Year | Name | Potential amendments |
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International legal frameworks | |
1949 | Geneva conventions | Four treaties and three protocols that establish international humanitarian law by providing specific rules and limits to war. Section is needed to outline clear accountability measures that will be enforced when laws are breached by individuals, groups, and states |
1998 | Rome statute of the International Court of Justice | Establishes the International Criminal Court’s structure and authority. An internal policing authority is needed to ensure states comply with ICC rulings and arrests |
UN conventions and declarations | |
1948 | Universal Declaration of Human Rights | None |
1948 | Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide | All articles outline the definition and prohibition of genocide. Section is needed to outline clear, effective penalties that will be enforced when genocidal acts are committed by individuals, groups, and states |
1959 | UN Declaration on the Rights of the Child | All principles outline the rights and freedoms of children. Section needed to specify the types of protection and relief children should be promised and in what circumstances (ie, conflict and humanitarian settings) |
1974 | UN Declaration on the Protection of Women and Children in Emergency and Armed Conflict | All statements reaffirm women and children to be the most vulnerable members of the population who require special protections in armed conflicts. Section needed on clear action by the UN or regional bodies in the event of non-compliance and gross violations |
1989 | UN Convention on the Rights of the Child | All articles outline the special safeguards and care children require. Inclusion of elements of protection and safety including safe passage and evacuation in the event of conflict |
2000 | Optional protocol to the convention on the rights of the child on the involvement of children in armed conflict | All articles reaffirm the Convention on the Rights of the Child and further calls for the special protection of all children <18 years old encountering armed conflicts. Inclusion of specific accountability measures for states who recruit, train, and use children <18 years old. Inclusion needed of specific rehabilitation and reintegration activities required for children who are victims of armed conflict |
The special vulnerabilities of children are addressed by a series of provisions in international humanitarian law, including the 1949 Geneva Conventions, 1977 Additional Protocols, the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, and the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. However, processes for ensuring compliance with these provisions remain inadequate and full accountability for violations remains elusive (21). The International Criminal Court (ICC) has authority to investigate and prosecute individuals, including heads of state, for serious breaches. However, the ICC remains dependent on cooperating states to enforce accountability measures (22). It is also evident that states often use their international influence, resources, and sophisticated judicial systems to delay and ultimately impede accountability.
Humanitarian voice for children
Clearly, children share many protections with other non-combatants in these environments, protections that demand immediate implementation in Gaza, Ukraine, Sudan, and in all other areas affected by violent conflict. We argue that children possess distinct claims to protection and care in settings of violent conflict, and that the special developmental vulnerabilities and societal roles of children, many reflected in international law, necessitate special steps in full compliance with humanitarian laws and norms.
The first, and most fundamental, step to protect the children of Gaza is to immediately end combat operations that endanger civilians as well as soldiers: to stop the killing. If there is no cessation of fighting, it is vital to permit and facilitate the evacuation of children, their families, and all civilians to areas of safety (23, 24). Israeli warnings of impending attacks and the establishment of corridors of safe passage have proved largely ineffective. The Geneva Conventions require that a besieging party permit the evacuation of children and other vulnerable civilians from a besieged area, a condition that is not being met by the near total closure of all crossings from Gaza. Unlike the welcome provided by neighbouring countries for the more than five million women and children fleeing the war in Ukraine (25), families in Gaza were not permitted or provided safe passage to move to any of the bordering states. The evacuation of children with catastrophic illness to advanced medical facilities in other countries has also proved far more difficult in Gaza than in Ukraine (26). There is also a widespread fear that departing families and children would never be allowed to return, a fear rooted in the infamous Nakba (catastrophe) of 1948, in which 700 000 Palestinians were displaced by Israeli militias or fled during the Arab-Israeli war of 1948 and barred by Israel from returning to their homes and lands (27).
Second, children are particularly vulnerable to the indirect effects of the war (28). Protections for essential civilian infrastructure remain critical. In addition, adequate relief supplies must be permitted entry and distributed appropriately to civilian populations. The obstruction of adequate relief supplies is a core component of the ICC’s charges of war crimes against Israel (13). Moreover, public statements by some Israeli leaders soon after 7 October have lent support to accusations that Israel is using starvation as a weapon of war (29). This contention, coupled with the destructive military operations, led South Africa to bring allegations to the International Court of Justice that Israel’s actions were "genocidal in character" (3) and the UN special rapporteur on human rights in the Palestinian territories to state that there were reasonable grounds to believe that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza (31).
