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Iraq
Children gravely affected by the situation (2003-2009)
- The situation of children in in Iraq has been the subject of the attention of the Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict (SRSG) since 2005 and has been reported upon in the Secretary General’s annual reports on children and armed conflict in 2006 (S/2006/826), 2007 (S/2007/757), 2008, and 2009.
- Estimates vary but it has been reported that close to 40% to 59% of IDPs are children according SRSG and Red Crescent Society respectively (SRSG, May 2008; RCS, June 2008). According to RCS estimates this would entail close to 950,000 IDP children post 2006, and by analogy including pre 2003 displaced an estimated total of 1,600,000 IDP children.
- Precise data is not available on the number of victims amongst children. Evidence shows that thousands of children have been killed, maimed or injured as a result of military operations, insurgent violence, terrorist acts or mass casualty bombings. Schools and health centers have also been both unintended and deliberate targets of strikes.
- Through the conflict it has been reported that internally displaced children live in substandard conditions, with poor access to education and health care services, trauma counseling, available support to children with disabilities. Some surveys suggest that a large number of children have lost one or both parents. Minor heads of household and orphans are amongst the most vulnerable.
- In November 2009, UNHCR monitoring activities through 2009 indicated high percentage of school absenteeism, IDP children working, children without parents, and children with mental disabilities as well as high levels of domestic violence (UNHCR December 2009). UNHCR report also reveal high rate of missing children amongst IDPs (20% of IDPs assessed) and retunees (5%). Previous IDP monitoring have also highlighted instances of forced prostitution and risk of recruitement (IDP WG, March 2008)
- In 2007, an estimated 600,000 children had been displaced since 2006, the vast majority unable to return home. Many of the 220,000 school-aged internally displaced children had their education interrupted, adding to the estimated 760,000 children out of primary school in 2006.
- In assessment undertaken in 2007, according to UNICEF, at least 40,000 children were born to displaced families in 2006-2007 - many living in unsanitary conditions in camps Figures by Save the Children show that in 1990 the mortality rate for under-fives was 50 per 1,000 live births. In 2005 it was 125. UNICEF has said Iraq's maternal mortality rates have increased up by 65 per cent. (IRIN, 14 August 2007)
UNHCR December 2009
During the first three months of the year, the majority of persons assessed informed that they were not directly targeted by security incidents (84% IDPs, 87% IDP returnees and 70% of refugee returnees). Those affected by security incidents stated intra-ethnic or intra-religious fighting (5% IDPs and 3% IDP returnees), large explosions (2% IDPs and 1.5% IDP returnees), forced recruitment by armed elements of children and adults (4% IDPs and 2% IDP returnees) and looting, detention, general violence, and mines/UXOs contamination. None of the groups informed being arrested by the authorities due to displacement or return. Twenty per cent of IDPs and 5% of refugee returnee reported children to be missing. Many IDPs and returnees experienced security measures and restrictions of movement due to checkpoints (38%) and curfews (13%), and fences/walls/barriers. They seemed to consider restrictions necessary in certain areas for security reasons....Many communities reported missing family members (30% of IDPs, 30% of IDP returnees, 27% of refugee returnees) indicating that they were missing because of kidnappings, abductions and detentions and that they do not know what happened to their missing family members.
The majority of communities assessed from January to March stated that only “some” children attended school.Only 14% of the groups reported that the majority of boys were attending school (9% of girls). Among the main reasons provided for not attending school, it was reported the need to work (53% of boys, 17% of girls), expensive school supplies (49% of boys, 52% of girls), expensive transportation (20% of boys, 19% of girls), overcrowded schools (12% of boys, 11% of girls) and missing documents for school admission (12% of all children). Communities indicated that education was deemed unnecessary (21% of girls) and tribal habits (19% of girls). Communities further reported about children working (66% of boys, 15% of girls), children without both mother and father (45% of boys, 47% of girls), and children with mental disabilities (26% of boys, 20% of girls) as well as children experiencing domestic violence (5% of boys, 16% of girls).
