Where Do War Children Go!!!

How to cite this journal: Author, Date of the post, WMO Conflict Insight, Title of the post, ISSN: 2628 6998, https://worldmediation.org/journal/

EDITORIAL NOTE *

The opening epigraph of the original manuscript, an unsourced claim about the number of people who take their own lives daily, has been omitted here. The claim is not supported by any evidence and the subject is one on which a journal with an ISSN should not carry unverified assertions. The article’s argument does not depend on it. The Mandela and Kennedy quotations that structure the remainder of the text are retained.

ABSTRACT

Several crimes are perpetrated under the cover of conflict and chaos. One of the most terrible of these is sexual violence. This paper examines the predicament of children born as a result of rape, forced maternity, and forced marriage during armed conflict. These children’s difficulties are emotional, social, and economic. Armed conflicts do not simply occur and come to an end without consequences. There are victims that society cannot deny or neglect. This work aims to call attention to children whose existence is the direct result of sexual violence during armed conflict, to argue for a safe place for these victims, for the healing of their wounds, for measures to curb the recurrence of such crimes, and for the peaceful settlement of violent conflicts through mediation, negotiation, and diplomacy.

KEYWORDS *

Children born of war, conflict related sexual violence, stigmatization, social exclusion, statelessness, citizenship, Boko Haram, Lord’s Resistance Army, Norway, reparations, Convention on the Rights of the Child, peacebuilding

INTRODUCTION

It happens often, very often, that the distress and pain associated with war does not end when the white flag is waved to invite and accept peace or the whistle is blown to cease destruction. Many will relive the agonies of the war for a long time, perhaps for the rest of their lives. That is the sad ordeal of war children. Many may never have the opportunity to experience paternal care. Many, in addition to their economic disadvantage, are mentally distressed and likely to drop out of educational institutions. Highly distrustful and self-protective, many cannot maintain healthy social relationships. Angry and frustrated, some yield to a life of crime in response to the hostility that surrounded the beginning of their lives. However, these individuals can live a normal life despite the circumstances of their birth. International organizations, individuals, governmental and non-governmental organizations can contribute to easing the pain of these victims.

MAIN CORPUS

Case study

Anthill Broadway Bar buzzed with activity as evening turned to night, visitors locating a good spot for the night out, waitresses fulfilling orders, and cooks turning menu instructions into piping hot dishes. Behind the scenes, Rani dutifully washed dirty dishes and sorted them into shelves and drawers. His mind kept wandering to his quiet and peaceful friend, Dani. He yearned to have Dani working beside him at Anthill Broadway Bar, but Dani had no means of identification to secure a job because of the circumstances of his birth. Dani’s story is unsettling: even the less privileged call him unfortunate.

Sixteen-year-old Rani and seventeen-year-old Dani have one thing in common; their lives have been unfavourably defined by war. The untimely death of Rani’s father during the military defence of Anthill from foreign invasion thrust him into early fatherly responsibilities, because his sick mother and his two siblings had become dependent on him for their livelihood. His educational and career goals took second place because the pressing financial and family needs of his relatives could not be delayed. Dani’s story runs in a different direction.

Dani grew up with broken family affiliations. According to what is said, Dani’s father was a foreign soldier who abducted and raped his mother during the military invasion of Anthill. His mother was victimized and discriminated against because his birth was a constant reminder of the brutality inflicted by the foreign soldiers in Anthill. As Dani grew up, so did his resemblance to the foreign invaders, and with it a proportionate hostility from the people of Anthill.

Jeers, mockery, and reproach trailed him like his shadow. Some called him the enemy’s child, others referred to him as the devil’s offspring, while those who seemed more cultured ignored him as though he did not exist. His mother was pressured to abandon him to fend for himself. Dani was immersed in anguish, bitterness, and confusion. From his perspective, the hatred and mistreatment were irrational, because he and his unknown father were distinct persons with divergent interests, ambitions, and personalities. In Anthill he was rejected, excluded from the family, and denied Anthill’s nationality, which consequently meant the loss of access to social benefits and work rights. He had no connection with his unknown father or the foreign affiliation that caused his troubles.

As much as Rani and Dani tried to keep their friendship and conversations positive, like the practised routine of a clock their thoughts and conversations kept reverting to what the future holds for war children. Rani and Dani’s story does not describe isolated instances. Tens of thousands like Rani, and unnumbered, unrecognized thousands like Dani, keep striving under the crippling shadow of war over their lives and families. This case study highlights the multifaceted effects of war on families and on individual war children. This article, however, is dedicated to war children like Dani, whose birth was non-consensual, and whose origin threatens their integration into the only society they know.

