UNITED NATIONS, Nov 20: Millions of children across the world are denied the right to enjoy their childhood as a result of conflicts that expose them to violence and rob them of their innocence, two senior UN officials said on Saturday.

They said that children should be allowed to grow up in safety.

“Growing up in conflict, their innocence is stolen when they are abducted from schools, recruited to fight, wounded or killed, separated from their families and emotionally as well as physically scarred for life,” Radhika Coomaraswamy, the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict, and UN peacekeeping chief Alain Le Roy said in a joint statement to mark the Universal Children's Day.

They drew attention to the needs of children in Afghanistan, Burundi, Central African Republic, Chad, Ivoire, Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Haiti, Iraq, Lebanon, Myanmar, Nepal, the occupied Palestinian territory and Israel, Somalia, Sudan, and all other countries in conflict, and reaffirmed their commitment to be their voices and protectors.

“Through a systematic monitoring and naming of child rights violators by the secretary-general, the UN is acting as one and has secured the demobilisation of thousands of children associated with armed forces and groups over the past 10 years,” they said.—APP