Children's rights neglected amid conflict, climate change

Children are particularly at risk in conflicts like the ongoing war in Gaza. They can be displaced, injured, killed or recruited as child soldiers. Children were among those abducted and murdered in the October 7, 2023, Hamas terror attacks on Israel that sparked the war. According to Palestinian figures, more than 11,000 children have died in the fighting since then.

This boy lost a leg in Sudan's bloody civil war. The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, adopted on November 20, 1989, is intended to prevent children from becoming victims and to guarantee their protection in war and when fleeing conflict. But 35 years later, the situation remains dire. In 2023, children's rights violations in armed conflicts actually increased by 21%.

A large hole gapes in the wall of a school in a camp for internally displaced people in Syria — but at least this boy has a desk and a classroom. Many schools have been completely destroyed in the civil war since 2011, while others have been converted into emergency shelters. According to the UN, almost half of all displaced children and young people worldwide are unable to attend school.

Theoretically, according to the UN convention, all children have the same rights — regardless of their origin, gender, religion or social status. This includes the right to health, education, participation, protection from violence — and to play and leisure. But the reality is often different. In New Delhi, this boy was forced to search for recyclables amid toxic smog, in part from burning waste.

Children born into war zones face stress, trauma and a lack of adequate health care, clean water and proper nutrition, said children's rights group Save the Children earlier this week, as Ukraine marked 1,000 days of war. More half a million children have been born in Ukraine since Russia invaded in February 2022, "knowing nothing but a world of violence, bombings, and family separation."

Extreme weather events made worse by climate change, like Typhoon Man-yi, which hit the Philippines earlier this week — the sixth major storm in less than a month — are increasingly robbing families of their livelihoods, especially in the Global South. As a result, children often suffer from hunger, lose access to education and health care or are even forced to flee with their families.

Hunger is omnipresent — especially in Gaza, where this girl was seen clinging to a piece of dough in June. Almost a third of the world's population is under the age of 18, yet children are still the most vulnerable age group. "Their rights are often ignored," said Boris Breyer, the German spokesperson for SOS Children's Villages. "We owe children more protection, more support and more say."

Many migrants are worried about a second Trump administration. The US president-elect has threatened mass deportations after already separating thousands of irregular immigrants from their children during his first term. The United States is the only UN member state not to have ratified the Convention on the Rights of the Child.

The situation is particularly catastrophic for refugee kids in Myanmar. "Rohingya children are growing up without prospects," said Jasna Causevic of the Society for Threatened Peoples. "Hunger, violence and discrimination characterize their lives — and yet their fate goes largely unnoticed by the world." More than 500,000 children live in overcrowded camps like this one in Bangladesh.

Some 1.4 million girls in Afghanistan have been denied access to secondary school since 2021, according to UNESCO data. "The future of an entire generation is now in jeopardy," said the UN cultural and scientific agency. The nutritional situation has also deteriorated significantly since the Taliban retook power three years ago: 10% of children under the age of 5 are now malnourished.

This boy in Dhaka, Bangladesh, cutting bricks with precise hammer blows, is one of 160 million children worldwide who have to work, almost half of them under dangerous conditions. The trend is on the rise, with the UN identifying an increase in child labor in its latest survey. Most often, poverty is to blame, with children forced to contribute to the family income.