This short animation movie was produced by the Child Protection Working Group, in which Save the Children is a member, for the launch of the "Minimum Standards for Child Protection in Humanitarian Action".
Save the Children is working to minimize the harm children experience during and after an emergency and ensure children are protected from participating in armed forces or groups, stay together with their families and are not subject to exploitation and sexual abuse.
War and natural disaster result in millions of families and children witnessing or being victims of unthinkable atrocities. During emergencies, children run many risks. They are at risk of being separated from their families or other caregivers, of being recruited into armed forces or groups, economically exploited and sexually abused. Children have a right to protection from all kinds of violence in all kinds of emergencies.
Armed conflicts and increasingly frequent natural disasters scar millions of children's lives every year.
- In the last decade, an estimated 20 million girls and boys1 have
been forced to flee their homes.
- More than one million children have been orphaned or separated
from their families by an emergency2.
- Just over one billion children live in countries or territories
affected by armed conflict3.
- Several tens of thousands of children have been coerced or
induced into armed forces or groups to serve as child soldiers4.
- Over the next decade. 175 million children are likely to be
affected every year by natural disasters5.
- Rape and other forms of sexual violence were cited as being used
as a war tactic in 16 countries and territories from 2000 to 20076.
Save the Children works to prevent and respond to abuse, neglect, exploitation of and violence against children in emergencies. An emergency is defined as 'a situation where lives, physical and mental wellbeing, or development opportunities for children are threatened as a result of armed conflict, disaster or the breakdown of social or legal order, and where local capacity to cope is exceeded or inadequate'7.