UN Special Representative of the Secretary General for Children and Armed Conflict, 25 May 2008:
"The Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict, Ms. Radhika Coomaraswamy, in concluding her visit to Iraq of 20-25 April, stated that children of Iraq are the silent victims of the on-going violence. “Many of them no longer go to school, many are recruited for violent activities or detained in custody, they lack access to the most basic services and manifest awide range of psychological symptoms from the violence in their everyday lives”. Increasing cases of gender based violence are also reported. “It is an intolerable situation” she said. She called on religious, political, military and community leaders to send one clear message to Iraqi children: “Stay out of the violence and go back to school”. Ms. Coomaraswamy noted that only 50% of primary school children are attending school, down from 80% in 2005. Only 40% have access to clean drinking water and there is a continuing possibility of outbreaks of cholera. Since 2004, an increasing number of children have been recruited into various militias and insurgent groups, including as suicide bombers, and approximately 1,500 are known to be held in detention facilities. Humanitarian access to communities is severely hindered in many parts of the country, depriving children of humanitarian assistance. More than half of Iraqi IDPs and refugees are children and also face a great deal of difficulties in their new places of settlement whether in Iraq or in neighbouring countries. The international community should assist the host countries in ensuring that the rights of children are protected and that they have access to basic services such as education and health care.
Over the past years, due to the sanctions that were imposed on the country, and the violence of the last few years, the humanitarian situation of children has dramatically worsened, and one of the most striking consequences of the continued violence in Iraq is the degradation of basic services. Although Iraq has sizeable revenue, in many parts of the territory, access to education, health, water, food and sanitation is
lacking. According to UNICEF, 60% of Iraqis lack access to at least one critical social service, and more than half of the population does not have access to safe drinking water, which may have contributed to several outbreaks of cholera in 2007. Iraqi children are the primary victims, both because they have to face the violence of the conflict on a daily basis, and also because it deprives them of essential goods and
services to survive.
Children’s access to social services is systematically undermined by violence, politicization of aid delivery by all parties, criminality, an exodus of service providers, destructive military operations, insecurity and chronic underinvestment. Outreach services for the underserved have stopped in many areas due to fear and lack of staff. Displacement has also eroded local service capacity by burdening already weakened social services with additional demands from IDPs. The major challenges for children’s health throughout Iraq remain lack of full access for vaccination as well as the risks of other outbreaks of cholera. The psychological effects of violence must also be noted with school drop out and drug addiction increasingly reported. According to WHO sources, in Baghdad, one out of two Iraqis has been exposed to a major traumatic event and other surveys, such as in Basra, show that civilians suffer from a very high stress level.
Iraqi girls in general have suffered from school exclusion more than boys mostly because of fear of violence and an increasing climate of social and religious conservatism. In many areas, and especially in remote ones, girls may not be encouraged to go to school. ……
Since 2004, and more so in the aftermath of the 2006 Samarra bombing and the ensuing inter-communal violence, children have been recruited and utilized by an array of parties to the conflict in Iraq. It has been reported that hundreds of children, some as young as 10 years of age, have been used in a varying array of tasks [….] However, AQI is not the only group that has been alleged to recruit and utilize children under the age of 18 years. Other groups who have been cited for use of children are Sunni Militias, such as the new Awakening Councils and Shiite militias, including the Mahdi Army. The Security Forces of the Government of Iraq are not known to use children under the age of 18 years. Iraq has just ratified the Optional Protocol on the involvement of children in armed conflict. …..There are currently approximately 1,500 children in detention in Iraq, the youngest of which is 10 years old.
The issue of displaced persons is becoming one of greater concern and is the direct result of violence and conflict of past years. The larger incidence of Iraqis currently displaced is due to the outbreak of war in 2003, with a massive outflow after the bombing of the Samarra shrine in February 2006. Today, more than 4.5 million Iraqis are IDPs or refugees, 40% of whom are children. Although Iraqis are displaced throughout the territory of Iraq, the phenomenon is aggravated in the KRG, which hosts approximately 800.000 IDPs, 60% of whom are children. The IDP population is not homogenous, has arrived in different waves and consists of diverse groups. In Kurdistan, for example, IDPs are of Arab or Kurdish origins, and may belong to three different categories: those who fled because of armed conflict, because they felt discriminated against as a minority or because they lived in disputed areas. …..Displaced Iraqis, whether they be Arabs, Kurds or other minority communities, are rarely displaced as family units. The vast majority are widows or women separated from their husbands and extendedfamilies. ….