Displaced and unaccompanied children have distinct needs that too often go unrecognised by both humanitarian agencies and governments. Also critical is the protection and rebuilding of the Gazan health and education systems. Health workers urgently need essential medications, equipment, and other supplies, particularly for children. International medical institutions and professional networks can help facilitate the safe evacuation of children in need of specialised medical care. These networks can also help students and health professionals continue their education so that they will be able to provide crucial health services in Gaza for years to come. Every university and hundreds of schools in Gaza have been damaged, and more than 600 000 children have been out of school since the October attacks. Without immediate protections for schools and support for reopening, education—a critical child right—will be neglected with long term damaging consequences (32, 33).
Third, the global ability to monitor the consequences of war urgently needs to be strengthened. More than 10 months into the conflict, there is still no definitive information on the number of civilian casualties. Although the Gaza Ministry of Health remains the primary source for casualty figures, the infrastructure for assessing casualties has been damaged and there are undoubtedly many killed yet to be discovered (5). Beyond the need for political or legal accountability, accurate information on those who have died is an essential, if tragically belated, way to value them in life. This is of special importance for children, who may have left behind little evidence of their existence other than in the hearts of their families. Currently, documentation relies on a patchwork of UN, academic, non-governmental, and local sources, often with unclear methodologies and political agendas.
Various new technologies could contribute to the assessment of the humanitarian impact of war. These include advanced remote sensing capabilities, modelling strategies, and artificial intelligence—technology currently used to fight a war (34)—should be purposefully and ethically harnessed to assess infrastructure damage and document casualties and humanitarian needs (35). Innovative statistical techniques have been used with existing datasets to estimate excess deaths associated with the armed conflicts in north east Nigeria and Somalia (36, 37). Remote monitoring and artificial intelligence may also contribute to improved systems for assessing the impact of war (38, 39). Academic and non-governmental organisations have pioneered new digital strategies to uncover or confirm military operations and attacks on civilians and civilian infrastructure. These emerging capabilities could contribute to a more fully integrated and authoritative global system for rapidly and accurately assessing the human cost of war.
Lastly, a focus on the humanitarian needs of children in war must not be interpreted as diminishing the humanitarian claims of all adults, soldiers and civilians alike. Indeed, children’s claims have much in common with adult claims. Nevertheless, there has been a long tradition of perceiving and addressing the plight of children as being shaped by a distinct moral, sentimental, and material character. The modern origins of child protections in war were first advanced by the Save the Children movement, which opposed the British blockade of Germany during and after the first world war that contributed to widespread child starvation in eastern Europe (40). Focused attention on the distinct needs and rights of children was also actively pursued during the decade leading up to the adoption of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1989.
Given the plight of children in Gaza, Ukraine, Sudan, and the many other countries in which children are exposed to violent conflict, we call for a renewed global commitment to the distinct needs and rights of children in crisis. This will require building stronger coalitions and a unified public voice to confront the marginalisation of children in our humanitarian strategies and the impunity with which the perpetrators of humanitarian violations continue their assaults. Although no single meeting or strategic plan can deal with the nature, scope, and urgency of this challenge, a pragmatic, global summit that meaningfully engages affected communities and other essential actors could prove useful in building a sustained, re-energised movement (41). The summit should urgently review existing UN resolutions and guidance and focus on amendments and implementation strategies that ensure protection and evacuation of children from conflict zones. The status quo is unacceptable. The statistics from Gaza not only provide a harsh, synoptic judgment on an enfeebled global morality but should lay the foundation for a renewed humanitarian commitment to the needs and rights of children experiencing the horrors of war.
Contributors and sources ZAB has extensive experience of working in conflict and humanitarian settings and founded the BRANCH (Bridging Research and Action for Women and Children in Conflict and Humanitarian Settings) consortium in 2016. GBD has experience of working with deprived families in south east Asia and PHW is an expert in child health in complex political and security environments and is the juvenile care monitor for the US Federal Court overseeing the treatment of migrant children in US border detention facilities. ZAB and PHW conceptualised and designed this analysis. GBD carried out searches, compiled data, and synthesised the evidence. ZAB led the interpretation of evidence and the writing of this paper with substantial contributions from GBD and PHW. All authors approved the final article for submission. Data were retrieved and compiled from public and electronically available sources. ZAB is the guarantor.
