CIDA Photo: David Barbour

-Ugandan schoolgirl who escaped abduction by the Lord's Resistance Army

Children have been tragic victims of armed conflict throughout history. The abuse children suffer leaves physical and emotional scars that last a life-time, leaving young people asking the questions: who is their friend, who is their foe and who can they trust?

Today, wars take place in virtually every part of the globe, either between or, more often, within nation States - with one group fighting another in the same country. These wars or armed conflicts also involve horrific levels of violence including rape, mutilation, ethnic cleansing and outright genocide. Children are frequently the targets of this violence and exploitation. Not only are they witness to this brutality, they are often forced to participate in it. In all of these cases, the human rights of children are being violated.

All children up to the age of 18 throughout the world have the same human rights as outlined in an international human rights treaty known as the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. It recognizes the fundamental rights of children including the rights to health and survival, to develop to the fullest, to protection, and to participate fully. The Convention includes specific measures to protect war-affected children. Children under the age of 15 have the right to be excluded from any direct part in wars and armed conflicts. If they are affected by armed conflict, governments have the responsibility to provide children with special protection and care.

Many people around the world have been working to raise the minimum age of children to participate in wars from 15 to 18 years of age. These efforts resulted in the adoption of a new international instrument known as the Optional Protocol (O.P.) to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the Involvement of Children in Armed Conflict. While there has been slow progress to change international law so that it can better protect war-affected children, many governments and armed groups still ignore these laws and their responsibilities.

• More than 300,000 children around the world are being used in war as soldiers.
• During the last decade, 2 million children have been killed as deliberate targets of war or because they have been forced to fight.
• Another 6 million children have been permanently disabled or seriously injured.
• Millions of children suffer from malnutrition, disease, and sexual violence.
• Almost 20 million war-affected children have been forced from their homes, and have no schools and no communities to offer support to them and their families.
• Females of all ages are particular targets for brutality.
• Entire families and communities of one ethnic group are targeted and systematically killed - genocide.

• In Sierra Leone and Angola, the quest for diamonds finances the war; in Sudan, oil fuels their civil war; and in Afghanistan and Colombia, the drug trade finances armed conflict.

• The international community has made access to small arms very easy. Even the poorest community can buy small arms and escalate a local conflict.

• Because some poorer countries have high financial debt to others, their economy is weakened and there are very few social and business structures in place. This makes it easy for groups seeking power and profit to run the country.

1. Ending impunity for crimes against children and ending tolerance for war.
2. Ensuring children's central place on the peace and security agenda.
3. Monitoring and reporting on the violations of children's rights in conflict.
4. Responding to the different experiences of boys and girls, women and men during conflict and peace-building.
5. Engaging adolescents in peacebuilding and reconstruction of their communities.
6. Protecting children affected by HIV/AIDS.
7. Improving data collection of the situation of children in armed conflict.
8. Training and sensitization on child rights and gender.
9. Supporting civil society to protect children.
10. Mobilizing resources for war-affected children.