Protecting children from explosive weapons
Armed conflicts are increasingly fought in populated areas children call home.
Explosive weapons kill and injure thousands of civilians each year, during and after armed conflict. Children account for roughly half of the casualties from explosive ordnance.
They are vulnerable for numerous reasons.
Armed conflicts are increasingly fought in populated areas, like cities, where children represent a large portion of the community. When explosive weapons are used in these areas, over 90 per cent of victims are civilians – many, children or their parents.
Child survivors endure staggering physical injury and psychological trauma. Some may lose their sight, hearing or limbs. Almost all will need critical and sustained psychosocial support. But explosive weapons also inflict severe harm on children indirectly.
Especially in populated areas, explosives destroy vital infrastructure – like water pipelines, sanitation facilities, hospitals and schools – cutting children off from essential services. These losses magnify the threats children already face, by displacing them from their homes or exposing them to disease outbreaks and more. In protracted conflicts, for example, children are more likely to die from diarrhoeal disease linked to unsafe water and sanitation than from violence.
Even after conflict, the effects of explosive weapons reverberate for years to come. Landmines and unexploded or abandoned ordnance (so-called “remnants of war”) still cause death and injury across various parts of the world. Children are particularly vulnerable, attracted to remnants for their colourful appearance and unaware of how dangerous they are. Some of these weapons are familiar household objects that have been turned into explosives.
No matter where they are used, explosive weapons endanger a child's most fundamental rights. UNICEF calls on governments to avoid the use of explosive weapons in populated areas (EWIPA), and to speak out to protect children worldwide from conflict.
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What we do
Children bear no responsibility for war. Yet they suffer its consequences for life. To keep children safe from explosive weapons, UNICEF calls for a global commitment to avoid their use in populated areas. We also support governments and humanitarian actors to reduce the risks that landmines and explosive remnants of war present to children.
Explosive weapons in populated areas
History shows that ending the use of certain weapons and military practices is possible. The Mine Ban Treaty and Convention on Cluster Munitions demonstrate the difference political commitment makes.
UNICEF calls on governments to avoid the use of explosive weapons in populated areas, and to speak out to protect children worldwide from conflict.
We’re on the ground in all corners of the globe, strengthening child protection systems to support children in humanitarian action. We provide leadership and coordination for actors involved in child protection, and help monitor and report grave violations of children’s rights in situations of armed conflict, through the Monitoring and Reporting Mechanism.
Landmines and explosive remnants of war
UNICEF also works to prevent child injury and death from landmines and explosive remnants of war, by leading technical guidance and programming on risk education.
Moreover, we assist victims through medical care, provision of artificial limbs, mental and emotional support, and access to education – and help build our partners’ capacity to protect and support children as well.
As co-chair of the Explosive Ordnance Risk Education Advisory Group, UNICEF offers guidance to global actors. We also strengthen the knowledge and skills of experts through courses on Developing Effective Explosive Ordnance Risk Education and Integrated Mine Action for Better Results, and as a knowledge leader in the International Mine Risk Education Working Group.
Since 2014, UNICEF has supported 29 million children in 25 countries to receive life-saving explosive-ordnance risk education, mostly in regions affected by ongoing conflicts. During the same period, we helped rehabilitate children injured by remnants of war in more than 10 countries.
Latest
Resources
Explosive weapons in populated areas
| Publisher | Title |
|---|---|
| OCHA | |
| Ireland | |
| ICRC | Explosive Weapons with Wide Area Effects: A Deadly Choice in Populated Areas |
| INEW | International Network on Explosive Weapons |
Landmines and explosive remnants of war
| Publisher | Title |
|---|---|
| IMAS | International Mine Action Standards (IMAS) |
| IMAS | Mine Risk Education Best Practice Guidebooks |
| IMAS | Risk Education for Improvised Explosive Devices |
| GICHD | Explosive Ordnance Risk Education Advisory Group |
| IMAS | Explosive Ordnance Risk Education (EORE) |
| UNICEF | Assistance to Victims of Landmines and Explosive Remnants of War: Guidance on Child-Focused Victim Assistance |
| United Nations | United Nations Policy on Victim Assistance in Mine Action |
| United Nations | United Nations Mine Action Strategy, 2019–2023 |
| United Nations | Oslo Action Plan |
| The Alliance for Child Protection in Humanitarian Action | Mine Risk |
| AP Mine Ban Convention | Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of Anti-Personnel Mines and on Their Destruction |
| Convention on Cluster Munitions | |
| United Nations | Convention on Prohibitions or Restrictions on the Use of Certain Conventional Weapons (CCW) |