UN rights chief says Syria kids 'scarred for life'

The Associated Press, Geneva | World | Thu, October 18 2012, 8:55 PM

The UN's top human rights official is urging nations to save Syria's embattled and dying children and to rally behind a 14-year-old girl shot in the head by the Taliban for promoting female education.

High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay says many Syrian children "will be scarred for life" at the hands of their government, army, or neighbors in a conflict activists say has killed more than 33,000 people since March 2011.

At a news conference Thursday in Geneva, Pillay condemned the Taliban's shooting of Malala Yousufzai in Pakistan last week because her voice was too powerful and singled out Libya as "extremely fragile" from decades of misrule.

She said North Korea remains a top concern because of its "political prison camps, frequent public executions and severe food shortages."