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Child soldiers
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Killed and Maimed: A generation of violations against children
Millions of children are living in conflict. Hundreds of thousands of children have experienced grave violations of their rights – a quarter of a million violations against children have now been verified by the UN. Of these, more than 40% have involved t
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The Intergenerational Impact of War on Mental Health and Psychosocial Wellbeing: Lessons from the longitudinal study of war-affected youth in Sierra Leone
At the time of writing, approximately one in four children across the globe live in a country affected by armed conflict. These children often experience violent trauma and loss, which is likely to have a long-term impact on their mental health needs. The
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Improving Support to Child Reintegration: Summary of findings from three reports
The recruitment and use of girls and boys in armed conflict is a grave violation of children’s rights. The emotional and cognitive growth of these children, as well as the structures and policies that support them, are crucial for their human development
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Key Messages and Considerations for Programming for Children Associated with Armed Forces or Armed Groups During the COVID-19 Pandemic (v.1)
Children who remain with an armed group are at constant risk of physical, psychological and sexual violence, and even death. It is therefore crucial to prevent the recruitment of children to armed groups, but also to focus efforts on separating children f
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No Choice: It takes a world to end the use of child soldiers
World Vision commissioned research by Child Frontiers International, 'No Choice', to better understand children associate with armed groups. Featuring primary and secondary research from Central African Republic, Colombia, Democratic Republic of the Condo
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Rethink Child Soldiers: A new approach to the reintegration of all children associated with armed forces and groups
This report aims to bring global attention to the challenges related to the reintegration of children associated with armed forces and groups, and promote better policy, practice and funding in the future. The findings are based on a literature review and
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Practical Guide: To fulfil the reintegration needs and rights of girls formerly associated with armed forces and armed groups in South Sudan
Recent years have seen significant progress to end the phenomenon of children associated with armed actors in South Sudan, over 28,000 children have been released from armed groups since 1998. However, most of these children have been boys, and many girls
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Why 18 Matters: A rights-based analysis of child recruitment
As of April 2018, more than fourfifths (167) of states worldwide have now committed in law to ‘take all feasible measures’ not to use children under the age of 18 in armed conflict or any other hostilities. Two-thirds of states with armed forces have furt
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Cradled by Conflict: Child involvement with armed groups in contemporary conflict
Today, there is concern that the nature of contemporary conflict, and the non-state armed groups fighting them, pose seemingly new policy and programmatic challenges to prevent child recruitment by, and facilitate disengagement of children from, these gro
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A Credible List: Recommendations for the 2018 Annual Report on Children and Armed Conflict and Listings
Following pressure from civil society for a complete and accurate listing of perpetrators in 2017, United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres listed the Saudi Arabia-led coalition forces for Yemen and the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) for Iraq,
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Their Fight, Our Future
This report investigates children and young people's views on children in armed conflict for the World Vision UK Campaign, It Takes A World. Four stories of children from 13 to 21 years, recruited as child soldiers from South Sudan and Democratic Republic
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Reintegrating Girls and Boys Formerly Associated with Armed Forces and Armed Groups: A case study from Central African Republic (CAR)
This case study describes Plan International’s community-based reintegration programmes for girls and boys released from armed groups in Central African Replublic (CAR). The outbreak of violent conflict in CAR in December 2013 led to mass displacement, le