scholarly journals Developmental and social–ecological perspectives on children, political violence, and armed conflict

2016 ◽  
Vol 29 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-10 ◽  
Author(s):  
E. Mark Cummings ◽  
Christine E. Merrilees ◽  
Laura K. Taylor ◽  
Christina F. Mondi

An increasing number of researchers and policymakers have been moved to study and intervene in the lives of children affected by violent conflicts (Masten, 2014). According to a United Nations Children's Fund (2009) report, over 1 billion children under the age of 18 are growing up in regions where acts of political violence and armed conflict are, as Ladds and Cairns (1996, p. 15) put it, “a common occurrence—a fact of life.” In recent years, the United Nations Children's Fund, advocacy and human rights groups, journalists, and researchers have drawn public attention to the high rates of child casualties in these regions, and to the plights of those children still caught in the crossfire. It has thus become clear that both the challenges and the stakes are higher than ever to promote the safety and well-being of affected children around the world (Masten & Narayan, 2012; Tol, Jordans, Kohrt, Betancourt, & Komproe, 2012).

2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (1+2-2017) ◽  
pp. 5-33
Author(s):  
Nohemi Jocabeth Echeverría Vicente ◽  
Kenneth Hemmerechts ◽  
Dimokritos Kavadias

This paper investigates the legacies of growing up in a country with large-scale armed conflict on individuals’ emancipative values. We used a most-similar case research design to analyze these consequences of armed conflict. We selected Mexico and Colombia as cases to compare, because they were similar in variables related to emancipative value preferences at the onset of our comparison. These two cases, however, varied, later on, in the level to which individuals of similar age-cohorts were exposed to largescale political violence. The results show that individuals who have grown up in a country with high levels of armed conflict tend to endorse less emancipative values in adulthood.


2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 75-96 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cecilia Jacob

Prevention has taken centre-stage in present discussions around both United Nations reform and the r2p implementation agenda. Contemporary humanitarian crises from Myanmar to Yemen reinforce the horrendous atrocities that children face during periods of armed conflict and mass political upheaval to which the prevention agenda is geared. This article considers the atrocity prevention dimension of r2p; it describes changes in both understanding around the dynamics of political violence and strategies for targeting civilians in contemporary conflicts over the past two decades, situates children in the broader social context of mass political violence, and identifies strategies for incorporating a child-centric lens into the existing atrocity prevention toolkit. It argues that while the children and armed conflict agenda strengthens atrocity prevention efforts in relation to children’s specific experiences in violent conflict, it does not serve as an adequate proxy for a child-centric approach to atrocity prevention through both structural and targeted measures.


1999 ◽  
Vol 28 (2) ◽  
pp. 29-37 ◽  
Author(s):  
Denis J. Halliday

The impact of the sanctions regime imposed on Iraq by the member states of the United Nations Security Council since 1990 has many facets. The horrifying human face of malnutrition and death has, quite rightly, been given greatest media and other exposure, but other forms of damage are also severely felt. This article intends briefly to explore some aspects of the impact in an attempt to show a somewhat wider picture of the sanctions catastrophe. While the catastrophe is a thing of the present, it has potentially lasting consequences for the future, not only for the Iraqi people, but for the peace and well-being of the Arab region and the world as a whole.


2002 ◽  
Vol 51 (3) ◽  
pp. 511-554 ◽  
Author(s):  
Craig Forrest

In November 2001, a new weapon was added to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation's2arsenal used to protect and preserve the world's cultural heritage, in the form of the Convention on the Protection of the Underwater Cultural Heritage.3This Convention, while not yet in force, will complement UNESCO's three other heritage conventions, the 1954 Hague Convention on the Protection of Cultural Heritage in the Event of Armed Conflict,4the 1970 Convention on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Import, Export and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property (1971)5and the 1972 Convention concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage.6


2019 ◽  
pp. 088626051986596 ◽  
Author(s):  
Guido Veronese ◽  
Federica Cavazzoni ◽  
Sabrina Russo ◽  
Cindy Sousa

Research has widely documented the effects of war and political violence on the functioning and well-being of adults and children. Yet, within this literature, women’s agency in the face of war-related adversity and political violence remains underexplored. The present study was conducted in the Gaza Strip in the aftermath of the most recent war on Gaza in 2014, with the aim of investigating the consequences of war and political violence for women’s mental health and psychological functioning. Based on interviews with 21 Palestinian women exposed to extreme war-related traumatic events, the article offers an analysis of the risk and protective factors affecting their well-being and enhancing (or diminishing) their agency. Human Security, Family Ties, Psychosocial Resources, Individual Resources, and Motherhood emerged from the women’s narratives as key factors contributing to the maintenance of positive psychological functioning and the ability to adjust to traumatic war events in the aftermath of acute armed conflict. These exploratory findings suggest that Palestinian women display a high level of functioning and resources for adjustment that is preserved after periods of devastating armed conflict. The study draws attention to a set of protective factors for the well-being of women and their families when living with chronic political violence.


