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When peaceful protests calling for democratic reforms sparked in Syria in 2011, it was teenagers who took to the streets and graffitied walls with calls for an end to Bashar al-Assad’s regime. The brutal crackdown that ensued and unravelled into a civil war that has lasted ever since has affected millions of Syrians, who have been killed, tortured, detained, raped, displaced or forced to take up arms. Many of them are children.
In 2022, the United Nations reported a record number of 27,000 gross violations against children in conflict. In many places struck by conflict, youngsters make up the larger part of the population, meaning they are possibly most of the victims.
Yet, their stories are often left unheard in the courtrooms, sometimes drowned by the noise of the sweeping wave of horror accounts that war breeds.
Save the Children and Justice Rapid Response (JRR) have been working with UN and regional bodies set up to investigate such atrocities to make sure children’s experiences don’t fall on deaf ears.
Read the full story on Geneva Solutions
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