UN DPI Photo # 203225 C

-- Dareen, Nahr el Bared refugee camp, Lebanon

War threatens all of the rights of children, including: the right to life; the right to a family environment; the right to essential care and assistance; and the rights to food, health and education.

The Convention on the Rights of the Child is an agreement between all countries in the world (except the United States and Somalia). By signing the Convention, countries have agreed to safeguard children as a 'zone of peace' and to ensure children's right to protection during conflicts. For individual countries, the standards in the Convention should be used to guide laws, policies and practices to protect children.

Many things are being done around the world to help ensure the rights of children. The International Criminal Tribunals have made great strides towards ending impunity for violations of children's and women's rights. However, international standards will only really be effective when they are widely known, understood and in use by everyone. It is especially important for private international groups to abide by these standards, because many of the most serious violations of children's rights take place in countries where there is no working national government, or where the government isn't able to ensure the protection of children.

• In 1998, the United Nations released a set of Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement. The principles provide a framework for the protection of internally displaced children.
• In 1999, the Ottawa Convention on landmines became international law. The same year, the International Labour Organization adopted Convention No. 182, which defines the use of children in armed conflict as one of the worst forms of child labour.
• In 2000, the General Assembly of the United Nations ratified an optional protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child, which set 18 years as the minimum age for participation in armed conflict.

1. Groups that work to promote human rights treaties should focus more on the child rights in conflict situations.
2. The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights should be strengthened so that it can respond more effectively to violations of child rights.
3. Countries should sign and ratify agreements that ensure the rights of children. They should also pass national laws and other measures to ensure children's rights.
4. The international community should examine the responsibility and guilt of countries that support groups who violate children's rights. Supporting these groups should be considered a serious criminal offence.

• Refugee = a person who is forced to flee to another country.
• Internally Displaced Person (IDP) = a person who is forced to flee within their own country.
• Ratify = to give formal approval to something, such as a law, agreement or convention.