Child rights

KYIV, 3 January 2024 - “Two children have reportedly been killed and at least 15 children have been reportedly injured in a wave of deadly attacks across several areas in Ukraine. “Over the last six days, escalating attacks have hit Dnipro, Lviv, Kharkiv, Kyiv, Odesa, and other populated areas, causing civilian deaths and damage to civilian…

Maria, age 12, submitted a poem after leaving Odessa, Ukraine.   NEW YORK, 21 March 2023 – In commemoration of World Poetry Day, hundreds of children and young people around the world have published poems to highlight their experiences of conflict and war, and to call for peace, as part of UNICEF’s Poems for Peace initiative . Now in its fourth…

LVIV, Ukraine, 8 April 2022 - "We strongly condemn the attack today on the train station in Kramatorsk, Ukraine. We do not know yet how many children were killed and injured in the attack, but we fear the worst. Kramatorsk train station has been the main route out for thousands of families evacuating from Donetsk oblast, which has seen some of the…

Around the world, attacks on children continue unabated. The number of countries experiencing violent conflict is the highest it has been in the last 30 years. The result is that more than 30 million children have been displaced by conflict. Many of them are being enslaved, trafficked, abused and exploited. Many more are living in limbo, without…, Stop attacks on children, Ultimately children need peace to thrive. It is critical for children that efforts to end today’s seemingly endless armed conflicts are redoubled. But children cannot wait for protection – while wars continue, we must never accept attacks against children. More than 30 years since the adoption of the  Convention on the Rights of the Child , and…, What we can all do to make change happen, Citizens everywhere   can begin by not averting their gaze from children’s suffering, because it seems too distant or the politics of conflict too complex. We must insist to national and international leaders that protecting children during armed conflict is the cornerstone of our shared humanity. We must demand leadership which is prepared to act…, Recent news and features, Protecting children from explosive weapons in populated areas, Iraq. Two children walk to school past damaged buildings in the old city area of Mosul, Iraq. Two children walk to school in the old city area of Mosul, Iraq. In conflicts around the world, civilians continue to endure the devastating consequences of the use of  https://www.unicef.org/protection/protecting-children-from-explosive-weapons explosive…

KRAMATORSK, Ukraine – As the yellow school bus rounds a bend, the children call out “Can we get out here?” “The road is bad!” “The bus is going to break down if we go down there!” You might hear these kinds of complaints anywhere in the world. But in eastern Ukraine, for children living in the conflict zone, getting to school means traversing…

Meet two families, living on opposite sides of the contact line, and struggling to make it through winter

After living through three years of conflict near the contact line in eastern Ukraine, many children and teenagers in the city of Mariupol need psychosocial support. Learn how four youth clubs are giving these children the resources they need to begin to heal their emotional wounds.    MARIUPOL, Ukraine, 7 April 2017 – The emotional wounds and…