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    • 'Gross abandonment of a sense of humanity': Romeo Dallaire reflects on Israel-Hamas war, Remembrance Day

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    Humanitarian and former senator, retired lieutenant-general Roméo Dallaire says the Israel-Hamas war has led to a “gross abandonment of a sense of humanity,” adding that “all sides have been negligent” in their responsibilities to protect children in the region.

    Dallaire told CTV’s Question Period host Vassy Kapelos in an interview airing Sunday that the war in the Middle East has led to “nearly every one” of the United Nations’ listed violations against children in conflict being committed.

    In 2005, the UN Security Council unanimously adopted resolution 1612, which establishes a monitoring and reporting system for “grave violations committed against children in times of armed conflict.”

    They include: killing and maiming of children; recruitment and use of children by armed forces and armed groups; sexual violence against children; attacks against schools or hospitals; abduction of children; and denial of humanitarian access for children.

    Dallaire served as force-commander for UN peace operations leading up to and during the 1994 Rwandan genocide, and he is the founder of the Dallaire Institute, which works to protect children in conflict zones and prevent their recruitment for armed violence.

    He told Kapelos that “all sides have been negligent” in the Israel-Hamas war by avoiding taking accountability for the “atrocities” and the “abuses” of the conventions for the protection of children.

    “I mean, going after schools was also a declaration that people said that we would not do, and certainly not hospitals,” he said. “But children being destroyed and killed on a scale that we're seeing now is unheard of.

    “And so that situation, to me, is a gross violation of human rights, and a massive abuse of those rights, that is going on in that conflict,” he added.

    Dallaire said those violations of UN conventions will lead to “generational wars.”

    “There's not going to be peace,” he said. “What do you think those kids are going to remember about what's going on? The ones who survived, the ones who have been injured, both physically and psychologically?”

    “You are creating generations with this conflict, the way they're going at it, of guaranteeing that there's going to continue to be conflict in that region, and that there's going to continue to be aggressiveness and hatred,” he also said.

    He added that when the children who survive the war grow up and become adults, they will “carry that experience profoundly inside them.”

    But, he said, while there is sometimes, to “our greatest horror,” no limit to the atrocities human beings can exact on each other, there is also “no limit to what human beings can do positively,” so he says he will never rule out peace or a two-state solution.

    In the interview, Dallaire also reflected on Remembrance Day, an occasion the former force-commander has said he used to avoid at all costs.

    He also discusses the mental health struggles many veterans face, and the stigma around sharing their experiences.

    Dallaire’s full interview is in the video player at the top of this article.

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