Twelve children were shot by the paramilitary between 2009 and last year in Northern Ireland and the Human Rights Commission have called on the UK Government to take immediate action to stop violent attacks on children. As well as twelve youngsters being shot, twenty seven were assaulted, the organisation said in a report to an influential UN committee investigating children’s rights. The report asked the state party to address the issue of paramilitary-style attacks on children in Northern Ireland through measures relating to both transitional justice and child protection. Figures for the number of attacks may be under-reported since fear of paramilitary violence and self-reported experiences of attacks on children are much higher, the Commission said. It has contacted the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child. Research published late last year from Queen’s University Belfast said more than 500 children were shot or beaten by loyalist and republican paramilitaries over the past two decades.