- United Nations. Skyrocketing violence against children in Sudan demands urgent protection measures: UN report. 2024. https://news.un.org/en/story/2024/07/1152706 .
- Relief Web. Russian Federation’s attack on Ukrainian children’s hospital ‘not only a war crime’ but ‘far beyond the limits of humanity’, medical director tells security council. Press release, 9 Jul 2024. https://reliefweb.int/report/ukraine/russian-federations-attack-ukrainian-childrens-hospital-not-only-war-crime-far-beyond-limits-humanity-medical-director-tells-security-council
- United Nations. Ethiopia: victims ‘left in limbo’ as rights probe mandate ends. 2023. https://news.un.org/en/story/2023/10/1142297
- Roth K. Crimes of war in Gaza. New York Review 2024. https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2024/07/18/crimes-of-war-in-gaza-kenneth-roth/
- United Nations Human Rights Council. Report of the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and Israel (Advanced Unedited Version). UNHRC, 2024. https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2024/06/israeli-authorities-palestinian-armed-groups-are-responsible-war-crimes
- Meierhenrich J. How many victims were there in the Rwandan genocide? a statistical debate. J Genocide Res 2020;22:72-82doi:10.1080/14623528.2019.1709611.
- United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). Reported impact snapshot. Gaza Strip (28 August 2024). 2024. https://www.ochaopt.org/content/reported-impact-snapshot-gaza-strip-28-august-2024
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- Scahill J. Al-Shifa Hospital, Hamas’s tunnels, and Israeli propaganda. The Intercept 2023 Nov 21. https://theintercept.com/2023/11/21/al-shifa-hospital-hamas-israel/
- Sankar A. Many of Gaza’s medical workers have been detained or killed. New York Times 2024 Aug 2. https://www.nytimes.com/2024/08/02/world/middleeast/gaza-doctors-medical-workers-israel.html .
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- Save the Children. Physical abuse, infectious disease spreading as conditions for Palestinian Children in Israeli military detention deteriorate. 2024. https://www.savethechildren.org.uk/news/media-centre/press-releases/conditions-for-children-in-israeli-detention-deteriorate .
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Experiments in Group Conflict. What are the conditions which lead to harmony or friction between groups of people? Here the question is approached by means of controlled situations in a boys ...
of any group toward others. Social scien tists have long sought to bring these fac tors to light by studying what might be called the "natural history" of groups and group relations. Intergroup conflict and harmony is not a subject that lends itself easily to laboratory experiments. But in recent years there has been a be
Hai-Jeong Ahn Claire F. Garandeau Philip C. Rodkin. Psychology, Sociology. 2010. This study investigated the independent and interacting effects of classroom-level embeddedness (i.e., hierarchical vs. egalitarian) and classroom density on the perceived popularity and social….
The above discussion illustrates the rich variety of approaches to experimental conflict research, and highlights both the benefits and downsides of some of the most common methodologies. That variety notwithstanding, a few pieces of practical advice apply across contexts and we hope may help scholars entering the field. 7.1. Use technology
The Robbers Cave Experiment, conducted by Muzafer Sherif in the 1950s, studied intergroup conflict and cooperation among 22 boys in Oklahoma. Initially separated into two groups, they developed group identities. Introducing competitive tasks led to hostility between groups. Later, cooperative tasks reduced this conflict, highlighting the role of shared goals in resolving group tensions.
Hence, realistic group conflict theory identifies the causes of intergroup conflict in external and 'realistic' factors, i.e., actual needs. Realistic group conflict theory is based on one of the most famous social psychological study series - the Robber's Cave experiments (Sherif et al., 1961, Sherif and Sherif, 1953). These field ...
roup conflict. Scientific Amer. can, 195, 54-58.PREJUDICE 59. CAVE• SHERIF, M. (1956). Experiments in group conflict.Scientific American, 195, 4-58.INTRODUCTIONPsychology has offered two basic approaches to describe the phenom eno. of prejudice. One line of argument sees it as an individual pro blem; a sick person model of prejudice. The ...
