29 April 2025
Excellencies,
Mr. Bilal Ahmad, Permanent Representative of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan,
Mr. Xu Chen, Permanent Representative of the People’s Republic of China,
Esteemed representatives of the Permanent Missions to the UN,
Colleagues from UN agencies and civil society organizations,
This has been a fascinating discussion―and one that is long overdue.
Allow me to introduce Mahmoud Ajjour―aged nine―who was injured during an attack on Gaza City in March 2024. An explosion severed one of his arms and mutilated the other.
After being evacuated to Qatar for medical treatment and rehabilitation, Mahmoud is learning to use his feet to play games on his phone, write, and open doors.
He needs support for most daily activities, such as eating and dressing.
We were never meant to know Mahmoud.
He should be spending his days at school, playing ball with his friends, negotiating with his parents over bedtime―anonymously living that ordinary, joyful life that every child deserves.
But now the world knows Mahmoud’s name―not for anything he has done, but for what has been done to him.
There are too many children like Mahmoud in our Region.
Indeed, the number of children needing assistive technology and rehabilitation as part of emergency responses is dramatically rising due to increasing conflicts, natural hazards, and disease outbreaks.
Children under the age of 15 account for 40 per cent of civilian trauma victims, and often die prematurely or acquire a long-term disability. Many of these cases are linked to war-related injuries: amputations, spinal cord injuries, brain injuries, and vision or hearing loss from blasts.
And this burden is not limited