War-Affected Children

”The best way to protect children from wars is to prevent them from happening in the first place” -- Free The Children In as many as 50 countries across the globe, children are caught up in armed conflicts –not only as bystanders, but as deliberate targets. In times of war children are subjected to barbaric acts of physical, psychological and sexual cruelty. War-affected children are forced to kill or witness the killings of their own brothers, sisters, mothers, fathers, friends and neighbours. Their families, schools, neighbourhoods and communities are subjugated and destroyed. Child soldiers serve as porters, spies, cooks, and messengers.

One of the most alarming trends is the recruitment or abduction of children to serve as soldiers. Drugged, raped and forced to participate in combat, children are forced to fight in a life and death struggle to survive.

• Overview and quick facts
• What you need to know
• How can you help?
• Great Resources

Overview and quick facts

Children and war ”The best way to protect children from wars is to prevent them from happening in the first place” -- Free The Children In as many as 50 countries across the globe, children are caught up in armed conflicts –not only as bystanders, but as deliberate targets. In times of war children are subjected to barbaric acts of physical, psychological and sexual cruelty.

War-affected children are forced to kill or witness the killings of their own brothers, sisters, mothers, fathers, friends and neighbours. Their families, schools, neighbourhoods and communities are subjugated and destroyed. Child soldiers serve as porters, spies, cooks, and messengers. One of the most alarming trends is the recruitment or abduction of children to serve as soldiers. Drugged, raped and forced to participate in combat, children are forced to fight in a life and death struggle to survive.

• Why should we care?
• Definitions: War-affected children
• Quick facts

Why should we care? “We will not learn how to live together in peace by killing each other’s children” –Jimmy Carter • The involvement of children in armed conflict is a violation of the most basic ethical foundations of society. • War violates every right a child should have –the right to life, the right to be with family and community, the right to health, the right to education, the right to the development of the personality, and the right to be protected.

• Children and young people who are surrounded by violence are more likely to use violence to resolve issues.
• The violence, grief and anxiety suffered by children during armed conflict have negative effects on their mental health, quality of life and subsequent behaviour as adults.
• Children make up the majority of civilian victims of armed conflict, and the absolute numbers of children affected continue to grow.
[top]

Definitions While there is no precise definition, the Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers considers a child soldier: “any person under the age of 18 who is a member of or attached to government armed forces or any other regular or irregular armed force or armed political group, whether or not an armed conflict exists.

Child soldiers perform a range of tasks including participation in combat, laying mines and explosives; scouting, spying, acting as decoys, couriers or guards; training, drill or other preparations; logistics and support functions, portering, cooking and domestic labour; and sexual slavery or other recruitment for sexual purposes.”
[top]

Quick facts Each year: • War kills, injures or permanently disables many thousands of children • War sees countless children, mostly girls, raped or subjected to other forms of sexual violence • War traumatizes and displaces millions from their homes • War orphans countless young people • War exploits about 300,000 children as child soldiers • Close to 10,000 youth are killed or maimed by landmines [top]

What you need to know!

“One is left with the horrible feeling now that war settles nothing; that to win a war is as disastrous as to lose one” – Agatha Christie
Find out more about war-affected children. Here is some useful background information to get you up to speed on the issue.

• Why are children targets?
• War: Effects on children
• Globalization, war, and children

Why are children targets of war? • Many believe that children are easier to control, more obedient, easier to manipulate and less likely to question orders than adults • Because of today’s technology there is a higher proportion of civilian deaths resulting from conflict

• Children are smaller than adults, and are less likely to be detected by the enemy
• Increasingly, conflicts are occurring within states as opposed to between states, and are often based on ethnicity. In ethnic conflicts, the distinction between combatant and non-combatant becomes blurred, and children and their families are likely to become deliberate targets
[top]

War: Effects on children The ways in which children may be affected by war include: • Physical disability – due to mutilation or from landmines • Psychological trauma – war-affected children suffer from a wide range of symptoms such as developmental delays, nightmares, lack of appetite and learning difficulties • Sexual abuse – girls and women are particularly vulnerable to sexual violence, including rape, sexual mutilation, forced prostitution and forced pregnancy. As a result, there is increased risk of exposure to sexually transmitted diseases, such as HIV/AIDS

• Increased workloads – especially if a child has lost parents and other family members. In some cases, war-affected children may be heading households and taking care of their siblings. Child-headed households are particularly vulnerable to exploitative labour and prostitution
• Increased threats to their survival – from exposure to disease, malnutrition, and reduced access to basic health services
• Loss of their homes – forcing them to flee, becoming either refugees or internally displaced persons. At least half of all refugees and internally displaced persons are children.
[top]

Globalization, war, and children There are at least three ways in which globalization drives armed conflicts: • The “new economy of war” –Recent growth in the world economy has led to an increase in violent conflicts over natural resources: diamonds in Sierra Leone and Angola and oil in Sudan. None of these “economies of war” would flourish without the demand or markets in more developed countries. Global businesses in their quest for profit have helped to facilitate these wars

• International weapons sales – the sale of weapons, especially small arms (revolvers, rifles, grenades) has made it easier to wage wars. There are an estimated one half billion small arms and light weapons that fuel armed conflicts around the world – 1 for every 12 people. Small arms are so accessible that even the poorest communities can acquire them. Weapons like the AK-47, for example, are so light and simple to operate that they make it very easy to turn children into soldiers.
• Debt and structural adjustment policies – the debt crisis in many developing countries and the package of policies to deal with this debt crisis (structural adjustment policies) have left many countries poorer and their citizens more discontented. This has helped to fuel military coups, unrest and sometimes armed conflict, which have increasingly involved children.
[top]

How you can help Speak out! Here are some ideas of how you can help meet the challenge and tackle this issue. What can you do to help your war-affected peers?

Things you can do:

• Educate yourself – learn more about the issue of children and armed conflict. Conduct research, visit websites and gain a better understanding of the issue so that you can become an advocate for your war-affected peers.
• Create greater awareness – with your newly acquired knowledge, become a spokesperson and advocate for war-affected children. Be the voice of the countless numbers of children who have been victimized by war. Let them know that they are not alone in their struggle.
• Participate in Free The Children’s “War is Not a Game” campaign.
• Set up seminars and displays on child soldiers and related issues.
• Give speeches to school groups and community organizations. You don’s have to be an expert-let your passion guide you.
• Organize a march in your community- invite everyone! Rite a song or poem to mark the event
• Write a newspaper article- get the word out!
• Organize petitions…
…urging governments to support the International Code of Conduct on Arms Transfers, which aims to control the production and flow of small arms and light weapons to conflict zones, particularly where children are at high-risk.
…urging governments to place greater emphasis on promoting a culture of peace, through peace education programs and by challenging the popular entertainment culture that glorifies violence and gun use
…urging governments to sign on to and ratify the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the Involvement of Children in Armed Conflict This protocol raises the minimum age from 15 to 18 for direct participation in hostilities.
• Fundraising: Help to raise funds to build schools in post-conflict zones
• Help to raise funds to buy fitted limbs (prosthesis) or wheel chairs for children who have been disabled by armed conflict.
• Work to collect school and health kits for war-affected children.
[top]

Great resources

Useful resources

The following organizations are active in helping to promote peace and have many important documents and helpful research materials.

Websites:

Amnesty International
Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers
Human Rights Watch – Stop the Use of Child Soldiers!
United Nations Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict
United Nations Special Session on Children
Youth Ambassadors for Peace

Reports:

Impact of Armed Conflict on Children, Report of the Expert of the Secretary-General, Ms. Graca Mahel. This report can be obtained from the following website
[top]