Definition of terms

War and armed conflict. War has been defined as a state of armed conflict between different countries or different groups within a country. The main component of war is armed conflict. Conflict is a strong disagreement between people or groups, often resulting in angry arguments, or differences in ideas or feelings that prevent agreement. However, it should be noted that conflict can be armed or unarmed. Armed conflict is a contested incompatibility concerning government or territory, where the use of armed force between two parties, of which at least one is the government of a state, results in at least 25 battle-related deaths.

Rape. Rape is a crime, usually committed by a man; it entails forcing another person to have sexual intercourse against their will. Typically one party asserts power by using force or violence to achieve submission and fear in another person, committing an offence against the dignity and bodily integrity of that person. During armed conflict, women and girls are frequently coerced by the fear of death or captivity at the hands of armed men. For the purposes of this work, the scope of rape includes forced sexual acts in which a victim is compelled to rape someone else, and sexual acts performed in forced marriages in conflict zones.

War children. The term war children has also been expressed as children born of war in other research. War children are persons of any age conceived as a result of violent, coercive, or exploitative sexual relations such as rape in conflict zones. The term includes the offspring of forced marriages in conflict zones. War children and children born of war are used interchangeably in this work.

The predicaments of war children

“There can be no keener revelation of a society’s soul than the way in which it treats its children.” Nelson Mandela

Sexual violence is one of the most terrible crimes committed during conflict all over the world, and its consequences linger long after the fighting has stopped. According to the Grieg report on war and children’s identity, the number of living children born of war is estimated at 500,000. War children are vulnerable to social exclusion and stigma in the societies into which they are born.

Other vulnerabilities include physical and psycho-social challenges, poor access to resources, risk of separation in future relationships, abuse or neglect by caretakers, and early childhood mortality, including deaths resulting from infanticide. In many instances, these children also experience psycho-social stress associated with feeling responsible for the care of their traumatized mothers. I will consider some of these issues in detail.

Stigmatization. Stigmatization has been defined as treating a particular behaviour as wrong or embarrassing and trying to make people who behave that way feel ashamed. In the case of war children, most are stigmatized as illegitimate, as devil’s children, children of shame, monster babies and enemy children. Their human rights may be compromised in several ways, from rejection, abuse, or neglect by immediate and extended family members to stigmatization by the broader community and even denial of citizenship.

Social exclusion. Social exclusion involves the denial of resources, rights, goods, and services, and the inability to participate in normal relationships and activities available to the majority of people in a society, whether in the economic, social, cultural, or political arena. Like Dani, many children born of war are deprived of the love of their extended family and the comfort of social networks, particularly where their foreign origins are evident in their physical features.

In many settings, such individuals prefer to exclude themselves from social circles to hide their identity and pain. In their instability and distress, some reproduce the violence that initiated their birth. In the words of Lloyd deMause, “the source of most human violence and suffering has been hidden in the history of billions of innocent human beings who afflicted by war grow up as emotionally crippled adults.” It has been suggested that these children are particularly vulnerable to becoming street children or being trafficked, because social exclusion can lead to depression, low self-esteem, feelings of worthlessness, and a craving for belonging even in dangerous settings.

Poor access to resources. War children are likely to experience economic hardship because they are raised by single mothers in most instances. They often lack access to social benefits and education where their citizenship is questioned. They also lack access to information about their identities or family origins, which can have negative implications for their health care. In cultures where such children are stigmatized or rejected, as Dani was, their disadvantages are more pronounced, because they withdraw in shame rather than reach out to family members, neighbours, government agencies, or social groups for assistance.

Early marriage and unhealthy relationships. If children born of war do not recover emotionally, their social lives and relationships may be lastingly damaged. Many suffer in silence until the consequences begin to manifest in depression, low self-esteem, low productivity, and the attendant health problems. Many drop out of school, marry prematurely, and enter relationships that repeat the cycle of pain they are familiar with. Studies have also found that children who experience or suffer the consequences of sexual violence are considerably more likely to perpetrate sexual violence as adults. Hence it is important to work with children to promote emotional healing and to address beliefs and attitudes, in order to break the cycle.

