The child casualties of war — A scoping review of the tools used to report and monitor grave violations of children’s rights in situations of armed conflict

Abstract

During armed conflict, children are at an increased risk of experiencing grave violations of their rights.1-6 In accordance with the United Nations there are six primary grave children’s rights violations during conflict; (1) killing or maiming of children, (2) recruitment or use of children by armed forces or armed groups, (3) attacks on schools or hospitals, (4) rape or other sexual violence against children, (5) abduction of children, (6) denial of humanitarian access to children.7 Early efforts to establish an international mechanism to report and monitor grave violations against children in conflict have faced a multitude of barriers—including lack of capacity, subjectivity in reporting, and political intimidation—which challenge the validity and accuracy of reports and have led to an inefficient, fragmented and the ill-coordinated methodology of data collection.8,9 Evidence-based action is promoted as the foundation of policy responses within the current geo-political climate; yet there is little description of published work which describes reporting instruments and monitoring mechanisms specifically aimed at collecting data on violations against children in armed conflict.10,11 The following study aims to explore the existing body of research and grey literature related to data collection methods implemented to monitor and report grave violations of children’s rights in armed conflict.