Children and armed conflict in Iraq | RSG

S/2022/46

26 January 2022

Report of the Secretary-General

Summary

The present report, submitted pursuant to Security Council resolution 1612 (2005) and subsequent resolutions on children and armed conflict, is the fourth report on the situation of children and armed conflict in Iraq and covers the period from 1 August 2019 to 30 June 2021.

The report addresses the effects of conflict on children in the country, highlighting trends and patterns of the six grave violations committed against children, and contains information, where available, on perpetrators. It also outlines information on the progress made in addressing grave violations against children, including through dialogue with parties.

Lastly, the report provides a series of recommendations addressed to all parties to the conflict aimed at ending and preventing grave violations against children and strengthening child protection in Iraq.

I. Introduction

1. The present report, prepared pursuant to Security Council resolution 1612 (2005) and subsequent resolutions on children and armed conflict, covers the period from 1 August 2019 to 30 June 2021. It is the fourth report of the Secretary-General on children and armed conflict in Iraq to be submitted to the Security Council and its Working Group on Children and Armed Conflict. The report serves to highlight trends and patterns of grave violations committed against children by parties to the conflict in Iraq, and provides details of the progress made towards ending and preventing such violations since the previous report (S/2019/984) and the adoption by the Working Group on Children and Armed Conflict of its conclusions on the situation of children and armed conflict in Iraq (S/AC.51/2020/4). It also contains an outline of the progress and challenges in establishing dialogue with parties to the conflict. Where possible, perpetrators of grave violations are identified. In annex I to the most recent report on children and armed conflict (A/75/873-S/2021/437), Da’esh1 was identified under section A, on parties that had not put in place measures during the reporting period to improve the protection of children, as being a party that recruited and used children, that killed and maimed children, that committed rape and other forms of sexual violence against children, that abducted children and that engaged in attacks on schools and hospitals. The Popular Mobilization Forces were listed under section B, on parties that had put in place measures aimed at improving the protection of children, as being a party that recruited and used children.

2. The information contained in the present report was verified by the country task force on monitoring and reporting in Iraq, co-chaired by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq. The outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic and related response measures, including restrictions on movement, exacerbated existing challenges in documenting and verifying grave violations against children. Therefore, the information presented in the present report does not represent the full extent of grave violations committed against children in Iraq during the reporting period, and the actual number of grave violations is likely to be higher. Where incidents were committed earlier but verified only during the reporting period, that information is qualified as relating to an incident that was verified at a later date.