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	The urgent need to protect children living through conflict by Red Cross, Save the Children, agencies   Oct. 2019   In the Firing Line: The War on Africa's Children, report from African Child Policy Forum (ACPF) and Africa Wide Movement for Children (AMC)   'The war on Africa's children persists and it's getting worse', said Dr Assefa Bequele, Executive Director of ACPF. 'Africa's leaders are failing to protect their children from the horrors of war. Despite repeated UN Security Council resolutions, international conventions and regional agreements, African children continue to suffer. Progress on protection is deplorably slow, and perpetrators are rarely brought to justice for war crimes and grave violations'.   ACPF's new report, 'In the Firing Line: The War on Africa's Children' reveals that hundreds of thousands of children are dying every year as a result of conflict-induced malnutrition, disease and the breakdown of healthcare, water and sanitation.   At least one in four African children lives in a conflict zone and the numbers of 'grave violations' against children have almost tripled since 2010, according to Save the Children's Stop the War on Children report, released in February 2019.   'We urge the UN, the African Union and warring parties to end the numerous wars on the continent and step-up measures to protect children affected by conflict', said Helena Thybell, CEO of Save the Children Sweden. 'We demand that children caught up in situations of conflict are afforded safety, justice and the practical help they need to recover'.   'African governments must take all necessary measures to end the killing and maiming, abductions, sexual violence, and recruitment and use of children in armed conflict, and they must cease attacks on schools, hospitals and humanitarian operations, as well as ensure that perpetrators of violations against children are held accountable', she added.   Dr Assefa Bequele noted that; 'The war on Africa's children, often underreported, is fuelled by food insecurity, climate change, poor governance, absence of the rule of law, corruption, intercommunal tensions and violent extremism. Chronic underdevelopment, civil war, political instability and terrorism have created a perfect storm of child abductions, forced recruitment, rape and trafficking. Child protection in African conflict zones is weak, fragmented and underfunded'.   'We hope that the Pan-African Conference on Children and Armed Conflict sends a clear message to the UN, AU, all actors to the conflicts, and to African political leaders. These tragedies are happening on our watch, and we are currently failing to protect children affected by armed conflict', stated Dr. Bequele.   Fatou, age 14, from Mali, said: 'Growing up in a conflict zone denies children like me the right to a education, security and a future with hope. I have friends who have lost loved ones, who cannot sleep at night due to the traumatic situations they have been in. I want to tell world leaders that enough is enough'.   * Access the report (80pp): http://bit.ly/2NASdc2 http://bit.ly/2O05QAx   http://africanchildforum.org/en/index.php/en/   Aug. 2019   Children and war. (Red Cross)   In wartime, children are especially vulnerable to a myriad of risks that deprive them of the opportunity to fully experience childhood and are all too often drawn into hostilities. In the ever-evolving circumstances of armed conflict, how can we provide all children with the protection they are both morally and legally entitled to and ensure that their needs and rights are fulfilled?   To address this question, and just after marking the 30th anniversary of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the International Review of the Red Cross has chosen to dedicate this issue to children affected by armed conflict.   http://international-review.icrc.org/reviews/irrc-no-911-children-and-war http://reliefweb.int/report/world/children-affected-armed-conflict-1990-2019 http://bit.ly/3l1UxX8   May 2019   The urgent need to protect children living through conflict - Save the Children, agencies   Save the Children launches Charter setting out key points to ensure that children are protected during conflicts. The charter forms the basis for a safer future for the 420 million children currently living in conflict-affected areas.   Children in conflict face severe and multiple violations of their rights, like killing and maiming, sexual violence, recruitment and obstruction of humanitarian aid.   The Charter, presented at the launch of the Stop the War on Children campaign, outlines what states and armed groups can and must do to ensure children are protected from war and supported in their recovery.   Worldwide, around one in five children live in conflict affected areas, where they run the risk of being killed or maimed, abducted, or see their schools and hospitals bombed. Violations against children have nearly tripled since 2010.   In its report on paedeiatric blast injuries, Save the Children revealed that explosive weapons account for 72% of child deaths and injuries across the five world's deadliest conflict zones in 2017.   United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet said:   'It is absolutely critical to have this discussion now, as millions of children suffer in conflict every day. The rights and well-being of children - including in conflict - should be a priority for all of us, and we need stronger and more consistent systems to hold to account the perpetrators of crimes.   