Physical and psycho-social challenges. In numerous instances, these children experience psycho-social stress associated with feeling responsible for the care of a traumatized parent. They may also face health risks arising from the circumstances of their birth, and the psycho-social trauma of their mothers, especially where those mothers are rejected by their peers and by society, may affect early childhood development. Depression and anxiety can affect growth and development, depriving them of the chance to reach their full potential.

War children: a global perspective

“Children are the living messages we send to a time we will not see.” John F. Kennedy

The fact that there are war children, children whose conception would not have taken place but for the occurrence of war, is not a new reality. From the Middle East to African countries such as Nigeria and Uganda, there are many persons whose origin can be traced to sexual violence that occurred during war. In this section I consider several instances in different countries where children were born in violent conflict or war settings.

Nigeria. There have been many armed conflicts in Nigeria since its independence on 1 October 1960, such as the civil war, also known as the Biafran War, which lasted from 6 July 1967 to 15 January 1970. In recent times, the Boko Haram crisis has disturbed the peace of Nigeria. The group, also known as Jama’atu Ahlus-Sunnah Lidda’Awati Wal Jihad, is an extremist sect that has violently attacked government offices, organizations, places of worship, and markets, particularly in northern Nigeria and in the capital, Abuja.

The Boko Haram crisis included the abduction of 276 schoolgirls from Chibok. These girls were abducted on the night of 14 to 15 April 2014 from Chibok, a local government area in Borno, about a two-hour drive from the Nigerian border with Cameroon. The militants entered the school in a convoy of trucks and buses, engaged in a gun battle with school security guards, forced the girls from their dormitories, loaded them into trucks, and drove them into the Sambisa forest.

In another instance, over 700 young Nigerian women abducted by Boko Haram were rescued, with 214 visibly pregnant. The women were rescued from the Sambisa forest by the Nigerian military and taken to a camp for displaced people in Yola, Adamawa State. Reports indicated that the women had been raped repeatedly, in what officials and relief workers considered a deliberate scheme to dominate rural populations. Unfortunately, some community members have shunned the women as Boko Haram wives; this is not a good precedent for their children.

Northern Uganda. The story of Uganda is another instance in which armed conflict served as a breeding ground for war children. In northern Uganda, more than a million people were forced to flee their homes by the conflict between government forces and Joseph Kony’s Lord’s Resistance Army. Since 1987, the LRA has abducted as many as 70,000 children and young people, forcing them to serve as soldiers, porters, or sex slaves. The LRA later operated in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, South Sudan, and the Central African Republic, though it originated in northern Uganda.

The Lord’s Resistance Army and other armed groups committed sexual and gender-based violence against thousands of young women and girls over nearly three decades. Children born of these acts have been rejected by their communities and denied ownership of property, education, and the means to earn a living.

Norway. German forces occupied Norway from 1940 to 1945 and left behind between 10,000 and 12,000 children born to Norwegian mothers with German fathers. The Nazi regime considered Norwegians racially suitable for its soldiers to father children with. In Sør-Varanger alone, a municipality in Finnmark, there are at least 200 war children. After the departure of the German forces, the Norwegian war children suffered many forms of abuse: many were placed in mental institutions, many lost the opportunity to acquire formal education and thus meaningful employment, and there are documented accounts of extreme mistreatment.

A member of the Norwegian Ministry of Social Affairs said of them in July 1945: “To believe these children will become decent citizens is to believe rats in the cellar will become house pets.” Between 1946 and 1958, special rules and regulations in social legislation excluded some war children, creating poor economic conditions for them. However, several efforts have been made by the Norwegian state since: Prime Minister Kjell Magne Bondevik apologized to them in his New Year’s speech of 2000.

Attempts by the Norwegian war children to obtain justice from the state were dismissed by national courts on limitation grounds. Only a few were offered limited financial recompense, and officials continued to decline to accept responsibility. In 2005 the Norwegian parliament decided that war children were eligible for financial compensation of up to 20,000 kroner each, a sum the victims regarded as inadequate. In 2010, 157 of them applied to the European Court of Human Rights on account of the discrimination, lost years, and abuse they had suffered, but the application was unsuccessful on the ground that the events had occurred too long ago.

Recommendations

“Safety and security don’t just happen, they are the result of collective consensus and public investment. We owe our children, the most vulnerable citizens in our society, a life free of violence and fear.” Nelson Mandela

To protect war children, priority should be given to emergency care, financial support, and emotional healing for women and girls who are sexually abused during armed conflict; this care will pass from the mothers to their children. War children should not be discriminated against; they should benefit from every existing programme designed for children of their age.

