Considering that in situations of war and armed conflict it is unquestionable that the most important and necessary thing is to preserve and guarantee the protection of individuals against actions that interfere with fundamental freedoms and human dignity, the second day of the XIV International Congress on Human Rights, an event organized by the Master in Judicial Provision and Human Rights UFT/Esmat, opened with the panel on Human Rights Violations and Civil Liberties Restrictions in Situations of War and Conflict.
Dr. Katalin Hole (Hungary), Dr. Emine Eylem Akoy Retornaz (Turkey), and Dr. Alexandre Sérgio da Rocha (USA) made the explanations in the panel mediated by Dr. Tarsis Barreto Oliveira (Brazil), which discussed themes about the consequences of war, war crimes trials, and children who are placed as soldiers in armed conflicts.
Civilians are the most affected
Alexandre Sérgio Rocha, PhD in Philosophy from the Federal University of the State of Rio de Janeiro and visiting professor at the Inter-American Defense College for over 10 years in Washington DC, spoke during the panel about some of the effects on the lives of those who have lived or live in armed conflict zones, or wars, such as health damage, environmental damage, corruption, and economic sanctions.
"The violation of fundamental rights is unquestionable, but in conflict situations, civilians end up being the ones who suffer the most, with often devastating effects during and after the conflict. Economic sanctions, for example, often harm only the population, because the affected country does not tend to leave the conflict because of this," he explained.
Violations continue
Katalin Hole, who has a PhD in Law from Eötvös Loránd University (Budapest, Hungary) and a Philosophy degree from Eötvös Loránd University, spoke during the panel about the guarantee of fundamental rights for individuals in relation to war crimes, commented on the Geneva Convention, which inserted war crimes into international law after the World War II, and reported that, even with the changes in the laws, there are many reports of human rights violations that still persist in conflicts around the world.
Children, the big victims
Emine Eylem Aksoy Retornaz, a professor at the University of Galatasaray, who has a doctorate in Law from the Universities of Neuchâtel (Switzerland) and Galatasaray, spoke about children as war soldiers.
"We know that in conflicts children are great victims. Many of them are used for cooking, for looting, as control sentries, and even to train other children for the conflicts. It is a sad reality, because many enter the war because of poverty, revenge, or lack of choice," she recalled.
"Many children are born and grow up in the midst of armed conflicts. They don't know any other reality. We have children in Syria who don't know what a world without fear is. In other cases, such as in Ukraine, they are dragged into the middle of the conflict. There are countless human rights violations against children. It is necessary to think about a specific status for refugee children, for example, who are escaping from war, often without their parents. There are many factors to be analyzed," she points out.
Congress
The XIV International Congress on Human Rights is a space for scholars, researchers, and professionals from Brazil and other countries to discuss possible preventive strategies to face current and future threats to human rights, when experiencing a situation of war or pandemic, as well as to discuss the post-war and post-pandemic scenario, and how the whole world has been and will be affected.
