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.

Children without parental care in conflict areas are highly vulnerable to abduction or other forms of recruitment by armed forces and groups. Such children may be used to fight, provide labour or be sexually exploited. Involvement in conflict may result in malnutrition, abuse, addiction to drugs, injury, psychosocial distress or death. While children associated with armed forces and groups make up a small minority of the total number of children affected by war, they are extremely vulnerable and in need of particular protection and care.

Opportunities to help children who have been associated with fighting forces may begin with their escape, capture or formal demobilization. Some may be able immediately to reunite with family members, but others may need interim care during tracing. While children may be readily accepted by their family and community, others risk rejection. Family mediation and community sensitization is needed to support family reunification and community integration. Ongoing monitoring, family support services, and placement planning is necessary where children are not reunited with one or both parents or where family and community acceptance is uncertain.

Community action to protect and support war affected children should be inclusive and not limited to children formally associated with armed forces or any one group of children. National efforts should focus on the reestablishment of essential services, particularly in the areas of security, health and education.

While this section contains resources relevant for all children in conflict affected areas, it focuses on children without parental care, including refugees and displaced children, and children associated with armed forces and groups. It includes information on demobilisation, family reunification and community reintegration.

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Assisting the least among us: Social work's historical response to unaccompanied immigrant and refugee youth

Jayshree S. Jani & Michael Reisch - Children and Youth Services Review, 14 Feb 2018

Based on primary and secondary source materials, this article traces the evolution of the US social work field's response to the needs of unaccompanied immigrant and refugee youth during the past two centuries.

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Whole of Syria Child Protection: 2018 Operational Strategy

Child Protection Area of Responsibility (CP AoR), 08 Feb 2018

This report from the Child Protection Area of Responsibility (CP AoR) highlights the child protection needs and responses in Syria and includes objectives and targets for continued child protection interventions and strategies.

Mutual benefits: The lessons learned from a community based participatory research project with unaccompanied asylum-seeking children and foster carers

Justin Rogers, Sam Carr, Caroline Hickman - Children and Youth Services Review, 02 Feb 2018

This paper presents a community based participatory research project, which adopted a photovoice approach with seven unaccompanied asylum-seeking children (UASC) living in foster care in the United Kingdom.

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A call to action: Protecting children on the move starts with better data

UNICEF, UNHCR, IOM, Eurostat and OECD, 01 Feb 2018

In this call to action, UNICEF, UNHCR, IOM, Eurostat and OECD show how crucial data are to understanding the patterns of global migration and developing policies to support vulnerable groups like children.

Circulation of care among unaccompanied migrant youth from Guatemala

Lauren Heidbrink - Children and Youth Services Review, 31 Jan 2018

From ethnographic research with unaccompanied children in the United States and Guatemala, this paper explores emergent and, at times, conflicting narratives of care that young migrants encounter while in U.S. federal custody.

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Education & Child Protection in Emergencies: Joint Rapid Needs Assessment, Rohingya Refugee Response 2017

UNICEF, UN High Commissioner for Refugees, 25 Jan 2018

The main objective of this Joint Rapid Education and Child Protection Need Assessment (JRNA) was to identify education and child protection needs, priorities and capacities of Rohingya boys and girls in the camps, settlements and host community in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh to inform and provide the evidence-base for the 2018 Joint Response Plan (JRP).

Children Come First, Intervento in Frontiera: Dossier V

Alessio Fasulo - Save the Children Italy, 02 Jan 2018

As part of the "Children Come First: Intervention at the border" project, Save the Children Italy elaborates and disseminates, on a quarterly basis, a dossier containing quantitative and qualitative information (profiles) relating to migrant minors entering Italy. This dossier contains information relating to the last quarter of 2017.

Setting the Global Research Agenda for Child Protection in Humanitarian Contexts

Alliance for Child Protection in Humanitarian Action, 2018

This Briefing Note outlines the priority areas for the Global Research Agenda, laid out by the Assessment, Measurement and Evidence (AME) Working Group of the Alliance for Child Protection in Humanitarian Action.

Child Poverty and Deprivation in Refugee-Hosting Areas: Evidence from Uganda

Cardiff University and UNICEF, 2018

This study assessed child poverty, deprivation and social service delivery in refugee and host communities in selected districts in the country’s three major refugee-hosting areas: West Nile, a sub-region of Northern region that borders South Sudan; the country’s South West, which borders the DRC and Rwanda; and the capital, Kampala.

Care for Unaccompanied Children in Croatia: The Roles and Experiences of Special Guardians

Drago Župarić-Iljić & Dubravka Mlinarić - Revija Za Sociologiju, 2018

Special guardians have been tasked with safeguarding the rights of unaccompanied minors in Croatia and providing general assistance within the system of care during their stay and/or during the status recognition procedure. The authors of this study discussed the experiences of practitioners in the field and some of the most important challenges they are facing within the special guardianship system.