1999 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 125-128

It gives me great pleasure to convey my warmest greetings to all who have gathered from around the world to continue this historic process. I would like first to express my gratitude to President Carlos Menem and the people of Argentina for hosting this Conference, which demonstrates yet again their abiding commitment to the United Nations and to human well-being in general. I would also like to salute all the other Heads of State or Government, distinguished delegates, colleagues from the United Nations system and other participants for coming together, in a spirit of partnership, to continue this vital work, which means so much to the world's people.


2009 ◽  
Vol 58 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniele Tortoreto

Nell’anno 2008 i leaders del mondo si sono riuniti a New York per verificare il compimento degli obiettivi stabiliti nella Dichiarazione del Millennio, l’8 settembre 2000. Il quinto Obiettivo del Millennio delle Nazioni Unite è dedicato al miglioramento della salute materno-infantile. L’Organizzazione Mondiale della Sanità (OMS), il Fondo delle Nazioni Unite per la Popolazione (UNFPA), quello per l’Infanzia (UNICEF) e la Banca Mondiale hanno sottoscritto una dichiarazione sulla salute materna e del neonato, impegnandosi ad intensificare il sostegno ai Paesi per raggiungere gli OSM 4 e 5, ridurre la mortalità infantile e migliorare la salute materna. Queste organizzazioni si soffermano sul concetto di “salute riproduttiva”: uno dei tipici concetti contraddittori e ambigui elaborati alle Conferenze del Cairo del 1994 e Pechino del 1995, che si basa sulla definizione di salute data dall’Organizzazione Mondiale della Sanità, in cui la salute è intesa come “stato di benessere fisico, psicologico e sociale”, rimarcando che essa non consiste soltanto nell’assenza di malattie. Tale definizione, utopistica ed edonistica, è stata criticata dalla comunità internazionale, e tuttavia, durante le assemblee delle Nazioni Unite al Cairo e a Pechino è stata applicata alla salute materna, detta impropriamente riproduttiva invece che procreativa. I documenti sulla “salute riproduttiva” dell’OMS, dell’UNFPA, dell’UNICEF e della Banca Mondiale diffondono le direttive elaborate al Cairo sulla “salute riproduttiva” e l’aborto è incluso in questo ambiguo concetto di “salute riproduttiva”. ---------- In the year 2008 the leaders of the World convened in New York to ascertain the achievement of the goals established in the United Nations Millennium Declaration on 8 September 2000. The 5th UN Millennium Objective is dedicated to the improvement of maternal and children health. The World Health Organization (WHO), United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), World Bank have signed a joint statement on maternal and newborn health in which they are committed to intensify their support to countries to achieve the Millennium Development Goals 4 and 5, To improve maternal health and To reduce child mortality. These organizations dwell upon the concept of “reproductive health”: one of the typical contradictory and ambiguous concepts elaborated at the UN Conferences in Cairo in 1994 and Beijing in 1995 that is based on the definition of health given by the World Health Organization, in which health is understood as “state of physical, psychological and social well being”, and hence not only in the absence of diseases. This definition, utopian and hedonistic, was criticized by the international community, and yet, despite that, during the UN assemblies in Cairo and Beijing it was applied to maternal health, improperly termed reproductive instead of procreative health. The documents on “reproductive health” of the WHO, UNFPA, UNICEF, World Bank diffuse the directives drafted in Cairo on “reproductive health”, and abortion is included in this ambiguous concept of “reproductive health”.


Author(s):  
Lisa Hultman ◽  
Jacob D. Kathman ◽  
Megan Shannon

Does United Nations peacekeeping reduce violence in civil wars? This chapter discusses the scope of problem posed by civil conflicts around the world, and illustrates the human suffering caused by internal political violence. It then introduces United Nations peacekeeping as one of the primary tools used by the international community to reduce civil war brutality. Though UN peacekeeping is frequently used in the world’s most intractable conflicts, little is known about how effectively it mitigates hostilities. This chapter presents the research strategy used in the book, which is designed to give a better understanding of peacekeeping’s effect on violence. It then discusses the intellectual and humanitarian benefits of broadly and systemically analyzing the effect of United Nations peacekeeping on violence in civil war.


Author(s):  
James Garbarino ◽  
Amy Governale ◽  
Danielle Nesi

This chapter explores the impact of political violence on children and youth through an examination of theory and research, particularly social-ecological systems theory, dealing with prolonged exposure to armed political conflicts and experiences of single-incident attacks. The chapter discusses both the direct traumatic effects of being a victim of political violence and the indirect effects of living in communities and societies in which the experience of violence is transmitted through the media to the minds of children, adults, and policymakers. The chapter further discusses the role and limitations of psychological resiliency and the importance of fostering normalcy to help children overcome the effects of exposure to political violence. The chapter concludes with suggestions for programmatic initiatives at the community and national level that reinforce a return to normalcy and provide assistance to traumatized children and adolescents.


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