Justice for Children Affected by Political Violence

This chapter catalogs the list of crimes against and affecting children during conflict and situations of war over which the International Criminal Court (ICC) has jurisdiction. It provides information on the mandate of the International Criminal Tribunals of Yugoslavia and Rwanda as well as the Special Court of Sierra Leone and how they addressed issues relating to crimes against children. The chapter describes the structure and functioning of the ICC. In addition, significant information is presented about the work of the Office of the Prosecutor (OTP) of the ICC relating to investigations and cases including crimes against children. Lastly, it gives an overview of the Sexual and Gender-based Crimes Policy and the Policy on Children of the OTP, which were launched in 2014 and 2016, respectively. Both policies provide the framework within which the OTP will conduct the preliminary examinations, investigations, and prosecutions of those crimes.

Prolonged Exposure to Political Violence and the Development of Post-Traumatic Stress Symptoms in Palestinian Adolescents

This chapter investigates the relationship between prolonged exposure to political violence (EPV) and post-traumatic stress symptoms (PTSS) among Palestinian adolescents. It also examines the moderating effect of participants’ age, gender, and parental socialization styles on the relationship between EPV and PTSS. A systematic cluster random sample of 2,934 Palestinian adolescents aged 14 to 19 years living in the West Bank and East Jerusalem responded to self-administered questionnaires. Multiple regression analysis showed a positive relationship between levels of EPV and of PTSS. Girls showed higher levels of PTSS than boys. Hostile and rejecting parenting styles, strict discipline, and negative evaluation from parents correlated positively with high PTSS, whereas intimate and loving parenting correlated with low levels of PTSS, supporting the hypotheses presented here. The chapter discusses the importance of intimate and loving parenting styles as a possible protective factor for mitigating the effects of political violence on children.

Therapeutic Interventions with Israeli Children Exposed to Continuous Traumatic Stress of Political Violence

This chapter reviews theoretical and clinical issues related to living under continuous traumatic stress (CTS) due to exposure to political violence. Through an analysis of CTS experienced by the residents of the southwestern area of Israel, the chapter presents an approach to therapeutic interventions for children and families that advocates the adaptation of extant therapies to the CTS situation. An illustrative case study is presented, and the effect of external threat on the therapeutic relationship between therapist and client is discussed. The chapter concludes with recommendations for therapy with children who are exposed to CTS and suggestions for future research for assessing interventions of the kind described in this chapter.

“My Heart Feels Chained”

Lebanon currently hosts approximately 1.5 million refugees from neighboring Syria. Within this context, Syrian families face high rates of poverty, burdensome governmental policies and regulations, a lack of affordable housing, food insecurity, family violence, and survival practices. Exacerbated by displacement, these vulnerabilities have a destabilizing effect on parents, who are struggling to meet their individual and families’ needs in a low-resource and inhospitable environment. This chapter explores how parents experience daily economic challenges that can significantly affect their ability to adequately care for their children. Data from Syrian refugee families revealed that parents’ feelings of parental adequacy were tied to their ability to provide for their children. Parents’ feelings of inadequacy contributed to an ongoing cycle of poverty for families. Increased stress on family members manifested in negative mental and physical health consequences or family members not being able to work, thereby pushing families further into economic precarity.

The Moral Pathways of War-Exposed Youths

It is too often hard to reconcile what happens in war-torn environments with notions of benevolence and justice. Given that youths develop moral understandings and a sense of themselves and others as moral beings in the context of their everyday experiences, the harrowing backdrop of war is likely to have significant and perhaps long-standing effects on their moral development. In this chapter, contemporary scholarship on morality and on the development of moral agency is used to outline a conceptual framework for understanding the unique challenges faced by war-exposed youth when called to make sense of their own war-related experiences. The chapter includes narrative examples from research with Colombian war-displaced youths and Colombian child soldiers to illustrate distinct ways in which war constrains their attempts at moral meaning-making.

