child gun drawing

A drawing by Khalil, 11, who was displaced with his family in 2012 from Al-Yarmouk camp, which was home to the largest Palestinian refugee population in Syrian Arab Republic before the war, Damascus, Syria, December 2016. 

Photo: UNICEF/Khalil

Children in conflict zones came under attack on a shocking scale in 2017, with parties to conflicts disregarding international laws designed to protect the most vulnerable, according to a report issued by UNICEF late last year.

The organization said children have become frontline targets in conflicts around the globe, as they are used as human shields — or maimed, raped, abducted, forced to marry, enslaved, recruited to fight, and killed. Millions more suffered from malnutrition, disease and trauma in conflict zones. Basic services — such as food, water, sanitation and health — were denied, damaged or destroyed.

“Children are being targeted and exposed to attacks and brutal violence in their homes, schools and playgrounds,” Manuel Fontaine, UNICEF director of emergency programs, said in a statement. “As these attacks continue year after year, we cannot become numb. Such brutality cannot be the new normal.”

UNICEF promotes the rights and well-being of children around the world, working in 190 countries and territories.

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