Quotes by Lisa Davis

Extracts from Afghanistan: the worst place on earth for children to be born and raised
The Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission and UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) recorded 2,777 civilian deaths in 2010, an increase of 15 percent compared with 2009, child casualties increased by 21 percent in the same period. UNAMA confirmed that more civilians were killed in Afghanistan in May 2011 than in any other month since 2007, with 368 conflict-related civilian deaths and 593 civilian injuries. As recorded by monitor Afghanistan has significantly more child casualties from mines/ERW (explosive remnants of war) annually than any other country.
Figures from the United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR) reveal that one in four of all refugees the agency deals with world-wide come from Afghanistan.
Family Environment
It is estimated that there are over 1.6 million orphans in Afghanistan, mainly due to the conflict in Afghanistan. However, lack of accurate data makes predicting the numbers of children and young people orphaned in Afghanistan difficult. Not only are these children deprived of family life, most will not know their date of birth, have no birth certificate and some will have seen their parents killed.
Health and health services
Two thirds of children are chronically malnourished, and among them, thousands suffer from acute malnutrition. The UNDP reports that 16 percent of babies die at birth and 25 percent before their 5th birthday. As reported by UNCIEF Afghanistan has the 2nd highest mortality rate for under-5s with only Chad in Africa having more children die per year before reaching their 5th birthday.14 The World Health Organisations data shows that 82,100 children living in Afghanistan die annually as a result of diarrhoea.
... one third of children living in rural areas do not have access to any public or private health care. In addition, mental health services remain insufficient to cope with wide spread war-related psychological problems suffered by children.
Standard of living
Years of conflict aggravated by several severe droughts, political insecurity, bad governance and ongoing violence have significantly increased poverty in the country. As already noted, children living in Afghanistan are growing up in one of the least developed countries in the world. Research shows that younger children and those living in rural areas are the most deprived.
Poor access to health, education, safe drinking water and income generation is endemic in Afghanistan.19 Children’s rights are compromised primarily by the psychological consequences of the war and violence.20 Their health and nutritional status is a major cause of concern.
Education
As a nation emerging from over 30 years of conflict, the challenges facing Afghanistan’s education system are undoubtedly unique. The destroyed education infrastructure needs to be rebuilt, and, in the face of growing armed attacks to schools, demand for education needs to be bolstered. The UN Special Representative reports that schools are a prime target for attack in the Afghan conflict, with 50-80 percent of schools becoming closed in certain regions, with girl’s schools being particularly hard hit.
Killing and maiming of children
During 2009, the UN confirmed that a total of 346 children were killed, of which 131 were killed as a result of air strikes and 22 in night raid operations by International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) and Afghanistan National Security Forces (ANSF). UNAMA reported that the number of child deaths in the first six months of 2010 has increased by 55 percent over the same period from 2009. The Secretary-General also reports on children being used to carry out suicide attacks or plant explosives.
In 2010 a significant number of civilian deaths were attributed to pro-government forces. Afghanistan’s Independent Human Rights Commission has reported that in the first 12 days of Operation Mushtarak - the major British offensive in Helmand that began in February 2010 - 28 civilians were killed, including 13 children, most apparently by pro-government artillery. Civilian casualties left many children orphaned and deprived of their right to a family life.
US air strikes on Granai in Farah Province, south of Herat, Afghanistan, in May 2009 resulted in the death of 140 civilians. Ninety-three were children and the youngest listed was 8-day-old baby Sayed Musa. The US military have admitted significant errors were made in carrying out the air strikes. They say, “the inability to discern the presence of civilians and avoid and/or minimize accompanying collateral damage resulted in the unintended consequence of civilian casualties’. An investigation was lead by the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) into the events surrounding the air strike in Kunduz, which took place on the 4 September 2009. During this air strike 40 children were killed. However, there have been no known investigations by the Afghan National Forces or Afghan Police for violations concerning children.
Refugees:
Fighting in different parts of Afghanistan has displaced thousands of civilians and with the escalation of fighting it makes it difficult to deliver assistance. The UNHCR, reveal that one in four of all refugees the agency deals with world-wide come from Afghanistan.35 According to ICRC, displacement caused by military operations and localised fighting continues to affect communities in many parts of the country. Between January and April 2011 the ICRC assisted more than 51,000 internally displaced people, an increase of 40 percent on the same period last year.
A separate study by UN High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) and the World Bank estimates that about 433,066 persons remain internally displaced in Afghanistan. Of those, 226,682 were displaced by conflict between June 2009 and April 2011.
Conclusions
Afghan children are suffering terribly. Afghan children are not a side issue, not collateral damage. The majority of the people in Afghanistan are children. After the first decade of the U.S.-N.A.T.O. occupation, Afghanistan has become the very worst place on earth to give birth to or raise a child.
Hunger, sickness, and deprivation are aggravated, as well as fundamentally caused by, the violence of the war. A quarter of the world’s refugees have come from Afghanistan during this or the preceding wars. Refugee children and the children of refugees have been deprived of a home. But those back home tend to be worse off. In too many cases, they are deprived of the right to life and development by death rained down from above or kicking in doors at night. In willful or accidental ignorance of the information reported here, commentators justify this war as being fought in the name of human rights by discussing only the sorts of rights that are a top concern to people who are not being bombed or shot or struggling to find food.
Ignorance is a key issue raised by this report. Not only do too many Afghan children lack education, but we lack any knowledge of too many Afghan children. Ninety-four percent of births are not registered. Twenty-five percent of children born die before their fifth birthday. There is not a tree-falling-in-thewoods-unheard philosophical enigma here. These children really do exist. They just don’t enjoy it very much, and it doesn’t last very long. On August 6, 2011, numerous U.S. media outlets reported “the deadliest day of the war” because soldiers, including 30 U.S. troops, had been killed when their helicopter was shot down. But compare that with the day of May 4, 2009, discussed in this report, on which 140 people, including 93 children, were killed in U.S. airstrikes.