Effects of Political Violence Exposure on the Family and Parenting Environment

Political violence and armed conflict are a worldwide problem that exposes families to extreme acts of violence, disrupts community and family economic conditions, compromises family functioning and parenting behaviors, and has deleterious effects on children’s development. In this chapter, we describe two overarching, complementary theoretical frameworks that can explain how exposure to political violence affects family functioning: Bronfenbrenner’s model of hierarchically nested ecological ecosystems and a related model within developmental psychology, the family stress model. Using data from our Palestinian-Israeli exposure to violence study, a prospective study of 1,501 Palestinian and Israeli families, we examine a mediational model showing that the family’s exposure to ethnic-political violence predicts negative family functioning (parental depressive symptoms and marital aggression), which in turn predicts subsequent harsh physical punishment toward one’s children.

Gendering Security

Efforts toward preventing and countering violent extremism (P/CVE) have been largely male-dominated—led by and directed at men and boys, who are typically assumed the perpetrators of terrorist acts, as well as the subjects best placed to prevent and address them. Young women and girls have often been regarded as peripheral, of relevance only as victims or objects of security measures and concerns. Yet, women and girls do play significant roles in the dynamics of terrorism—as offenders, mobilizers, and enablers of terrorist attacks, as well as active agents in the advancement of counter-narratives to combating violence. This chapter considers the gendered dimensions of terrorism and P/CVE, with a particular focus on girls and young women. It argues that consideration of gender is crucial for understanding the causes and the dynamics of the use of children in terrorism and for developing more effective strategies for prevention.

Self-Regulation Capacities in Children Exposed to Trauma and Political Violence

Continuous distress affects developing children in numerous ways and is especially consequential for children’s self-regulation abilities. During critical periods of brain development, children are especially vulnerable to the effects of trauma and violence. Exposure to trauma, including political violence, can drastically disrupt a child’s capacity for three domains of self-regulation that are crucial to healthy functioning: sensory regulation, executive functioning, and emotion regulation. Children’s self-regulation capacities are further influenced by parental regulation, which is reflected in relational emotion regulation and, at times, the subsequent manifestation of relational post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). This chapter summarizes the effects of trauma and exposure to political violence on these domains of regulation and the influence of parental co-regulation in times of continual exposure to trauma and political violence. The chapter concludes with two examples of interventions aimed at enhancing regulation capacities in children facing prolonged exposure to political violence in Israel.

Children Born of War in Northern Uganda

Among the many fallouts arising from systematic wartime rape is the reality of children conceived from sexual violence. The scope of this population remains largely unknown, and research into how children born of wartime sexual violence and their mothers fare within their societies is only recently emerging. To date, little is known about the specific psychosocial consequences for these children. Drawing on the voices of the children themselves, this chapter traces the realities and perspectives of 60 children born in Lord’s Resistance Army captivity in northern Uganda. Born of war, these children are deeply affected by the social upheaval that brought about their conception. Privileging children’s voices, the chapter highlights their lives in the post-war context. Findings reveal the profound stigma and marginalization that these children endure, alongside struggles with issues of identity, belonging, and their perceived needs. The chapter also reveals participants’ use of resistance to counter negative perceptions of them by their families and communities.

Research, Intervention, and Prevention of Children’s Exposure to Political Violence

This chapter reviews the research on the effects of EPV and on the intervention programs contained in this volume, and discusses the theoretical, methodological and ethical issues relating to these reports. In addition, building on the implications of the research for prevention of EPV, the chapter reviews the enforcement gap between international humanitarian and human rights law designed to protect children from EPV and the reality of increasing EPV in the world. It also discusses factors that have led to the enforcement gap, including weaknesses in enforcement mechanisms and psychosocial processes that lead individuals and groups to discount the rights of children. Finally, a we suggest approaches that researchers and practioners in the social sciences and international law could take for protecting children and families from EPV in armed conflict.