A/HRC/18/21 staff being harassed and threatened. In Aden, schools have become temporary shelters for displaced persons from Abyan, thus making it difficult to conduct classes. J. Other issues of particular concern Women 61. Women have actively participated in pro- as well as anti-government demonstrations, including as leaders. According to information received, women activists and journalists were harassed, threatened, and arrested. Reportedly, some women were subjected to verbal harassment and beatings in public places and sit-ins for their participation in either pro- or anti-government protests. Male relatives of women activists have received phone calls asking them to “control” their daughters or sisters. 62. The Mission noted that in his statement of 14 April 2011, President Saleh spoke out against the mixing of unrelated men and women in the protests. His statement was followed by large demonstrations by women in Sana’a and elsewhere, protesting against what they perceived as the President’s intention to curtail their rights to peaceful assembly and to participate in public affairs. 63. The Mission visited the site of one such demonstration, and observed that most of the women present preferred to stay in an area reserved for women and children. Refugee women have also faced an increased risk of gender-based violence due to the lack of public order. Children 64. The Mission received multiple reports of violations of child rights. Children have reportedly been subjected to the same extreme violence as many adults, including killings,15 injury, suffocation from gas, torture, arbitrary detention, and/or recruitment by security forces. Furthermore, children have been forced out of schools, used in demonstrations, killed, wounded and displaced by the fighting. 65. At least 63 children were reported killed at the time of the Mission’s visit, and many more wounded. Children have been killed by bullets, but also by mortar and artillery attacks on their homes or vehicles in which they were travelling. The most commonly reported violations involving children were incidents of suffocation due to exposure to gases used by security forces. The Mission received video material documenting such incidents. In addition, the Mission repeatedly heard allegations of torture of children. The Mission was given photographs of a 15-year-old boy bearing traces of torture. Another boy was reportedly raped by Government security forces in Aden in April 2011, after his mother accused security forces of killing a civilian. 66. Many interlocutors stated that children have been directly involved in the violence, having been seen in uniform patrolling the streets, serving at Government checkpoints or involved in searching protesters. The Mission met a teenager who was in hospital receiving treatment for wounds received while serving with Government forces. 67. The Mission also met orphaned children of whom one or both parents had died as a result of violence. Some of them had often witnessed scenes of extreme violence first-hand. 68. More generally, children have suffered the consequences of the water, fuel and cooking gas shortages and lack of waste collection. 15 14 The Mission was informed that some 26 children had lost their lives following their alleged participation in anti-government protests.