A means should be created to raise awareness through advocacy for children’s human rights, without exposing individual children in the course of programme work, since they could be stigmatized. Efforts should be made to identify and prosecute the perpetrators of these crimes so that justice may take its course. Finally, peacebuilding and reconciliation should be pursued to ensure that such conflict does not arise again. Several suggestions follow on how to curb sexual violence in armed conflict, and to support these children in society.

Citizenship. Because of the circumstances of their birth, war children like Dani may be denied citizenship, particularly where the identity of a child is traced through the father’s lineage. Children whose mothers were raped, and the offspring of forced marriages in conflict zones, should be permitted by national law to acquire the nationality of their mother. If the state does not take responsibility for them, then they may have no citizenship and no rights. Children born of rape in war zones should not be identified with the perpetrator. The Nigerian Constitution, for example, in section 25 expressly recognizes as citizens every person born in or outside Nigeria either of whose parents is a Nigerian citizen.

Justice. A significant proportion of those committing acts of sexual violence in conflict zones have been identified as armed men. Regrettably, sexual abuse and exploitation are also committed by aid workers and peacekeepers in times of conflict and insecurity. This contributes to normalizing sexual violence in communities already facing trauma and upheaval. War children and their mothers will be more secure and more confident in the justice system if steps are taken to identify and punish the perpetrators.

Article 7(1)(g) of the Rome Statute defines crimes against humanity to include rape, sexual slavery, enforced prostitution, forced pregnancy, enforced sterilization, and any other form of sexual violence of comparable gravity. In line with this provision, national laws should criminalize rape, indecent assault, and abduction. This will provide the basis for prosecution, help transform beliefs and attitudes, and serve as a deterrent in times of peace and of war. Limitation periods should not bar claims by war children, or should be extended so that those children can reach the age of majority and decide for themselves whether to seek redress or compensation.

Peacebuilding. Peacebuilding has been defined as identifying and supporting structures that strengthen and consolidate peace in order to avoid relapse into conflict. After an armed conflict comes to an end, pain and suffering linger in the hearts of many. There is a need for reconciliation to heal wounded hearts and prevent a recurrence of such conflicts. For war children, this process could lead to reconciliation with their families, identification of their fathers, and prospects of paternal support. Peacebuilding and reconciliation after armed conflict are delicate but essential processes, because wars begin in the minds of men, and it is in the minds of men that the defences of peace must be constructed.

Research and statistical documentation. Deliberate efforts should be made to research the incidence of rape in war, forced marriage, and the births resulting from them. This will support the preparation of welfare provision, monitoring, and emergency response. It will also assist the administration of justice and the design of preventive mechanisms.

State welfare schemes. Measures should be taken to ensure that the consequences of events in lawless circumstances do not determine the lives of innocent children. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights provides basic rights; the combined effect of Articles 3, 5, and 25 is that everyone has the right to life, to a standard of living adequate for health, and to access to medical care and social security.

In line with these provisions, war children should be informed of the benefits available to them from the state. The welfare arrangements chosen should be sustainable in addressing the needs that have arisen. Particular attention should be given to the emotional, social, and physical well-being of victims. Health care should extend to nutritional needs and a consistent supply of medication for children affected by conditions such as HIV, which is prevalent in circumstances of sexual violence in war zones.

Care should be provided according to age and to the diversity of needs, for ease of administration and monitoring. States should devise strategies to ensure access to education and to land. In countries where access to family land is determined by the paternal clan, welfare and policy provision should accommodate war children, as they may have no access to inheritance.

Social security. The Convention on the Rights of the Child can be used as a legal ground to protect war children against all forms of discrimination, and to preserve the child’s identity, nationality, name, and family relations as recognized by law without unlawful interference. The best interests of the child shall be a primary consideration in every action concerning a child, whether undertaken by an individual, a public or private body, an institution, a court of law, or an administrative or legislative authority.

The role of the mass media. In many countries, electronic and print media have carried out advocacy on the rights, welfare, and protection of children through publications that have influenced behaviour and prompted intervention for child victims of abuse and violence. The Nigerian Children’s Parliament, inaugurated in 2002, developed into a significant symbol of child participation and representation in the country, with the capacity to advocate for visible changes in the lives of children.

