CHILD Protection & Rights > Child Protection Issues.

I – Protecting Children in Armed Conflicts

Defining children in armed conflicts

Children are the primary victims of armed conflict. They are both its targets and increasingly its instruments.

A ‘child soldier’ is any person under 18 years who is part of any kind of regular or irregular armed force - including, but not limited to, combatants, cooks, porters, messengers and anyone accompanying such groups, other than family members. The definition includes girls recruited for sexual purposes and for forced marriage. It does not, therefore, only refer to a child who is carrying or has carried arms.

In recent decades, the proportion of civilian casualties in armed conflicts has increased dramatically and is now estimated at more than 90 per cent. About half of the victims are children.

An estimated 20 million children have been forced to flee their homes because of conflict and human rights violations. They are internally displaced within their own national borders or they are living as refugees in neighbouring countries.

- Two million children have been killed in armed conflict in the last decade.
- At least 6 million children, have been seriously injured or permanently disabled.
- Between 8,000 and 10,000 children are killed or maimed by landmines every year.
- More than 1 million have been orphaned or separated from their families.
- Around 300,000 children are involved in more than 30 conflicts worldwide in Government forces, as well as rebel armies.
- Millions of others have been forced to take part in or witness horrifying acts of violence.

Some boys and girls might have been abducted or forcibly recruited; others have been driven to join by poverty, abuse and discrimination, societal or peer pressure, or to seek revenge for violence against them or their families.

Why are children particularly vulnerable in armed conflicts?

• Because of today’s technology there is a higher proportion of civilian deaths resulting from conflict and among them a high proportion of children.
• 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.
• Many believe that children are easier to control, more obedient, easier to manipulate and less likely to question orders than adults.
• Children are smaller than adults, and are less likely to be detected by the enemy.