World's Children's Day: Failing the Innocents

As a dedicated child protection specialist, I find myself compelled to put pen to paper on yesterday World's Children's Day and week of “celebration” , with a heavy heart and a sense of profound disappointment. For years, I, like many others, have poured career and passion into the cause of upholding the rights, justice, and protection of children and young people. Yet, today, it feels like there is nothing to celebrate, and I grapple with the unsettling notion that, as adults, we have failed to protect the very essence of innocence.

The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), a beacon of hope and promise, was meant to ensure a world where every child is shielded from harm, violence, and injustice. More than thirty years have passed since its adoption, and as I reflect on the current state of affairs in 2023, it is with a heavy heart that I acknowledge a glaring truth: the promise we made to our children remains largely unfulfilled.

The Convention, the most widely ratified document in the United Nations, articulates the rights and needs of every child. Yet, as we mark this day dedicated to the world's children, it is impossible to ignore the harsh reality that many of them face. In conflict zones across the globe, children continue to be victims of unspeakable violence, abuse, and oppression. The very situations meant to be shielded by the international community are marred by violations that defy the principles we stand for.

The United Nations Security Council, recognizing the vulnerability of these young lives, has annually requested the Secretary-General to report on six grave violations affecting children in armed conflict. These violations encompass recruitment and use, killing and maiming, sexual violence, abduction, attacks on schools and hospitals, and denial of humanitarian access. In 2022 alone, the verified violations numbered 27,180, affecting 18,890 children. The stark reality of these figures is enough to cast a shadow over any celebration.

However, what hits even harder is the stark contrast between the sobering 2022 statistics and the disheartening surge in violations against children in 2023. Armed violence has escalated in ongoing conflicts across the globe, including Burkina Faso, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Mali, Myanmar, Niger, Somalia, Sudan, Israel, and the State of Palestine[1].

In the past months, we all have witnessed the unimaginable impact of conflict on children in Gaza, where thousands have lost their lives or been maimed by airstrikes. The most heartbreaking part is not just the physical toll but the denial of basic humanitarian aid—food, water, and medicine and it seems that the world has turned a blind eye.

In Afghanistan, the forced return of children from a war-torn country has resulted in a harrowing spiral of harm and neglect. Meanwhile, in other countries the recruitment of children remains an unmet challenge, and the release and reintegration hindered by the absence of healing within a war-torn culture.

In north east Syria for example, the impact of counter-terrorism measures is a disturbing reality, with over 31,000 children deprived of liberty in camps, waiting to be released and repatriated.

The deprivation of liberty, as a management tool is becoming widespread also in other countries, for instance in managing migration flows, exacerbates the trauma these children already carry in the complete denial of their needs and rights.

And then there's the alarming statistic that in 2021, 45,000 women and girls worldwide fell victim to gender-based violence perpetrated by intimate partners or family members. This pervasive culture of patriarchal violence remains deeply ingrained, reflective of a system that has yet to undergo a transformative shift.

As a child protection specialist, I find myself at a crossroads, grappling with a sense of failure. The promises we made to children in the CRC seem distant, and the challenges have only intensified. It's not a time for celebration; it's a time for accepting we fell short, for saying sorry, for saying enough is enough and for acting differently.

The world's children deserve more than empty promises; they deserve recognition, a present, a life free from fear, violence, and injustice.

In my role as a child protection specialist, I'm confronting a pivotal moment, haunted by a sense of failure. The assurances we gave to children through the CRC now feel like distant echoes, drowned out by escalating challenges. This isn't a time for celebration; it's a stark admission of falling short, a moment to unapologetically say "sorry," to declare "enough is enough," and to radically alter our course of action.

[1] https://childrenandarmedconflict.un.org/2023/11/nothing-to-celebrate-on-worlds-childrens-day/