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It is urgent to stop the violations of children's rights in the Gaza Strip
Alarmed by the serious violations of children's rights in Gaza, the Catalan Ombudsman office (Síndic de Greuges), endorses the institutional statement by the European Network of Ombudspersons for Children (ENOC) and calls for the protection of these children's rights.
As a member of the ENOC board, the Catalan Ombudsman office shares the points set out in the statement and urges national governments, the European Union, the United Nations and the relevant international bodies to take immediate, coordinated and decisive action to promote a ceasefire in the region and enforce international law. This is necessary to protect the lives, integrity and rights of children and adolescents in Gaza. ENOC recalls that the protection of children is an inescapable legal and moral obligation, not a subject for political debate.
The dramatic and ongoing situation in Gaza constitutes an unprecedented humanitarian crisis, the international community's insufficient response and the lack of protection for the most vulnerable call the validity of human rights as a fundamental universal value into serious question.
Children in the Gaza region are victims of violations of the fundamental rights guaranteed by the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, including rights to life, survival and development, access to healthcare, protection from violence, freedom from inhuman treatment, and the rights to education and play.
For these reasons, the ombudswoman, as defender of the rights of children and adolescents, supports this statement and calls for an urgent and forceful international response to put an end to this serious humanitarian catastrophe.
