Three times as many children and twice as many women were killed in global conflicts in 2023 than in 2022, while total civilian casualties increased by 72 percent, the United Nations warned.
The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Turk, addressing the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, said that warring parties are increasingly "pushing the boundaries of what is acceptable and legal".
"They show complete contempt for others, trampling on human rights at their core," he said.
Turk added that the killing and injury of civilians, as well as the destruction of vital infrastructure, is a daily occurrence.
"Children are being targeted. Hospitals are being bombed. Entire communities are being attacked with heavy artillery. All this is accompanied by hateful and dehumanizing rhetoric," said the UN High Commissioner.
He said his office had collected data showing that in 2023, "the number of civilian deaths in armed conflicts increased by 72 percent."
"Frighteningly, the data shows that the proportion of women killed in 2023 has doubled and the proportion of children has tripled compared to the previous year," he said.
Speaking about the conflict in the Gaza Strip, Turk said he was "appalled by the lack of respect for international human rights and humanitarian law" and the "outrageous death and suffering".
He said that since the outbreak of war between Hamas, which is designated a terrorist organization in the US and the EU, and Israel, more than 120.000 people in Gaza, mostly women and children, have been killed or injured as a result of intense Israeli offensives.
"Since Israel escalated its operations in Rafah in early May, nearly one million Palestinians have been forcibly displaced again, while aid delivery and humanitarian access have further deteriorated," he added.
Funds reduction
Turk also pointed to a number of other conflicts, including those in Ukraine, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Syria.
He warned that in Sudan, which has been engulfed in civil war for more than a year, the country "is being destroyed before our eyes by the two warring parties and associated groups who have flagrantly rejected the rights of their own people."
According to him, along with such destruction, funds to help the growing number of people in need are decreasing.
"At the end of May 2024, the gap between humanitarian funding needs and available resources is $40,8 billion," Turk said.
He also pointed out that appeals were financed with an average of only 16,1 percent.
"Compare that to nearly $2,5 trillion in global military spending in 2023, a 6,8 percent increase over 2022," Turk said, noting that was the largest annual increase since 2009.
As he concluded, in addition to causing unbearable human suffering, war has a huge cost.
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