The protracted violence in Iraq has had negative effects on children in general and on girls in particular, especially concerning access to education. Most girls, especially in rural areas, are not aware that they have a right to education. Lack of attention is given to the girl child and peace education should be opportunity to allow gender awareness programs to be included in schools. Gender based violence has been exacerbated by the continuing violence in the country and the lack of specific attention to the needs of girls is of grave an immediate concern. The conflict allows crimes to go unpunished and impunity now prevails in many parts of the country for crimes such as rape, honor killings, forced early marriages and domestic violence. This is especially true in rural areas where there is no formal judicial process and where women and girls are not aware of their rights or are too fearful to exercise them. Rape and other grave sexual violence are also a major and increasing concern in IDP and refugee populations.
Iraq is one of the most landmine and ERW-contaminated areas in the world. More than 55 million cluster sub-munitions were also dropped during the last two wars, making Iraq the most affected country. Although the entire country is affected, 3000 hazardous areas have been identified in the Kurdistan region alone (766 km2). Children amount for one fourth of mine victims and one third of victims of ERWs. The majority of children who encounter them die; the remainder of them are maimed. Three Mine Awareness Committees exist in Iraq, two at the KRG level (Erbil and Suleimaniah) and one regional Mine Action Centre in Basra. They support mine education and clear contaminated lands that are obstacles for energy and infrastructure projects. ….. No records or maps of mines and ERWs remain. With the current capacity and equipment, it is estimated that it will take more than a century to clear the KRG area alone."
IDP Working Group, 24 March 2008:
"Early marriages amongst Iraqi girls have been increasingly reported in 2007. In January, the early marriage of a young boy (13 years old) was reported in Thi-Qar. Students are still encountering difficulties in transferring documentation needed for school in their place of displacement. In particular, in January, cases in Kirkuk and in Baghdad were reported. Many IDP children have been reported as orphans without escort, as well as forced into prostitution. Drug abuse is an increasing phenomenon among children as reported in the North and lower South.Psychological trauma symptoms among children in unstable areas have been often reported."
United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), 15 February 2008:
"2007 condemned a growing number of Iraqi children to a more lonely life. Many struggled with fear and loss, as well as very real threats to their safety. While little hard statistics are available on abuses against children, far too many were stripped of their protective environment of family support, fundamental legal protections and access to school and health care. An unacceptably large number of children and women fell victim to military operations, insurgency, criminal and random violence during the year. Mass casualty attacks affecting hundreds of people became more frequent. The UN estimates 19,500 violent civilian deaths in 2007. Other estimates are higher (up to 24,000 according to Iraq Body Count), but still fall below 2006 figures. The majority of casualties were men; however hundreds of women and children are certainly among the dead. Many thousands more became widows and orphans after losing their main family wage-earner to violence, exposing them to poverty.
High levels of displacement in the first months of 2007 created additional threats to children. Some were separated from their families in the move. Others felt unable to fit in after arriving in their new areas, particularly if their families had to struggle to find work and enroll them in school. .... Instability also took a growing toll on children’s behaviour. A report by the WHO in March 2007 said that 30% of Iraqi children were showing classic signs of anxiety and distress: including bedwetting, poor concentration and violence. Economic hardship affected millions in 2007, with unemployment rates at over 15% in many governorates and food prices rising. Many parents were forced to ask children to work to earn money. Local NGOs reported a rise in the number of children visibly working on the street. Reports also emerged that some children were being recruited to work for non-state armed groups. Of the thousands of Iraqi children in need of special care, a few found support through a Child Re-integration Programme in Baghdad, developed by UNICEF and local partners. In 2007, these centres enabled 154 children to be restored to family care. But too many children are still living without help – or hope – on Iraq’s dangerous streets. As the number of children without caregivers increased, capacity to support them in communities and institutions dwindled. In August 2007, several children were discovered being kept in appalling conditions in Baghdad’s Dar El-Hanan home for severely disabled patients. The images laid bare the risks facing Iraqi children living without a family’s protection. UNICEF and other organizations pushed for a nationwide assessment of Iraq’s orphanages, which will be conducted through an international NGO in 2008.
