LAHORE ( Dunya News / APP) – In observance of the United Nations World Humanitarian Day (UN-WHD) on Aug 19, 2024, a powerful advocacy initiative led by two Pakistani children made a significant impact.
As part of the 16th anniversary of the day, the children presented the second phase of their unique protest notes, written with their blood, to international platforms including the UN.
According to a press release issued by UN-KAKHTAH spokesperson Dr FM Bhatti in Pakistan, this rare and profoundly emotional form of protest was intended to draw urgent attention to the dire humanitarian crisis currently unfolding in Gaza, as well as other critical situations in Congo, Haiti, Myanmar, and Sudan, where innocent children were being systematically targeted and victimised through brutal and "Neo-Hitlerian" tactics.
"The innocent children caught in the crossfires of conflict and war situations are considered the softest targets and the easiest objects of prey by the perpetrators of these nefarious and inhuman war-crime strategies," say the two minor protesters.
Titled ‘Humanitarian Eyes Needed to See the Ongoing Humanitarian Crisis in Gaza’ and ‘A Voice for the Voiceless’, the stirring and sensitising protest notes were penned in blood by 10-year-old Ubaydah al Fiddhah Hafia and his 12-year-old brother Ghulam Bishar Hafi.
The former resolution was presented on Monday and the latter was presented on the International Day of Innocent Children Victims of Aggression 2024. Through their unique protest note, the Pakistani children reinforced the UN's theme-slogan for WHD-2024, #ActForHumanity.
The protest notes aimed to serve as a stark reminder of the plight of children caught in the crossfires of conflict, war, and aggression.
The protest format adopted by the two children was conceived as an ignition for a clarion call, destined to create a chain of sequels aimed at knocking at the door of the collective conscience of the world and the global hierarchies, begging them to turn their heads and ears to the screams of the innocent children, who were becoming "the softest and easiest objects of prey" in wars or war-like situations.
Evidence-based data showed that in Gaza, nearly 700,000 children are starving to death? It’s a matter of shame that babies in cradles are being shot, infants are being traumatised during their initial moments in this world through 'Neo-Hitlerian’ tactics.
The UN Humanitarian Access SCORE [Survey on the Coverage, Operational Reach, and Effectiveness] Report of 2024 on Gaza has already pointed out the unprecedented number of civilian and humanitarian workers’ deaths in a single context in such a short period of time.
"From the Occupied Palestinian Territory to Sudan to Myanmar and beyond, the first half of 2024 was characterised by attacks against health, education, and water and sanitation facilities that left millions of people without access to the services they need to survive," said the UN's Global Humanitarian Overview report of 2024.
The UN further stated, "Beyond the cost in human lives and suffering, and the instability it brings to the wider region, the war in Gaza has had serious repercussions for international humanitarian law and norms around humanitarian access. 2023 and 2024 are the deadliest years on record for humanitarian workers."
“These facts lay bare a glaring truth: the world is failing humanitarian workers and, by extension, the people they serve. Despite universally accepted international laws to regulate the conduct of armed conflict and limit its impact, violations of these laws continue unabated, unchallenged, and unchecked. And while civilians, including aid workers, pay the ultimate price, the perpetrators continue to evade justice."
“This failure of those in power cannot be allowed to continue. Attacks on humanitarian workers and humanitarian assets must stop. Attacks on civilians and civilian infrastructure must stop. On this World Humanitarian Day, we demand an end to these violations and the impunity with which they are committed. It is time for those in power to end impunity and #ActForHumanity," says the UN.
To write something with one's own blood is the terminal symbolic expression and a confession that — "I or we have failed to do what was the imperative requisite of the innocent children's bloodbath scenario — or at least, the moral obligation in the situation that we could have considered sufficiently seriously and judiciously!”
The writing of the protest notes was initiated by Fiddhah to mark the 2024 UN 'International Day of Innocent Children Victims of Wars and Aggression' and consisted of sequels since the small children could not donate all the blood required to complete the document at once.
The protesting kids gained their motivation and inspiration from their father, Prof Aurangzeb Hafi, who has long served as the senior Asian P.I. for postdoctoral studies. Prof. A.Z. Hafi was declared the third son by the famous humanitarian Ms Bilquis Edhi and subsequently contested as her principal ally from Pakistan in the 'Top of the Top-10 Bidecadal Impact Gazette' contest of 195 countries in 2020.
Both the blood-written plea-protests are aimed to serve as an open letter to the international authorities and, at the same time, a wake-up call to the collective conscience of the world to come up with a resolute and unwavering commitment to save the children from 'Neo-Hitlerian' tactics that are continuously being employed in war in the occupied Palestinian Territory.