Children Affected by Armed Conflict and Displacement

Children are especially vulnerable to the effects of war, and frequently represent at least half of the population in a conflict area. They suffer fear and insecurity, and disruption to every aspect of their lives. Children who have been displaced are at an increased risk of sexual and physical violence, disease and malnutrition, and separation from family members. As displaced persons or refugees they may experience severe poverty, abuse, exploitation, and psychosocial distress. 

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International Social Service,

Climate change is increasingly recognized as a child rights crisis, with children without parental care being particularly vulnerable to its impacts. This brief highlights how climate change heightens risks of losing parental care, creates unaccompanied children, and disrupts alternative care systems, and it offers recommendations for policymakers and practitioners to prevent separation and protect these children.

Timisha Dadhich & Ruchi Sinha,

This paper analyzes child rights in conflict, with a particular focus on the ongoing war in Ukraine, where children face heightened vulnerabilities to trafficking and exploitation. It identifies the key impacts of contemporary conflicts on children and the role of social workers in these contexts.

Viacheslav Blikhar and Galyna Lialiuk,

This article examines the socialization and education of orphaned children in Ukraine amid the war, highlighting the psychological trauma, deprivation, and social challenges they face. It calls for reforms in caregiver training, trauma-informed education, and the adoption of a personal paradigm approach that supports each child’s development, resilience, and self-realization.

Ben Alfasi, Anna Reznikovski-Kuras, and Tal Arazi,

This study surveyed 340 adolescents in residential care facilities across Israel to assess their emotional well-being and sense of security during the Israel–Hamas war. Findings show high levels of sadness, stress, and anger among youth, but those who felt cared for and supported by staff reported greater security, underscoring the need to strengthen staff–adolescent relationships during crises.

Child Protection AoR Ukraine,

This response report provides an overview of child protection concerns in Ukraine. The war in Ukraine has deeply fractured the primary protective environment for children—the family. Mass displacement has separated millions of children from parents, siblings, and extended relatives, while indiscriminate attacks continue to kill and injure children at alarming rates.

Hande Albayrak,

This study examines the challenges faced by child protection professionals in Turkey when addressing refugee child marriage, highlighting issues in identification, assessment, and residential care due to cultural acceptance and systemic weaknesses. The findings emphasize the need for culturally informed, system-wide interventions to better protect at-risk refugee children.

UNICEF,

This assessment examined how the child protection system supports children and families in vulnerable situations, with a particular focus on supporting the significant number of refugee children from Ukraine who have come to the Czech Republic since the start of the war in Ukraine in February 2022.

UNICEF,

Migrant and refugee children arriving in Italy often face significant trauma, having fled war, violence, and exploitation, and survived one of the world’s most dangerous migration routes across the central Mediterranean. UNICEF’s Terreferme project has shown that foster care placements cost municipalities significantly less than residential facilities, with the added benefit of strengthening the social service workforce through training and case management.

Alliance for Child Protection in Humanitarian Action,

Children affected by conflict, displacement, and disasters face heightened risks of family separation, underscoring the need to strengthen alternative care systems. To update and adapt the Alternative Care in Emergencies (ACE) Toolkit to current realities, the Alliance for Child Protection in Humanitarian Action’s Unaccompanied and Separated Children Task Force conducted a 2024 global survey—led by Save the Children and the International Rescue Committee—to inform revised, context-responsive guidance and address emerging policy and practice gaps.

Hope and Homes for Children (HHC),

The Teenage Mother project is an intervention model to support teen mothers, developed by Hope and Homes for Children (HHC) in Rwanda. The documents provides an in-depth analysis of the challenges faced by teen mothers, the prioritization of causal factors, and the implementation of the Active Family Support (AFS) model to address these challenges.