CHILD Protection & Rights > Child Protection Issues.

What do children in armed conflicts face?

War violates every right children 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 in armed conflict routinely experience psychically but also emotionally and psychologically painful events. Most become victims of the armed conflicts, some even participate in violent acts. Children of all ages are also strongly affected by the stress levels and situation of their adult caregivers.

They may have faced acts of abuse such as being injured, amputated or mutilated, abducted, raped, tortured, arrested, held in detention. They may submitted to the violent death of a parent or close relative; separation from family; witnessing loved ones being killed or tortured; displacement from home and community; exposure to combat, shelling and other life-threatening situations; disruption of school routines and community life.

During armed conflict, girls and women are threatened by rape, domestic violence, sexual exploitation, trafficking, sexual humiliation and mutilation. They may be forced to 'marry' adult soldiers. Use of rape and other forms of violence against women has become a strategy in wars for all sides.

Child soldiers’ living conditions are invariably very poor. They are often denied adequate food, care. Whenever child soldiers are killed in encounters, both sides disown them, blaming their deaths on crossfire accidents.

The breakdown of social protection leaves girls vulnerable to unwanted pregnancy and threatens all children with separation from their families, orphaning, increased risk of disability, sexually transmitted infections and serious long-term psychosocial consequences.

Of the 25 countries with the highest proportion of children orphaned by AIDS, about one-third have been affected during armed conflict in recent years. Of the 10 countries with the highest rates of under-five deaths, seven are affected by armed conflict.

The wide availability of light, inexpensive small arms has contributed to the use of children as soldiers, as well as to high levels of violence once conflicts have ended. But, in countless cases, the impact of armed conflict on children’s lives remains invisible. They may be removed from the public, in institutions, on the streets or surviving as victims of prostitution. Those who have lost parents often experience humiliation, rejection and discrimination, suffering in silence as their self-esteem crumbles.

A Special Representative of the Secretary General for Children and armed conflicts was appointed to assess the situation worldwide and to promote the protection, rights and welfare of children at every phase of conflict: preventively before conflict erupts, in the midst of conflict, and in post-conflict situations.