Children's rights at the UN...

I've mentioned this many times - why doesn't the world notice the continuing abuse of children in the Palestinian Territories by terrorists?

For the past week, children's rights have been on the agenda of the UN General Assembly's Third Committee. Composed of all 191 UN members, it has been a forum for taking the focus off the victims of terrorism and giving the agents of terrorism center stage.

In a stark example of the hijacking of the UN General Assembly, there are three annual UN resolutions on the rights of children: the rights of all children, the rights of the girl-child, and the rights of Palestinian children. Despite the many claims of "UN reform," the reality at UN Headquarters is business as usual.

At the 2003 General Assembly Israel put forward a resolution on Israeli children, given the resolution on Palestinian children, but was forced to withdraw it after Egypt tabled amendments deleting every reference to the word "Israeli" before the word children. The amendments were guaranteed a UN majority.

In the past two weeks two stories of Palestinian child victims of terrorism have come to light. On October 12, 2005 a 14-year old Palestinian was approached by members of the Fatah Tanzim terrorist group and threatened with death if he did not agree to carry out a suicide attack. On October 20, 2005 a 15-year old Palestinian boy was arrested by Israeli Defence Forces while attempting to smuggle a 52-millimeter mortar shell and two knives across a checkpoint. Israeli forces suspect that the boy was used by terrorists attempting to take advantage of the teen's mental disability.

The rights of Palestinian children have also been grievously violated by the Palestinian terrorists who use them as human shields, schools that encourage racial hatred, and government-controlled media that promotes their participation in armed conflict.