: Eritrea

Nicholas Koumjian: Myanmar (Investigative Mechanism)

Isha Dyfan: Somalia

Morris Tidball-Binz (and others): Afghanistan (monitoring via various experts and groups)

Reem Alsalem: Often involved in country-specific focuses regarding violence against women.

Radhouane Nouicer: Human rights violations in Sudan.

Eligibility Criteria

To be selected, rapporteurs must meet four fundamental criteria established by Council Resolution 5/1:

Personal Integrity: an irreproachable ethical profile.

Competence: proven expertise in the specific sector.

Experience: a solid track record in the field of human rights.

Independence and Impartiality: they must not hold government roles or positions that could create conflicts of interest during their mandate.

Duration: a mandate usually lasts 3 years and is renewable only once (for a maximum of 6 years in total).

No salary: they receive logistical and personnel support from the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), but do not receive a salary for their work. This serves to preserve their critical autonomy regarding Member States.

The Scars of New Colonialism

Today, we are witnessing the return of a fierce colonialism that, after a phase of intensive exploitation, abandons the territories, leaving deep wounds on disillusioned and impoverished populations. It is the failure we have already seen unfold in:

• Afghanistan and Iraq, where promises of stability have evaporated.
• Palestine and Syria, ravaged by endless conflicts.
• Sudan and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, theaters of a silent but devastating exploitation.

As long as war is treated as an option on the table, there will never be true evolution—only an eternal return to barbarism masked as progress.

Inequality: the Oxfam report denounces the unfairdistribution of wealth.

Every day 10 thousand people die because they cannot afford healthcare. And 262 million children do not go to school. The 2019 Oxfam report sheds light on economic and social inequality in Italy and around the world, where the unfair distribution of wealth could be partly resolved if the richest 1% paid 0.5% more in taxes on heritage.

Furthermore, the document also identifies an agenda that governments around the world should promote in the fight against inequality. Starting from the development of essential public services such as health and education, passing through the fight against tax avoidance and arriving at a tax system that asks everyone to contribute to a fairer society according to their possibilities.