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To survive as a human being is possible only through love.

(Hedges, War Is a Force p.184)

Children and War

Books

  • Singer, Peter W. Children at War. (Pantheon Books) 2004. Human Rights, Defense, Force and Legitimacy, Sudan. Children at War is the first comprehensive book to examine the growing and global use of children as soldiers. P. W. Singer, an internationally recognized expert on twenty-first-century warfare, explores how a new strategy of war, utilized by armies and warlords alike, has targeted children, seeking to turn them into soldiers and terrorists.

Lessons

  • Children of War - Kennedy Center
    This lesson explores the realities and effects of war on children by examining diaries, journals, and letters written by children during times of war. Through class discussion and studying various texts of actual events, students will examine the similarities and differences of children's experiences during wartime in different parts of the world, as well as the power of documenting these experiences in writing. The lesson culminates with a variety of creative and interactive theater exercises that broaden students' understandings of children during times of war.
  • Children of War - Discovery Channel
    Students will read, analyze, and discuss excerpts from children's war diaries; and create a storyboard for a public service announcement on children's rights in wartime.

Articles

Links

  • Children and War Foundation
    The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (Article 39) promises that we "shall take all appropriate measures to promote physical and psychological recovery and social reintegration of a child victim of any form of ...armed conflict. Such recovery and reintegration shall take place in an environment which fosters the health, self-respect and dignity of the child". Until now, that is a promise that has rarely been kept.

  • Children of War: fighting, dying, surviving
    A one-hour radio documentary focusing on current events and issues involving children and military conflict.

  • Children in War - 1996
    Children have, of course, always been caught up in warfare. They usually have little choice but to experience, at minimum, the same horrors as their parents—as casualties or even combatants. And children have always been particularly exposed. When food supplies have run short, it is children who have been hardest hit, since their growing bodies need steady supplies of essential nutrients. When water supplies have been contaminated, it is children who have had the least resistance to the dangers of disease. And the trauma of exposure to violence and brutal death has emotionally affected generations of young people for the rest of their lives. Recent developments in warfare have significantly heightened the dangers for children. During the last decade, it is estimated (and these figures, while specific, are necessarily orders of magnitude) that child victims have included: 2 million killed; 4-5 million disabled; 12 million left homeless; more than 1 million orphaned or separated from their parents; some 10 million psychologically traumatized.

  • Children in War- International Committee of the Red Cross
    Overview of the issues relating to children in war, offering useful links to other relevant content including international humanitarian law, restoring family links, mine awareness and communication programmes for young people.

  • Children in War
    CHILDREN IN WAR is the tragic story of modern warfare and terrorism as told by the children of Bosnia, Israel, Rwanda and Northern Ireland.
  • Children of War
    We focus on providing the most needy children and disabled citizens of Afghanistan with a primary education, a nutritious diet, and valuable job skills through the schools and skills training facilities we operate within Afghanistan.

  • Terrorism and Children
    When War is in the News: Talking to Children About Terrorism and Armed Conflict

  • War Child
    War Child International is a network of independent organisations, working across the world to help children affected by war, founded upon a fundamental goal: to advance the cause of peace through investing hope in the lives of children caught up in the horrors of war. War Child works in many different conflict areas around the world, helping hundreds of thousands of children every year.

  • UNICEF
    UNICEF is the driving force that helps build a world where the rights of every child are realized. We have the global authority to influence decision-makers, and the variety of partners at grassroots level to turn the most innovative ideas into reality.  That makes us unique among world organizations, and unique among those working with the young.