Prior research has defined conflict as a situation in which (groups of) people pursue incompatible goals - what is in the best interest of one is least preferred by the other (e.g., Deutsch, 1973, Pruitt, 1998). ... A classic approach to engaging participants in interaction invokes the principles of Game Theory to design experimental conflict ...
Extant research hypothesizes that anger over past intergroup conflict serves as a catalyst for future conflict. However, few studies have experimentally tested this hypothesis on a representative sample in a high-stakes, field setting. I use a behavioral economics experiment to measure how anger over past conflict influences intergroup relations.
of group conflict theory is that competition between racial groups - competition. political, social and economic resources - makes a unique contribution to political hostility between members of those groups. That is, the placement of an individual within a group. and the circumstances of that group in society and vis-a'-vis other groups in ...
The study, which is called Experiment in Group Conflict, was first published in the journal Scientific American in 1956 (vol. 195, no 5). Further elaborations of the study were published in 1958 and 1961. The experiment is a classic in Behavioral science as it demonstrates how social dynamics work to establish groups and how group conflicts ...
We present an integrative review and synthesis of the literature on the ways leaders become involved in conflict. Studies have investigated the effect of leaders on some aspect of group conflict but there is no compilation of research that gives us a clear understanding of when, why, and how leaders influence group conflict. An integrative review and synthesis of this work will provide the ...
New Concepts in. Management, Lalvani, Mumbai, 1974. Group and Intergroup Relations : Conflict and Cooperation 487. Studies by social scientists show that cooperation and conflict. have dynamics of their own : they are not opposite of one another. The processes that lead to cooperation and conflict are different.
EXPERIMENTS IN GROUP CONFLICT C ONFLICT between groups is often rooted deep in persona.I, social, economic, religious and his ... an experiment on group r e lations ; the investigators appeared ...
In some of the experiments, the rival groups planned raids or even burned a rival's banner. Conflicts grew so strong that some researchers even had to intervene and separate the two groups. This is where phase three would begin researchers started conflict resolution. Researchers gave the two groups tasks that would require them to work together.
Harder still to know is how best to move forward to alleviate conflict, promote reconciliation, and achieve sustainable, peaceful relations among diverse groups. A primary goal of the present volume is to bring together social psychological and peace perspectives, and to encourage a more integrative approach to the study of intergroup conflict ...
Second, the experimental set-up of these studies [5-10], while sometimes based in a setting of conflict, never consists of games played between individuals from both groups that are in actual conflict, instead using children from different schools , anonymous neighbours who may or may not have shared group membership or senior citizens from ...
of any group toward others. Sherif also wanted to see what types of conditions will lead to harmony of friction between groups of people. In order to avoid confounds they set up the experiment where groups and attitudes would produce naturally without any type of outside influence or direction. For their experiment they had a group of young ...
adshelp[at]cfa.harvard.edu The ADS is operated by the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory under NASA Cooperative Agreement NNX16AC86A
hostile attitudes and behavior toward specified groups of people in situations that are usually characterized by a his- tory of intergroup tensions, conflicts of interest and early acquisition by individ- uals of hostile views about selected out-. groups. We are. dealing, however, with.
The Robbers Cave experiment, once known for its fascinating insight into group conflict theory, is now more infamous than famous. Regardless of its reputation, it remains one of the most well-known social psychology experiments of the 20th century. ... Realistic Conflict Theory. This experiment would go on to be key evidence in the Realistic ...
Elizabeth Hopper. Updated on August 26, 2024. The Robbers Cave experiment was a famous psychology study that looked at how conflict develops between groups. The researchers divided boys at a summer camp into two groups, and they studied how conflict developed between them. They also investigated what did and didn't work to reduce group conflict.
group conflict: the "rational" and the "ir rational." The former is a means to an end: the conflict and the attitudes that go with it reflect a genuine competition between groups with divergent interests. The latter is an end in itself: it serves to release accumulated emotional tensions of various kinds. As both popular lore
Much has been said on the genesis of the Gaza conflict and other conflicts, and the tactics being employed by the combatant parties (4), but here we examine the Gaza conflict's humanitarian effect on children and its implications for the protection of children in other conflict settings around the world.The attack on Israel by Hamas on 7 ...