Arrest and detention rates for children also increased over the summer, as a result of increased security measures in Iraq’s central governorates. By year end, the Multi-National Forces-Iraq announced that over 950 children aged between 10 and 17 years old were being detained in their facilities for alleged security violations, in addition to at least 400 in Iraqi facilities. Ensuring these most vulnerable children receive treatment in line with international human rights law and standards for juvenile justice is a major UNICEF priority for 2008. The rise of extremism has added extra burdens for women and girls. Many women living in the highly conservative central provinces of Anbar and Diyala feared to step outside, even in full Islamic dress. Reports from Basra now suggest that women are also being targeted there. Basra police reported in December that 113 women were been killed in such attacks during the year. Women interviewed after displacement also reported sexual violence and forced “temporary marriages”. Honor-killings were also consistently reported, particularly in the Kurdistan Region – including more than 300 cases of burned women last year according to the KRG. These cases are mostly presented as suicide attempts or accidents, which hampers data collection. As 2008 starts, children and women are as vulnerable as ever – if not more so. It is not clear how many children in Iraq’s institutions are in poor living conditions and are susceptible to abuse and exploitation. And despite security improvements in some areas, many women still live in fear with few lifelines for support. Iraq is a State Party to the Convention of the Rights of the Child and the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women –which obligates the State to protect the rights of children and women under any and all circumstances. Turning these rights into a reality will be a major challenge for 2008 – and essential to Iraq’s ultimate recover."
UNAMI, 18 July 2006:
“Children remained victims in Iraq in many ways. Although not necessarily targeted, they are killed or maimed in sectarian-motivated attacks and in terrorist and insurgency acts. They are civilian casualties in MNF-I and Iraqi security forces-led raids against insurgents or militias, and suffer the most from other political, social and economic consequences of Iraqi's violent daily reality. The extent of violence in areas other than the Region of Kurdistan is such that likely every child, to some degree, has been exposed to it. Children suffering disabilities have also been unable to access adequate care and education. [...] Minors are often witnesses of extreme violence, killings and scene of carnage and dead and mutilated bodies..[...] Violence, corruption, inefficiency of state organs to exert control over security, establish the rule of law and protect individual and collective rights all lead to inability of both the state and the family to meet the needs of children. [...] According to the joint UN and Iraqi government food security and vulnerability analysis, children are the primary victims of food insecurity, with every one in ten child suffering from malnutrition. [...] UNAMI HRO is also aware of the extreme hardship of the children of internally displaced families, whose numbers are growing every day. The living conditions are substandard, without access to education and health care services, trauma counseling, available support to children with disabilities, to mention a few examples. Additional hardship for families and children is caused by the lack of adequate places to socialize, play and learn as would be necessary for their healthy development. Many Iraqis complain of having to keep their children at home for prolonged periods of time.”
See also:
Former children's camp in south in urgent need of assistance, Integrated Regional Information Networks (IRIN), 23 August 2007
Militias 'recruit child bombers', BBC News, 25 April 2008
Move to prevent children being exploited by militants, Integrated Regional Information Networks (IRIN), 29 July 2008
Internally displaced children in Erbil ask SRSG Coomaraswamy for 'security', United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI), 30 April 2008
Internally displaced children in Erbil ask SRSG Coomaraswamy for 'security', United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI), 30 April 2008
Iraqi children share their experience in film about friends separated by conflict, United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), 3 January 2008
Update for partners on the situation of children in Iraq - Aug 2007, United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), 27 August 2007
UNAMI, November - December 2005, p.2-3
See also "Increased protection of children following attacks", IRIN, 5 March 2006
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Information displayed on this page consists of excerpts of external reports and thus does not necessarily reflect the views of the IDMC. All excerpts are sourced. Links to online versions of the original documents are provided where available. The headline and bullet point summary at the top of the page are added by the IDMC. Other text added by the IDMC is in bold italics.
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