Children and conflict: Afghan children and post conflict processes

Résumé du document

Historically, the processes of securing peace, reconciliation and reconstructing a country have neglected the specific needs and rights of children. However, the approach to the role of children in post conflict societies is slowly changing. To ensure the long-term peace, security and development of a country, it has become accepted that children, having played a significant role in the conflict as victims, witnesses and perpetrators of violence, must not be ignored or marginalised in the peace process. On the contrary, children require specific attention and assistance. That is the reason why humanitarian and development programmes have become more child focused and more child rights driven, with the Convention on the Rights of the Child being used as a guiding tool for work with children . Afghanistan is situated in central Asia and borders on China, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Pakistan and Iran. It has a land area (647,500 sq. km.) somewhat larger than Texas and a population of 25 million inhabitants.

Extraits

[...] (1998), Impact of Armed Conflict on Children in Afghanistan, Save the children UK. Available from: http://www.crin.org/resources/infoDetail.asp?ID=1226&flag=report United Nations (July 2003), Afghanistan: New report on post-conflict children. Available from: http://iys.cidi.org/humanitarian//hsr/centralasia/ixl18.html UNICEF, “Factsheet: protection and conflict”. Available from: http://www.unicef.org/protection/files/Childrenconflict.pdf UNICEF (2004), Child Protection A handbook for parliamentarians. Available from: http://www.unicef.org/french/publications/files/Guide_Enfants_OK.pdf Watchlist on Children and Armed Conflict (October 2001), Issue Afghanistan. Available from: http://www.watchlist.org/reports/afghanistan.report.pdf Watchlist on Children and Armed Conflict (November 2001), Afghanistan Update. Available from: http://www.watchlist.org/reports/afghanistan.report_update.pdf The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) was adopted in 1989. [...]

[...] Children's employment and consequently their economic prospects suffer hugely because of their disabilities. For many children, especially girls, their prospects for marriage and therefore stability in adult life, are severely diminished. These practical difficulties compound the deep emotional trauma suffered, for which adequate counselling is rarely available. In addition to the devastating impact on individual lives, mines and cluster bombs are a heavy burden on the economic and social systems of countries trying to recover from armed conflict, hampering development and post conflict reconstruction. [...]

[...] Finally, I will consider Afghan children's access to education as it is an essential condition to the development prospects of the country. It is recognised that conflicts impact children differently from adults. However, children are not less affected by events because of their supposed naivety. In fact, they have a rather limited capacity to adapt or respond to the conflict around them and its consequences. Children in armed conflict routinely experience emotionally and psychologically devastating events such as the violent death of a parent or close relative, separation from family, witnessing loved ones being killed or tortured, or participating in violent acts. [...]

[...] Working with the Afghan ministry of Education, UNICEF is providing ongoing support for the back-to-school programme in Afghanistan, helping to deliver school supplies and rebuild the education system. In March 2002, more than 3,000 schools opened across the country offering the possibility of education to nearly 2 million children, many entering a formal classroom for the first time. A massive teacher orientation was undertaken to prepare 50,000 newly identified teachers across the country for the opening day of school. The children attach a high value to education. Young children see in it a chance to improve their own future. [...]

[...] Increase access to education for all Afghan children is thus of crucial importance as it could permit to run awareness programs regarding the hazards of unexploded ordnances. Education has greatly suffered as a result of the years of conflict and the restrictions of the regime. Afghanistan's education infrastructure has been destroyed and statistics are unreliable. However, recent estimates put the overall literacy rate at approximately with the female rate as low as (girls aged 15 years and older). Schools are needed throughout Afghanistan to provide minimal education and to replace the thousands of schools that have been partially or totally destroyed. [...]