Children are amongst the most defenceless members of society, and this vulnerability is compounded by the violence that accompanies armed conflict. In particular, children in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Gaza, Sudan and Ukraine are being subjected to horrific atrocities that amount to international crimes. During those conflicts, children are killed, raped, maimed, starved and subjected to extreme cruelty.
IBAHRI Co-Chair and former President of the Commonwealth Lawyers Association, Mark Stephens CBE, commented: ‘The IBAHRI urges the international community to respect their obligations under international law. Children should be playing with toys, not shrapnel. Across all continents children are victims of aggression, and this cannot be allowed to continue.’
Hina Jilani, Co-Chair of the IBAHRI, remarked: ‘The humanitarian situations in Gaza, Sudan and Ukraine are but a few examples of situations where children’s rights are not realised. There is a pandemic of attacks against children, and we must ensure their protection.’
IBAHRI Director Baroness Helena Kennedy LT KC serves as Co-Chair of Bring Kids Back UA, a taskforce charged with developing recommendations for an effective mechanism to return children abducted from Ukraine amid the ongoing war with Russia. In the taskforce’s white paper, Reintegration of Children Affected by Deportation and Forcible Transfers: International Standards and Best Practices for Ukraine, it highlights thousands of children have been torn from their families and subjected to a deliberate campaign of cultural erasure designed to strip them of their Ukrainian identity.
The international community has a responsibility to protect children under numerous conventions. Specifically, the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC), which affirms:
a child’s right to be alive (Article 6);
a child’s right to food, clothing and a safe place to live (Article 27);
a child’s right to the best healthcare possible with clean water and healthy food (Article 24); and
a child’s right to their own identity (Article 8).
These articles are fortified by the obligation on State Parties to take all appropriate measures to protect children from all forms of mistreatment, physical or mental violence, injury and abuse (Article 19). The UNCRC also explicitly calls on State Parties to respect international humanitarian law rules applicable to them in armed conflicts relevant to the child (Article 38).
Additionally, the Optional Protocol to the UNCRC on the involvement of children in armed conflict requires governments to increase the minimum age that children can join the armed forces and ensure that children younger than 18 do not take direct part in armed conflict. The African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child (Article 22) contains a similar provision, specifying that states should take all necessary measures to ensure that no child directly participates in hostilities.
Children’s rights in times of conflict are also protected under the following international provisions:
Geneva Convention IV, which guarantees special care for children during armed conflict and its Additional Protocol 1 (Article 77), which states that children shall be afforded special respect and protection against any form of indecent assault; and
Baroness Kennedy LT KC commented: ‘Children are living in deplorable conditions across the world, and are severely affected by conflict, instability and atrocity crimes globally. The trauma endured by these children is profound, and they will live with the consequences for the rest of their lives. Drawing on the words of the Geneva Declaration of the Rights of the Child, “mankind owes to the Child the best that it has to give”, and mankind is failing in this endeavour.’
