Children are the most innocent victims of any war. While witnessing death and devastation of war at any age is likely to take its toll, the effect on young people, by all indicators, is especially harrowing.
In an annual UN report released earlier this month, 41,370 grave violations against children were documented and verified by the UN last year – a 25 per cent increase since 2023.
While in much of the world where peace reigns, schools are now either out or about to close for the summer, there are hundreds of thousands of children in Palestine, particularly in Gaza, and millions collectively in conflict zones around the world, who are excluded from the privilege of even going a day without the terror of violence, hearing the sounds of explosions and encountering bloodshed. Summer holidays then are a far cry for these children, whose regular developmental milestones have been cut and swapped with desperation, tragedy and chronic hunger.
“Unimaginable horrors” is the phrase Edouard Beigbeder, Unicef’s regional director for the Middle East and North Africa, used in May to describe the situation where more than 50,000 children have reportedly been killed or injured in the Gaza Strip since October 2023.
Given the human cost of war and the resultant extensive suffering that children are left to deal with for the rest of their lives, the notion that modern warfare is focused is utterly misleading, as has been evident in several parts of the world.
An unfortunate truth is also that prolonged conflict often brings about a fatigue and desensitisation to such bleak realities to the wider world. But such images must not be allowed to lose their power to compel international stakeholders, including world leaders, to push for ceasefires and long-term peace, implying then also a better future for children deprived of normality.
Already the stunted progress in the five areas of children’s rights spelt out in the UN Sustainable Development Goals – to survive and thrive; to receive quality education; to be protected from violence; to live in a safe and clean environment; and to have equal opportunities – should be a wake-up call for how adults all over the world are failing children caught in conflict zones, losing their homes and all too frequently their limbs, parents, and their right to normal childhoods.
The other grave crime is the recruitment of children in armed conflict. To prevent this heinous offshoot of war, child protection units must be strengthened so that their remit to protect children from being exploited and given arms can be more effective. To this end, the UN does have an action plan, which includes implementing national campaigns and getting access to military camps and bases to ensure no children are in the ranks.
Each day of continued war, with efforts to secure ceasefires being stalled or scuttled, is another strike in the tally of a collective moral failure to protect children from an increased risk of aggression and or extremism. The plain fact that bears repeating, after too many months of “unimaginable horrors”, is that the air strikes and attacks on aid distribution need to stop. Killings need to stop. Children need to be able to live a normal life, not be casualties of war.
Leaders everywhere must realise this and keep working towards diplomatic solutions to end all conflicts. As Mr Beigbeder said of this unconscionable reality that has continued for far too long: “How many more dead girls and boys will it take?”
