Despite a decrease in the number of children killed and injured during combat in Iraq, the international community condemns the violation of children’s rights linked to the direct and indirect effects of the regional conflict.
Children in the grip of terrorist organisations
The United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq thus issues warnings about the situation of children involved on both sides of the armed groups in the conflict.
Recruited by terrorist organisations for their capacity to outwit security forces, these children are also possible ‘collateral’ victims of the armed combat.
These confrontations affect them both physically and morally. In fact, nearly half of the children who have become involved in the war suffer from severe trauma according to an investigation by Iraqi psychiatrists.
Juvenile detention in Iraq, an alarming report
The UN Assistance Mission report of 2012 also underlines the shocking treatment reserved for children in the Iraqi criminal and penitentiary system.
The flagrant lack of alternatives to juvenile detention is aggravated by the absence of a specific framework for children in the penitentiary system, which does not offer any infrastructure capable of properly accommodating them.
The UN Assistance Mission for Iraq is therefore witness to a number of cases of abuse committed against children placed in detention (torture, overpopulation, lack of access to legal representation).
Growing risk of statelessness for the “children of the war”
The conflict in Iraq also has indirect and dangerous effects on minors.
The number of children born of forced marriages has significantly increased since 2003. These children are deprived of a civil identity and cannot benefit from social benefits, such as access to education or to medical health care.
This situation also concerns children born of rape and forced unions between Iraqi women and insurgents. It is estimated that between 400 and 2000 children are affected by this situation, which is also damaging from a social point of view. They are direct victims of discrimination and stigmatisation, treated in the same way as their marginalized fathers.
Children are therefore deeply affected by the permanent climate of violence, fertile ground for an increase in pregnancies and a resurgence of domestic violence. The social poverty that inevitably ensues from the conflict particularly affects children and contributes towards limiting their fundamental rights.
Despite a relative decrease of the number of children killed in combat, the UN is now drawing attention to the secondary consequences and long-term effects of the Iraqi conflict.
