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Keynote address delivered by Ted Chaiban, UNICEF Representative for Sri Lanka and Maldives at the inauguration of the International Conference on Children Affected by Armed Conflict, held in Colombo from 1st - 3rd October. It is organised by Save the Children.

Over the last decade we have seen significant shifts in the nature and scope of armed conflict. Most of these recent conflicts are internal, rooted in crises of governance and systematic human rights abuses.

What is the magnitude of the problem of children affected by conflict? Over the past decade, two million children have died as a result of conflicts. Six million children have been disabled or traumatised. 40 million people have been internally displaced by conflict and another 21 million have become refugees of which approximately 50% are children. There are an estimated 300,000 child soldiers globally. Nearly 10,000 children are killed or maimed by landmines every year.

Conflict devastates the lives of girls and boys. Children are affected in numerous ways. They may be killed, injured, displaced, abused, separated from their parents and caretakers, used as soldiers, infected with HIV and more generally miss out on many of the essential elements of childhood such as education.

Involuntary separation from both family and community protection, sometimes across national borders, greatly increases the child's risk of exposure to violence, physical abuse, exploitation, recruitment and use in armed conflict and even death. UNHCR has estimated that unaccompanied children make up at least 2 to 5 per cent of the total population in many displacement situations.

Children are also susceptible to recruitment by armed groups. This may involve manipulation or they may be driven to join because of poverty or discrimination, as their only way to ensure food and survival. It may provide a sense of belonging or they may believe it is the best way to serve a cause. When conflict is prolonged, armed forces are more likely to use children to replenish their ranks. In some cases, the use of children in conflict can be facilitated by the availability of light, inexpensive small arms that can be easily handled and maintained by even young children.

Landmines pose a major risk to children. This is exacerbated by the sometimes colourful and interesting designs of unexploded objects. Children may be less able to understand the signs marking minefields. Children and adolescents, who herd animals or fetch water for their families, crossing fields and other rural terrain, run the greatest risk. This places an immense financial burden on families often already living under difficult circumstances.

Conflict and displacement can have both short and long-term effects on the psycho-social development of children. They deprive younger children of the fare and nurturing essential to their cognitive and social development, and have a profound effect on adolescents' identity and sense of belonging.

Children in armed conflict experience emotionally and psychologically painful events including: the violent death of a parent or close relative; participation in violent acts; displacement from home and community; exposure to combat, shelling and other life-threatening situations; acts of abuse such as being abducted, arrested, held in detention, raped, tortured; and disruption of school routines and community life.

Children of all ages also are strongly affected by the stress levels and situation of their adult caregivers.

In sum, the impacts of conflict on children are numerous:

* Children are killed and injured.

* Schools are targeted by parties to the conflict, and children killed or abducted.

* Child may be used as soldiers.

They may be subject to arbitrary detention, torture, and other forms of inhumane treatment. Armed groups can drug child soldiers before sending them out to fight, and some force young children to commit atrocities against their own families, in order to destroy their family and community ties.

* Children face an increased risk of HIV infection.

* Girls and women are routinely targeted in campaigns of gender-based violence, including rape and gang-rape, mutilation, forced prostitution, forced pregnancy, trafficking and sexual slavery.

* Recreation and play are severely limited in most emergencies, denying all children a key means of dealing with psychosocial stress and establishing a semblance of normalcy in their lives. Adolescents are deprived of years of care and training, creating an unskilled an unemployable generation. They are rarely provided with positive ways to participate in the political debate surrounding the situation in which their community finds itself or the design of programmatic responses.

* Children may be denied life-saving humanitarian aid where parties to the conflict deny humanitarian access.

* Internally displaced children and their families, separated from their support systems and often without identity papers, may be unable to obtain amenities such as food, water, shelter, health services and education.

Legal 'invisibility' may leave IDPs susceptible to arbitrary actions and unable to seek help or protection from local authorities. More generally, displacement removes many of the protective structures upon which children and their families should be able to rely. As a result they become more vulnerable to all the impacts of conflict, such as separation or HIV infection.

In order to advance the cause of children affected by armed conflict, this conference will be addressing a number of issues that represent challenges we need to meet and exceed.

This conference can make a difference by advancing thinking and action on these and other topics related to children affected by armed conflict. Our challenge is to advance the cause of children's rights by remaining rooted in legal and ethical standards and finding balance and coherence between advocacy and access/assistance.

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