The ten points launched today are an important reminder to all governments of the commitments they have made to children's rights. They reinforce the work being undertaken by the UN and other actors to protect children in conflict situations."   The Stop the War on Children Charter is based on three pillars: providing safety by making sure that parties to any conflict adhere to international law and standards, pursuing justice by holding perpetrators to account and taking measures on the ground to ensure children receive all practical help they need.   Save the Children International CEO Helle Thorning-Schmidt, said: '1 in 5 children are now growing up in areas affected by conflict, and those children are seeing and experiencing things that no child ever should. Homes, schools and playgrounds have become battlefields, and children end up trapped on the frontline. Explosive weapons kill and maim children indiscriminately, and aid is used as a weapon of war.   The world seems to be accepting an outrageous new normal of the conventions of war being treated with flagrant disregard, and children are paying the price. It is shocking that in the 21st Century we are retreating on a principle that is so simple - children should be protected.   Today we are bringing together leaders in the Peace Palace in The Hague to try to end this culture of impunity. The failure to protect children in conflict not only robs children, but also their countries and - the entire world - of a better future. All governments and warring parties can make a difference by backing up the charter to protect children in conflict'.   Joint Statement, The Hague, Peace Palace:   'Some 420 million children are living in conflict-affected areas across the globe. Almost one in five children run a daily risk of being killed or maimed by armed violence, they live in the fear of being abducted, sexually abused or recruited by armed forces, they regularly witness their schools or hospitals being bombed or go hungry and uncared for because humanitarian aid is denied to them.   What is being done to children in conflicts all over the world, is unacceptable.   We call on every government and every armed group to affirm and adhere to international laws, human rights provisions, rules and standards designed to protect children. Individually and collectively, we are committed to working towards a world in which:   All children are protected against killing and maiming. Schools and health centres are treated as zones of peace and protection. Every child is protected from rape and sexual violence. No child is recruited into armed forces or groups. All children in conflict are safe from abduction, detention and displacement. No child is denied access to humanitarian aid in conflict.   Violations of the rights of children in conflict are rigorously monitored, reported and acted on. Those committing, overseeing and ordering violations against children in conflict are brought to justice and held accountable for their actions.   Every child harmed or affected by conflict receives practical help and support to cope, recover and rebuild their lives. All children affected by conflict, including refugees and those internally displaced, have access to a good-quality education'.   http://www.stopwaronchildren.org/ http://www.stopwaronchildren.org/reports/ http://www.savethechildren.net/article/save-children-calls-perpetrators-violations-against-children-conflict-zones-across-world-be http://www.savethechildren.net/article/three-four-child-casualties-world-s-deadliest-conflicts-caused-explosive-weapons http://bit.ly/2SnwAhE http://bit.ly/2kIcTTF http://watchlist.org/wp-content/uploads/open-letter-to-sg-guterres-on-caac-20190524-final.pdf http://watchlist.org/ http://reliefweb.int/report/world/education-suffered-over-14000-armed-attacks-last-5-years http://www.hrw.org/news/2019/05/27/countries-act-protect-schools-wartime http://theirworld.org/news/safe-schools-conference-action-to-protect-education-from-attack http://www.unicef.org/education-under-attack http://www.unicef.org/end-violence http://news.un.org/en/story/2019/04/1035961 http://childrenandarmedconflict.un.org/2020/02/childrens-needs-and-rights-must-be-considered-during-all-phases-of-conflict-un-secretary-general/ http://bit.ly/3bB5qeW http://bit.ly/2JsIFiy Visit the related web page
	A sharp increase in the number of internal armed conflicts in the world by Dr Marina Caparini Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), agencies Sweden   May 2019   Let us be blunt: the world is in crisis. Peace, human rights, our planetary ecosystem, and our systems of conflict management and global governance are under enormous strain.   Global military expenditures reached 1.8 trillion in 2018, their highest level in real terms since the Cold War, driven by great power competition between the US and China. The 'Doomsday clock' is now set at 2 minutes to midnight, as the world has moved closer than ever to nuclear self-destruction as a result of US withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal (the Joint Common Plan of Action (JPOA)), and withdrawal from the Intermediate Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty, and uncertainties about North Korea's nuclear plans.   