These avenues can also be used to make society aware of the situation of war children and to campaign for humanitarian assistance. Additionally, there should be effective grassroots work involving non-governmental organizations, government agencies, communities, and the media to inform the public about violence against women and to encourage the reporting of such cases to the appropriate authorities.

Legislation and policy formation. Government should enforce existing penal, civil, and administrative sanctions to punish and redress acts of violence against women and children. Government should also make policies, implement strategies, run programmes, and establish administrative bodies to eradicate such acts. In Nigeria, several agencies have assisted victims of sexual violence. The National Human Rights Commission, established by Decree No. 22 of 1995, has a mandate for the promotion, protection, investigation, and monitoring of human rights, the provision of legal aid, and the handling of complaints from citizens about violations of their rights. The Legal Aid Council, established by the Legal Aid Act, makes legal aid and financial assistance available to indigent citizens to facilitate the submission of complaints and the obtaining of redress.

An international fortress for war children. Many war children begin their lives as the children of traumatized single mothers. The position of war children in developing countries is particular, because citizens must bear their housing and maintenance costs without unemployment benefits. They also bear educational expenses and largely provide for their own health care. Unlike in many developed countries, where poor people can rely on state welfare in times of need, a special welfare arrangement should be created for war children, nationally and internationally, since welfare provision is not guaranteed, especially in developing countries.

War children would be cared for better if there were an international scheme to address their needs, rather than a momentary emergency response, given the nature of their difficulties. There could also be numbers of war children whose needs exceed a nation’s resources. The number of Norwegian war children would have made it very difficult for the Norwegian government to compensate them substantially. In addition, some nations may be party to the conflict and may see the children as part of it rather than as innocent victims of war, so an international scheme would address their needs better.

Effective dispute resolution mechanisms. Throughout the history of humankind, war has brought more loss than gain. In the words of John F. Kennedy, “mankind must put an end to war before war puts an end to mankind.” Considering the effects of war on citizens, on the economy, and on future generations, serious efforts should be made to promote mediation, negotiation, international diplomacy, and other peaceful avenues for the resolution of political, cultural, and socio-economic disputes. That also means that government officials, especially those engaged in international relations, should be trained by reputable bodies in mediation, international diplomacy, peacebuilding, and conflict management. States have established centres for alternative dispute resolution or peace centres to assist in dispute resolution. Family dispute resolution is relevant to war children, because they can bring complaints at such centres, inviting persons they believe may be their father on the basis of their mother’s testimony or other circumstantial evidence. This could lead to a DNA test to establish paternity and to an agreement on maintenance if the test proves that the person invited is indeed the father.

SUMMARY *

The article’s contribution is to name a category of victim that the frameworks for conflict-related sexual violence consistently fail to reach. Where responses are directed at survivors of the violence, the children conceived by it are treated as a secondary consequence rather than as persons with their own claims. The article shows why that omission has practical effects: the harm they suffer is not primarily the assault, which they did not experience, but the status it confers, and status is the one thing that law can readily change. The Norwegian material is placed to demonstrate that this is not a problem confined to weak states or to recent conflicts. A wealthy country with functioning courts placed such children in institutions, excluded them from social provision, and then defeated their claims on limitation grounds seventy years later.

CONCLUSION

“Give me the money that has been spent in war and I will clothe every man, woman, and child in an attire of which kings and queens will be proud. I will build a schoolhouse in every valley over the whole earth. I will crown every hillside with a place of worship consecrated to peace.” Charles Sumner

The most shocking fact about armed conflict is that its victims and its instruments are human beings. Armed conflict is a destroyer of past labour, an initiator of death, suffering, and pain. It projects hopelessness, grief, and deprivation into the future. In many respects armed conflict is a loss to humanity, and determined efforts should be made to secure peace within our borders. Thoughtful measures should be taken by international organizations, governmental and non-governmental organizations, and individuals to ease the suffering of war children. Collective steps should be taken to address social exclusion, stigmatization, physical and psycho-social challenges, poor access to resources, emotional difficulties, abuse or neglect by caretakers, and early childhood mortality. Providing security for war children, restoring a prospect of a future, and restoring their confidence in the human race is possible, if we stand up to the challenge.

POTENTIAL SOLUTION *

The article identifies the decisive point and it is worth stating as plainly as possible: the principal harm these children suffer is inflicted after birth, by law and by community, and both are alterable.

