Conference: Protection of Children and Families during Armed Conflict

The Van Leer Jerusalem Institute and the Minerva Center for Human Rights at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem will host a conference on the "Protection of Children and Families during Armed Conflict," June 6-8, 2010, in Jerusalem. The program is not yet available. Here's the idea:

The importance of studying the impact of political conflict on children and families, and of preventing that impact arises from a number of empirically-based factors. First, armed conflicts are unfortunately a part of life in many parts of the world and are not likely to disappear soon. Second, children are among the most vulnerable people in any conflict, since they are not fully developed individuals. Third, families play a central role in the socialization of children so that damage to the structure and function of a family will add considerably to the suffering of the children. Fourth, developmental research shows that the risks and traumas experienced in childhood may be longlasting and lead to poor developmental outcomes. Finally, there is evidence that exposure to armed conflict may lead to a perpetuation of the trauma and conflict across generation.

Children are affected by political violence, not only in their experiencing of it but in the potential for this experience to affect the rest of their lives. While international legal safeguards for children exist, and there has been extensive research on the effects of exposure to political violence, the topic of protection of children in conflict has not received adequate research attention, and actual protection efforts have been weak and inconsistent. There is too little thinking about protecting children and families in one’s own society, and even less on protecting those on the “other side”.