And, buttressed by regular reports about the growing effects of global warming, rapidly declining biodiversity and the extinction of thousands of species, climate change is now widely acknowledged by citizens and experts in many countries as the world's biggest threat.   The past decade has seen a reversal of the long-term trend of declining civil wars. According to the UN-World Bank publication Pathways to Peace, the world has seen sharp increases in the number of internal armed conflicts in the world over the past decade, most involving numerous non-state armed groups, and such conflicts are both increasingly internationalized and protracted.   Mostly as a result of conflict, some 68.5 million people are currently displaced, with the overwhelming majority of refugees residing in poor or middle-income countries. While there are often multiple, complex causes of conflict, key structural factors include weak institutions in combination with political and economic exclusion.   In developing and post-industrial states alike, factors such as growing income inequalities and the continued failure of most countries to significantly control corruption are undermining governance and faith in the ability of states and the political class to uphold the public good.   Across the world we are witnessing a rise in populism rooted in anti-pluralism and exclusionary nationalist politics, attacks on the basic democratic tenets and a crisis of democracy.   With the global rolling back of human rights, there is a shrinking of civic space and dramatic decline in countries considered safe for journalists and for human rights defenders and women's rights defenders.   And within the leading global governance bodies, such as the UN Security Council, divisions among major powers and failure in leadership to constructively address current crises in Libya, Sudan, Yemen and Venezuela are calling into question the continued credibility of such arrangements.   Within this fraught context, leading individuals from the humanitarian, development and security fields are convening in Stockholm next week. The Stockholm Forum on Peace and Development, cohosted by SIPRI and the Swedish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, will discuss how the world can better respond to emergencies and crises, and how it can stabilize and strengthen prospects for peace and longer term development.   By bringing together subject and regional specialists, humanitarian workers, human rights defenders, peace researchers, police and military representatives, political leaders and policy makers, the Forum seeks to stimulate essential, sometimes difficult, conversations among those who are working to support peace, rule of law and development embodied by the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.   The diversity of those who will attend reflects the recognition of the need for interdisciplinary understanding of drivers of conflict, coordination across sectors and comprehensive approaches in responding to violence, hunger and injustice.   Substantial participation by representatives from the Global South reflects the need to develop truly people-centred approaches that are context specific, politically informed and locally owned.   It embodies the realization that technocratic, template approaches to preventing conflict and assisting shattered states and societies are not acceptable and do not work.   With its commitment to advancing peace through evidence-based data, research and analysis, SIPRI is proud to co-host the Forum and to contribute to global efforts to find solutions to the grave problems that confront us.   * Dr Marina Caparini is a Senior Researcher and Director of the Governance and Society Programme at SIPRI. Her research focuses on peacebuilding and the nexus between security and development.   http://www.sipri.org/events/2019/2019-stockholm-forum-peace-and-development http://www.sipri.org/node/4814 http://www.ipsnews.net/2019/05/urgent-need-advance-peace/ http://www.ipsnews.net/2019/05/contribution-humanitarian-action-peace/   * Global Centre for the Responsibility to Protect - R2P Monitor published 15 May 2019   The Responsibility to Protect (R2P) is a global norm, unanimously adopted by heads of state and government at the 2005 UN World Summit, aimed at preventing and halting Genocide, War Crimes, Ethnic Cleansing and Crimes Against Humanity.   R2P stipulates that: "Every State has the Responsibility to Protect its populations from the four mass atrocity crimes (Pillar I)."   "The wider international community has the responsibility to encourage and assist individual States in meeting that responsibility (Pillar II)."   "If a State is manifestly failing to protect its populations, the international community must be prepared to take appropriate collective action, in a timely and decisive manner and in accordance with the UN Charter (Pillar III)."   R2P Monitor is a bimonthly bulletin applying the Responsibility to Protect lens to populations at risk of mass atrocities around the world. Issue 45 looks at developments in Afghanistan, Myanmar (Burma), Syria, Yemen, Cameroon, Nigeria, Burundi, Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories, Mali, South Sudan and Venezuela:   http://www.globalr2p.org/publications/761 http://bit.ly/2Q2QRGu http://www.globalr2p.org/media/files/joint-ngo-statement-on-the-protection-of-civilians-may-2019-final-version.pdf Visit the related web page
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