You are welcome to attend a meeting “Why did we fail Syria’s children? - Going forward, how can we protect them?” address by Dr Annie Sparrow.
The meeting takes place on Thursday, 10th May at 6pm, hosted by UCD Centre for Human Rights.”
About the meeting
Dr Sparrow, recipient of the American Red Cross National Hero Award in 2017 for her Syrian humanitarian work, is a globally respected expert on systemic impacts of conflict on children.
Syria remains one of the most dangerous places in the world to be a child. While chemical attacks such as the recent one in Douma have been highly publicised, barrel bombs have been especially deadly for children. As highlighted by a Syrian activist in the highly praised Irish film Syria the Impossible Revolution (Esperanza Productions), it is actually safer to live near the frontline in Syria as children and women are most at risk in the family home. Nearly 1 in 4 civilian deaths are children. According to a report in the Lancet, this is directly associated with the use of aerial bombings. "We conclude that the use of bombs ends up targeting children and women more than targeting combatants." (Prof Debarati Guha –Sapir, one of the report’s authors) https://www.thelancet.com/journals/langlo/article/PIIS2214-109X(17)30469-2/fulltext
According to UN figures, more than half of the 13 million people inside Syria who need humanitarian assistance are children. Approximately half of the 6.1 million internally displaced - 2.8 million - are children. Up to 12% of young Syrians are considered to be acutely malnourished.
The denial of aid has been one of the cruellest weapons in Assad’s arsenal. The siege of Eastern Ghouta had been preceded by sieges of East Aleppo, Darayya, Mouaddamiyya, Zabadani, Madaya, East Aleppo, al-Waer in Homs and other towns bombed and starved into submission despite the deliberate starvation of civilians being a grave breach of the Fourth Geneva Convention, and therefore a war crime.
Children under siege suffer from severe acute malnutrition which Annie has explained to be especially 'catastrophic', because it not only leaves them vulnerable to infections such as measles and gastroenteritis but also makes them up to 10 times more likely to die from such diseases than a well-fed child. The 'surrender or die' tactics of the Assad regime with the help of allies Russia and Iran has included the restriction of civilian access to water, food, medicine and other materials necessary for survival; the round the clock bombardment included intentional attacks on civilian homes, children’s schools, and healthcare facilities - hospitals, clinics, ambulances and primary healthcare clinics - as well as targeting doctors and other medical personnel hospitals and other civilian targets - all violating tenets of international humanitarian and human rights law.
One particularly egregious act of the regime against children was its denial of public health measures such as routine childhood vaccinations for polio in areas unsympathetic to its control. Dr Sparrow documented the re-emergence of polio in Syria in 2013 and the efforts of the regime to repress the evidence in the article “Syria’s Polio Epidemic: The Suppressed Truth'’ published in the New York Review of Books in February 2014. She then trained a team of doctors on the diagnosis and treatment of polio and persuaded the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to fund the vaccine program which resulted in the successful vaccination of 92 per cent of children in opposition held parts of Syria, and in controlling the outbreak.
Annie has been very outspoken about the international aid community’s failure to reach those in most acute need in Syria – in particular major U.N. agencies, including the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, the World Health Organization, and the World Food Program.
Her articles in that regard can be accessed via these links:
- https://foreignpolicy.com/2018/02/09/hypocritic-oath/
- https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/syria/2017-01-11/enabling-assad
Looking forward, Dr Sparrow will also highlight the responsibility of donor governments-specifically the importance of the renewal of Resolution 2165 re cross-border aid rather than the continued pouring of international aid into Damascus. Dr Sparrow will also address a meeting of the Oireachtas Joint Foreign Affairs committee on the 10th of May at 10am.
We hope you can make it to meet Dr Annie Sparrow in UCD on May 10th for what promises to be a stimulating presentation by this globally respected and dedicated humanitarian who has worked so hard to address the humanitarian and human rights catastrophe in Syria since 2012.
Irish Syria Solidarity Movement
Gluaiseacht Dlúthpháirtíochta na hÉireann leis an tSiria