Rationale: Violence affects the well-being and learning potential of millions of children around the world
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"You know, there are no children here. They've seen too much to be children."
— LaJoe, United States.(10)
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Children and adolescents are becoming as likely as adults to suffer rape, torture and brutal death in armed conflicts, as displaced persons and/or refugees and as soldiers. Even where armed conflict is not present, young people are exposed to violence on the streets, in their home, on television and in movies. In addition, children all over the world experience violence at school, through corporal punishment, fights, bullying or harassment from teachers and other students.
For every assault, there is a victim and countless witnesses who may experience physical injury, psychological effects, and social-emotional and behavioural problems. Consequences are serious, especially among children growing up in chronically violent homes or neighbourhoods. While many children show a high level of resilience to such trauma, others will suffer serious and lasting effects including post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), distress and impairment of attachment, making it difficult for them to form strong relationships. Their self-esteem may suffer and they may fail to acquire competence in peer relations. Children exposed to violence may also adopt highly sexualised or highly aggressive behaviour, use psychoactive substances, incur dissociation, intentionally injure themselves, or show other dysfunctional ways of dealing with anxiety at higher rates.(11) Victims of intimate partner violence and rape have been found to be at risk for depression, thoughts of suicide and suicide attempts.(4)
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The Trauma of War
Almost one out of every four children in Sarajevo was wounded in the conflict. In a survey of 1,505 Sarajevan children conducted by UNICEF in the summer of 1993, it was found that 97 percent had experienced shelling nearby, 29 percent felt 'unbearable sorrow' and 20 percent had terrifying dreams.
Following interviews with children, the UN Commission on Human Rights' Special Rapporteur on former Yugoslavia reported: "Memories of the event remain with them, causing...daily intrusive flashbacks of the traumatic events, fear, insecurity and bitterness."
Adolescents are also particularly vulnerable to the effects of war. Aid workers in Bosnia and Herzegovina have been encountering adolescents who have 'weeping crises', who attempt suicide, who are in a state of depression and who have increased levels of aggression and delinquency.
From "Children in War," in The State of the World's Children 1996, UNICEF.
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Children need to be healthy to take full advantage of every opportunity to learn. The effects of violence, physical injury, psychological effects and behavioural problems reduce attendance at school, impair concentration and detrimentally affect cognitive development. In addition, fear of violence or abuse at school or en route to school, or displacement that results from violence and war, can all prevent or reduce attendance and diminish children's ability to learn.
