Innocent child victims of aggression, unfortunately there are so many, subjected to so many different forms of aggression. And mentioning their innocence is almost superfluous… almost… if only it was not forgotten so often.
Children have no hand and no voice in starting a war, yet in 2014 in Central African Republic 2,807 children were recruited by armed forces, 146 were killed, 289 children injured and maimed, and 406 children raped, these were the cases that were recorded. In 2011 in the Democratic Republic of Congo children made up 68% of casualties and in Afghanistan 61% of civilian casualties.
Children were not the ones who cut off humanitarian aid to the country, allowing lethal diseases and famine to flourish. However, they are the ones who will die first of both. Children are not the ones who placed the landmines, but they are the ones who lose their lives or limbs to them, or their parents’ lives or limbs – and their parents’ ability to provide for them.
Children do not ask to be trafficked, to be exploited, to be forced to work or beg or carry arms. They do not ask to face beatings when they do not fulfil the quota set for them. Yet they are still subjected to these things, all over the world.
Children do not ask to be placed in an institution, where they are at far greater risk of physical, sexual and psychological abuse, as well as of being trafficked. Yet there they are, trying to make it through the day and then the next one. Hoping that someone will care for them. Hoping that someone will come to get them out and let them live in family.
We need to do a better job of protecting innocent children against aggression. And we stand a better chance of doing so if we stop throwing bombs on their heads and if we make sure they can stay in families.
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