September 18, 2018
On 20 January 2018, the Turkish armed forces, in cooperation with the Syrian armed factions backed by them, launched a military offensive against Afrin area and its countryside using all kinds of heavy and small weapons and military aircraft, violating all international covenants and conventions, amid an appalling international silence , massacres in a systematic manner, which claimed lives of hundreds of civilian deaths, number of wounded civilians about 797, mostly women and children, aftermath of the war mass massacres with families destruction in full, where the houses were destroyed over the heads of residents such as massacre of Jilbara – And other villages and sub-regions in the region. Since the first day, population has been intimidated and forcibly displaced by targeting infrastructure and life elements .
More than 300 thousand displaced people left Afrin city in tragic situation of displaced in midst of almost complete absence of humanitarian and relief organizations, elderly , young people ,children and women who do not even have a piece of bread to keep alive, and remains unknown fate envelops , future of those who remained in Afrin civilians who needed their homes with their frightened children and hurried to take shelter in basements.
In addition to disruption of educational process for 45,000 students after targeting of schools, destruction of a number of them, the number of schools targeted by air strikes and artillery during war in which dozens of students lost their lives (68) schools, and wounded others and disabilities, killing of (35) (2) teachers and 1150 students from higher education.
It is noteworthy that self-administration in Afrin had announced a study plan before occupation of city by the Turkish forces included rehabilitation of 324 schools, number of students was 49 thousand students, number of teaching staff exceeded 2625 teachers, in Robar and Shahba camps in Afrin, Pupils numbers were (889 students)
The war has undermined of Afrin’s children lives, disintegrated their communities, shattered their self-confidence and others. Today tens of thousands of children are displaced by psychological and physical trauma caused by the Turkish invasion. They lived in caves and cellars of buildings, which they were afraid of shelling, cases of panic accompanied children, who thought that they would die, because of roar of warplanes and sound of bombs continued.
Psychosocial, social and environmental problems are a major impediment to children’s education, most children have experienced horrors of the Turkish war, which have terrified them. For example, many of them witnessed destruction of their homes , killing of their parents, brothers, neighbors and friends. In this regard, parents of children reported signs of deep sadness and fear in their children, including sleep disturbance, screaming, urination during sleep, isolation, anxiety, depression and phobias, as well as spread of mental illnesses such as depression, Hope, resentment, deep sorrow, anger and fear among children who lived during the war.
At present, with hundreds of thousands of people forcibly displaced from Afrin to refugee camps and villages and towns of the war-ravaged Shahba region, challenges facing their children and young people are worrying and fearful. The armed factions controlling Afrin and its countryside are violent by killing and torturing children or Kidnapping them for use and employment in military operations or extorting their families to impose ransom on them, not to mention rape and other forms of sexual abuse, in addition to transfer of schools and vital facilities such as hospitals to military headquarters and religious education centers to suitable for armed factions elements and to work on denial of humanitarian access for children, while these children are in dire need of means of support and address psychological and social.
Legally side in area of children’s rights for education, it should be noted that all children have right to education without distinction under international treaties, including CRC, International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR), International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) International Convention on elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW).
Most of cases in which children were directly targeted were documented in documentation Center archive of violations in northern Syria.