Citizenship is where the greatest gain is available for the least cost. Where nationality passes only through the father, a child of unknown or foreign paternity is stateless from birth, and statelessness closes off school, work, travel, property and legal identity for a lifetime. Several dozen states still restrict the transmission of nationality by mothers, and the reforms that have followed campaigns in a number of them demonstrate that this is a legislative act rather than a social transformation. The Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness and the Convention on the Rights of the Child both bear directly on the question, and the second requires registration immediately after birth and the acquisition of a nationality, which makes the omission a treaty violation rather than a policy shortcoming.

Registration deserves separate mention because it precedes everything else. A child without a birth certificate cannot demonstrate age, parentage, or nationality, and cannot access what is nominally available. Mobile registration in displacement settings, retrospective registration for those now grown, and the removal of requirements that a father be named are technical measures with disproportionate effect.

The evidence on stigma points toward one finding that should shape any programme, and it cuts against the instinct to target assistance. Interventions directed specifically at children born of war identify them, and identification is the mechanism of the harm. What has worked better is provision for all children affected by conflict, within which these children are reached without being marked, combined with support to the mothers, since maternal acceptance is the strongest single predictor of a child’s acceptance by the wider family and the wider family’s by the community. Work with community and religious leaders on the framing of these births has changed reception in several settings, and the argument that carries is the one the article makes through Dani: the child is not the perpetrator.

Two additions on the article’s own proposals. Paternity claims and maintenance are treated here as achievable through family dispute resolution, and the international record is discouraging: claims against foreign soldiers and peacekeepers have almost never succeeded, because the claimant must litigate in the contributing state’s courts, without assistance and without access to evidence. The mechanism that would change this, centralised handling of DNA testing, paternity determination and support orders, funded from the existing trust fund for victims of sexual exploitation and abuse, has been recommended repeatedly and not established. And on limitation, the article’s proposal is sound and can be sharpened: the standard now emerging in litigation over historic abuse is that time runs from the point at which the claimant could reasonably have brought the claim, which for a person unaware of their origins may be decades after birth. The Norwegian case turned on exactly this and would be decided differently under that approach.

Finally, the article’s insistence that these children can live ordinary lives is not sentiment but the finding of the follow-up research. Where they were accepted by a mother, registered, schooled and not publicly marked, outcomes have been unremarkable. The variable is not the circumstance of conception but what was done afterwards, and that is the most hopeful thing that can be said about a subject which offers little else.

* Added by the WMO Editorial Team

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3. Fictitious person.
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79. B. Uwameiye and E. Iserameiya (2013), 7.
80. Ibid.
81. Ibid.
82. Federal Ministry of Women Affairs, Abuja (2004), 8 to 9.
83. National Human Rights Commission Decree 1995 (No. 22 of 1995).
84. Legal Aid Act, Cap. L9, Laws of the Federation of Nigeria 2004.
85. John F. Kennedy, address to the United Nations General Assembly, 1961.
86. Charles Sumner, quoted at The Quote Garden.
87. Aldous Huxley, quoted at BrainyQuote.

Supplementary references added by the WMO Editorial Team

Convention on the Rights of the Child, 1989, Articles 2, 3, 7, 8 and 39.

Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness, 1961, and the Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons, 1954.

Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, 1979, Article 9 on equal rights with respect to the nationality of children.

United Nations Security Council Resolutions 1820 (2008), 1888 (2009), 2106 (2013) and 2467 (2019), the last of which addresses children born of conflict related sexual violence.

United Nations General Assembly Resolution 62/214 (2007), United Nations Comprehensive Strategy on Assistance and Support to Victims of Sexual Exploitation and Abuse by United Nations Staff and Related Personnel.

Report of the Secretary General on Conflict Related Sexual Violence, annual editions, United Nations, New York.

Carpenter, R. C. (Ed.) (2007). Born of War: Protecting Children of Sexual Violence Survivors in Conflict Zones. Kumarian Press, Bloomfield.

Mochmann, I. C. (2017). Children Born of War: A Decade of International and Interdisciplinary Research. Historical Social Research, 42(1), 320 to 346.

Denov, M., & Piolanti, A. (2019). Mothers of Children Born of Genocidal Rape in Rwanda: Implications for Mental Health, Well-Being and Psycho-Social Support Interventions. Health Care for Women International, 40(7 to 9).

UNHCR, Guidelines on Statelessness and the Global Action Plan to End Statelessness, Geneva.