Children are most affected by war

"Adult wars have once again robbed millions of children of their childhood in 2020," said CAAC Special Representative Virginia Gamba after the report was released. 2020 has been a year heavily marked by conflict, with a particular focus on the multiple and complex struggles in the Sahel, the war in Syria, Yemen and the forgotten conflict in South Sudan.

To these conflicts must be added the emergence and establishment of terrorist groups as new non-state actors that have marked the course of wars. Of particular importance has been the incursion of these groups into the Sahel region, where the number of terrorist attacks in the region has increased sevenfold, according to Spain's Department of Homeland Security (DHS). In this sense, jihadist groups have played a major role in recruiting minors and indoctrinating them to take part in wars and perpetrate attacks. In this way, war has stripped children of their childhood and has led them, due to multiple factors, to become victims of terr.orism that has manipulated and attacked their innocence.

More than 19,300 children have been victims of war during the course of 2020. This is revealed in the UN's annual report on children and armed conflict, presented by Secretary-General António Guterres to the General Assembly. The report notes that a total of 26,425 children have suffered at least one grave violation of their rights and more than 8,400 have been killed or maimed.

In this sense, the context of vulnerability for children has been aggravated by the spread of the coronavirus, as the pandemic would have meant for them "a stolen childhood and a future to be repaired". 

Of the total number, girls suffer greater violence as it is estimated that one in four children affected by serious crimes were girls who would have been affected by rape and other forms of sexual violence. Along these lines, while 85% of children recruited and used in warfare were boys, 98% of abducted girls have been victims of sexual violence. Moreover, this type of violence is more difficult to record and condemn because it "remains largely underreported, due to stigmatisation, cultural norms, lack of services and security concerns".

The report shows that the highest number of violations were recorded in Afghanistan, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Somalia, Syria and Yemen, where 60 per cent of all verified crimes have been recorded. According to the report, escalating violence in conflicts, violations of international humanitarian law and the cross-border spread of conflict and violence have affected children, with particular emphasis on the Sahel and Lake Chad Basin regions.

The year 2020, notoriously, has been dominated by the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic. The pandemic has wreaked human, economic and social havoc, and has been no different in its impact on children, especially those in conflict zones. The measures imposed to curb its spread have hindered the work carried out by international observers and UN experts, as limitations on movement across the territory have prevented proper registration.

Similarly, the vulnerability of children has led to their abduction due to an increase in the number of children abducted as a result of the spread of the virus, as well as attacks on schools and hospitals.

However, 12,643 were released by armed forces and aid groups as a result of UN action plans with governments to stop both the recruitment of children and their use in conflict.

So far in 2021, social problems together with the conflicts that developed during 2020 have been the legacies that have marked the new year: a pandemic that has not yet ended, new threats of war, the economic crisis and climate change are the main threats that have had to be faced during the first six months of the year.

In addition, new offensives in the Ethiopian civil war, new violent episodes between Israel and Palestine or the clashes between Azerbaijan and Armenia over Nagorno-Karabakh promise to set the tone for the remainder of the year. In addition, the withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan has led to increased insecurity in the area, with a strong presence of Taliban and extremist groups.

In addition, climate change is a new factor that has led to massive migrations, droughts, food crises and famines from the Sahel to Central America. All these factors further aggravate the situation of the most vulnerable, the children born in these hot spots of the planet, where it is estimated that a high percentage of them have never known peace. Specifically, in the case of Syria, six million children have only known war, and since the outbreak of the conflict, almost 12,000 children have been killed or injured.

Thus, peace mediators and diplomats continue to argue that peace processes achieved through violence are often staged "peaceful situations" marked by fragility. Laws and humanitarian law protect children as direct victims of conflict and preserve their fundamental rights, but the high figures offered by the UN report show that it is necessary to join forces for the perseverance of peace and security as the only solution for children to stop being deprived of their childhood.