Every Sunday for many weeks the Organising Committee for the Mozambique Conference on Children, War and Persecution has been meeting online with participants from Mozambique, Brazil, Germany, Portugal and the UK. We agreed in July that we needed to make a brief statement about the impact of war and organised violence and imperialism on the development of children and adolescentes and the necessary political position that we support in terms of opinions
All over the world today adults, many of whom are parents, are solving conflicts over resources, beliefs, values and power with the use of violence. This form of conflict resolution impacts directly on the physical and emotional development of the next generation.
See report of the Special Representative of the Secretary General for Children and Armed Conflict
https://docs.un.org/en/A/80/266 (English or choose language)
and see article in the UK newspaper the Guardian, 20 June 2025
In Gaza, in South Sudan, Darfur, In DRC Goma, in Nigeria, in Afghanistan, in Haiti, in Mozambique, in Kashmir, in Iraq, in Brazil etc, children are wounded and deprived of their rights and killed by adults in state and non -state armies with weapons supplied usually from other countries because access to resources is more important than the health and wellbeing of future generations.
Our conference is being held at a time, in the world, where there is growing nationalism and populism, totalitarianism and fascism all over the world. We aim to make time and space in the conference to think together of how we might address the impact of violence on children at various levels, clinical, therapeutic, social and communal, political.
We all agree that it would be unrealistic at this time to attempt conflict resolution during a conference attended by child and adolescent centred thinkers and specialists, but we will make time to think about different approaches to conflict.
We would like primarily to draw attention to the impact of violence on children in currently many countries in the world.
In the spirit of solidarity with our colleagues in South Africa who, during the struggle against apartheid, successfully made use of the political strategy of Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS). We have been thinking about academic boycott at this time.
We are very aware that in all countries currently at war there is huge resistance from within the population against repressive violence. This is rarely reported in the media. There is huge resistance in Sudan and in Afghanistan and Iran and in Israel against the repressive and violent actions of those in power. Because of the fact that this is rarely reported, we wish to draw attention to such resistance. Resistance takes many forms. However, in the short term, we see many examples of children and adolescents, all both a)resilient and vulnerable, and all both b) survivors and victims, being exposed to extreme violence. This violence includes being forced to become child soldiers, being raped and held in captivity, being exploited and trafficked for labour and crime and sexual exploitation. We see all this in genocidal actions in Gaza and Sudan etc.
In the light of this terrible violence impacting significantly on the next generation, we wish to think about how this might be addressed and we wish certainly to draw attention to this violence. We hope to highlight our wish for social and political change towards peace and towards the rights of ALL young people to live in safety and peace, and with the right to live according to the articles of the UNCRC. This includes our wish that all children have opportunities to develop in their own best interests (Article 3) and with access to attention to their health and development (Article 39). Children need opportunities and time to be creative (Article 32), to play (Article 31), to learn and to develop (Articles 28 and 29).
The organising committee have thought a lot and discussed together the issue of BDS at this time. Most of the countries that the involved participants and organisers of this conference come from are known to sell arms to countries at war, at this time, including selling arms to Israel. Everyone on the organising committee is very aware of how BDS was essential in the struggle to overthrow apartheid and supported this at that time. Everyone on the organising committee would like our colleagues from Africa and especially old friends from South Africa to attend our conference.
Many of us are currently receiving regular contacts from colleagues in Gaza and the West Bank, Sudan, Eastern Congo, Mozambique and Afghanistan etc. with requests for dialogue and extra-vision/supervision in terms of how to work with large numbers of very troubled children who cannot study or play or sit down in classrooms, who are angry and frightened and who need appropriate attention, warm involvement and support. All of us wish to follow the title of our conference i.e. to create reflective spaces for discussion of the needs of children and adolescents who have experienced war, civil conflict and persecution. This is the main aim of the conference i.e. to attract participants who wish to contribute to these discussions and
to learn, with the purpose of further thinking and reflection about possible practical action towards helping children living in areas of conflict and persecution. At the same time we intend, during the conference, to create a working group aimed at discussion of the interaction of clinical, psychotherapeutic, community and political issues including the issue of BDS.
We all hope that you will be able to attend our conference and join with us in these discussions.
With all warm wishes
Organising Committee
July 2025
ADDENDUM extract from Report of the Special Representative of the SecretaryGeneral for Children and Armed Conflict, 25 July 2025
Section VI Recommendations
The Special Representative remains deeply alarmed by the scale and severity of the grave violations committed against children, including killing and maiming, the denial of humanitarian access, recruitment and use, and abduction as the violations with the greatest number of verified cases during the reporting period. She urges all parties to immediately prevent their occurrence and reoccurrence. She urges Member States to adopt and implement legislation criminalising violations and abuses against children, and to strengthen accountability and end impunity.
The Special Representative is concerned by the continued trend of killing and maiming of children by explosive weapons and remnants of war, including the use of explosive weapons with wide-area effects, including in populated areas, as well as the use of improvised explosive devices, landmines and bombs. She calls upon Member States to become parties to and fully implement international legal instruments pertaining to those weapons, including anti-personnel mines and cluster munitions, and to comply with international humanitarian law. Armed groups must also refrain from their use. The Special Representative calls upon Member States to endorse and implement the Political Declaration on Strengthening the Protection of Civilians from the Humanitarian Consequences Arising from the Use of Explosive Weapons in Populated Areas and to promote and prioritise mine clearance and the clearance of explosive remnants of war, mine-risk education programmes for children, victim assistance and stockpile destruction, including prior to any movement of internally displaced persons back to contaminated areas.
The Special Representative calls upon parties to conflict to allow and facilitate safe, timely and unimpeded humanitarian access, as well as access by children to services, assistance and protection, and to ensure the safety and security of humanitarian personnel and assets. Recalling their civilian character, she urges Member States to do their utmost to protect schools, students and teachers, as well as hospitals, healthcare institutions and health workers, in the conduct of their operations.
The Special Representative calls upon Member States to ensure that child protection provisions and capacity are included in all relevant mandates of the United Nations peacekeeping operations and special political missions in line with the 2017 policy on child protection in United Nations peace operations. During mission transitions, including start-ups, reconfigurations, drawdowns or withdrawals, child protection frameworks should be upheld, and data and capacity preserved and transferred.
The Special Representative calls upon all Member States to ratify and implement the Convention on the Rights of the Child and accede to its Optional Protocol on the involvement of children in armed conflict, and to endorse and implement the Paris Principles, the Safe Schools Declaration and the Vancouver Principles.
The Special Representative reiterates calls for long-term, holistic, gender- and age-sensitive reintegration programmes for children formerly associated with armed forces or armed groups, calling upon Member States and other reintegration actors to provide sustainable support for such efforts across the humanitarian-development-peace spectrum.
The Special Representative underlines the importance of data analysis and data management for the prevention of grave violations and, in addition to the Third Committee, encourages the Security Council, the Fifth Committee and the Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions, as well as donors, to ensure that child protection priorities are concretely translated into the budgeting and staffing resources necessary to support data analysis, data management, monitoring and reporting.
The Special Representative calls for increased capacity-building for technical support and advice on the children and armed conflict agenda to relevant national, regional and subregional and international partners, including governments, military personnel, the United Nations and civil society, and invites Member States to support this process.