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Protecting the rights of Palestinian children affected by armed conflicts through community-based mechanism in the Gaza Strip and North Lebanon

The United Nations Security Council Resolution 1612 (UN SC Res. 1612) defines six grave rights violations that children living in conflict affected areas might be exposed to: killing and maiming, abduction, use of children as child soldiers, attacks on schools and hospitals, sexual violence, and no freedom of movement.

During 2007, a working group in the oPt with representatives of civil society organisations, international organisations, Palestinian Ministries and UN agencies, established a monitoring and reporting mechanism in accordance with UN SC Res. 1612. To the six grave violations listed in the resolution, three more child rights violations occurring in the oPt have been added: detention, torture and forced displacement. In the Gaza Strip, during the last three years, all villages located along the border with Israel have been targets of continuous military attacks by the Israeli army and Palestinian armed factions.

In Lebanon, a monitoring and reporting mechanism of child rights violations according to UN SC Res. 1612 has never been established. Yet during the internal clashes in the Nahr el Bared camp almost every family has been forced to stay in their homes without access to livelihoods and basic services. Many children between 15 and 18 years old have been abducted by the Lebanese Army and all school and clinic have been destroyed. Currently, the Lebanese army is in charge of maintaining order in the camp.

Watch "Violence in the Camps"- an animation made by children in Nahr el Bared and Beddawi camps in North Lebanon.

The overall objective of the project is to improve the protection of the rights of Palestinian children affected by conflict through community based mechanism in Gaza Strip, Nahr el Bared camp and Beddawi camp in North Lebanon.

In partnership with the two Child Protection Networks in Gaza Strip and in the Nahr el Bared and Beddawi camps, the project will achieve four specific objectives:

1) Educational and psycho-social impact of armed conflict on children and related rights violation are addressed;

2) Improved capacity of two Child Protection Networks (CPNs) and the involved CBOs and NGOs to identify and address child right issues in better integrated and effective programs;

3) Strengthened right-based advocacy work of CBOs; and

4) Regional learning of child rights-based work by stakeholders with children affected by armed conflicts.

Organisations that are members of the two CPNs in Gaza Strip and North Lebanon (Naher El Bared and Beddawi camp) will be empowered to better address the rights of children in their community, building the technical capacity of the CPNs to respond to children’s needs and strengthening their child rights based approach.  

The wellbeing of children affected by conflict in GS, NBC and BC will be improved and a community based protection mechanism established ensuring access to children to professional care provided by the CPNs and an established referral system; supporting primary caregivers to strengthen parenthood skills and; establishing a system for documentation and monitoring of child rights violations at community.

Duty-bearers accountability according to national law, UNCRC and UN SC 1612 will be increased through child rights based advocacy actions of two CPNs in GS and North Lebanon, targeting community members, national and international authorities.

Furthermore, civil society organisations and stakeholders active in the field of child protection in conflict affected areas in the MENA region will be targeted sharing knowledge, experience and best practices developed by the CPNs and documented through the project.

Activities

Animate it (Gaza)
10 boys and 10 girls between the ages of 13 to 17 participated in a Cartoon Movie Making course in November 2010 as part of this EU funded project, implemented in Gaza by the Palestinian Centre for Democracy and Conflict Resolution and Save the Children. As a result of the training, which lasted for one month, the children produced 4 cartoons, through which they claimed their rights. Watch their animations below:

Right to a safe environment -

Right to Education -

Right to free movement -

Right to play -

 
This project is funded by the European Union

Read the final evaluation report of the project, completed in October 2011, here.

Read the end of project report on children's rights violations here.  

 Regional Workshop May 9-12th 2011, Amman, Jordan:

This report documents the proceedings that took place over the course of a four-day workshop from May 9-12th of 2011 in Amman, Jordan. It describes the best practices developed by the workshop’s participants, which address protection needs of children living in conflict-affected areas in addition to
listing the recommendations developed by the different working groups.

Read the full report here: English/Arabic

 

LEBANON

First factsheet from Lebanon in English / Arabic

Second factsheet from Lebanon in English / Arabic

Third factsheet from Lebanon in English/ Arabic

Fourth factsheet from Lebanon in English/Arabic

Child led advocacy campaign in Lebanon

During a workshop on advocacy organised for 13 children who were part of the children's committee in Nahr el Bared and Beddawi Camps, children wrote their own advocacy messages and identified the relevant groups to target their messages towards.  These included school directors and teachers, community leaders and UNRWA.  The messages were then put together on a unipole which was then put up in two locations in the north and south of Lebanon. 

GAZA

First fact sheet - April 2010

Second fact sheet -  September 2010

Third fact sheet - March - June 2011

Fourth fact sheet - September - August 2011 English/Arabic 

 

Download the brochure from Gaza

Download the banner from Gaza

Mo'az' Story: Child Friendly Centres in Gaza help children affected by the conflict to look forward to the future with confidence

Child led Advocacy Campaign in Gaza

Between March 2011 and June 2011, 60 children in Gaza initiated an advocacy campaign, entitled “Working Children…Lost Childhood”.  The children participated in four workshops, in which they decided which issue they wanted their campaign to focus on, and designed the materials they would use within it.  The children designed three posters to express their concerns on child labour to decision makers, duty bearers, other children, caregivers and members of the local community.  For the full story on the campaign, click here.  View a photo gallery of pictures from the campaign here. 

 

The first poster includes slogans suggested by the children: “STOP Child Labour!”, “I belong to school.  Please father, don’t force me to work!”, “Who’s responsible?  Article 32 – The CRC”, “Our hands are still soft”, and “Listen and Look, we want to be protected”. 

 

The second poster states Article 32 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child: the right to be protected from carrying out any work that is likely to interfere with the child’s education, or to be harmful to the child’s health or physical development.

 

The third poster features some drawings produced by the children, saying “STOP Child Labour!”

 

Listen to an ad for the radio programme which aired on radio in Gaza, in which children discussed the dangers of child labour here.

 

Download the design for a t-shirt worn by 200 children as they marched through the streets of Gaza to raise awareness on Child Labour.  The slogan on the t-shirt says "Working Children, Lost Childhood...Who is responsible?"

 

Download the banner and notebooks used at a conference organised on child labour, entitled "Child Labour - between reality and law" in Gaza in June 2011.  The following billboards were used as part of the campaign against child labour:

 

Billboard 1 - Working children, lost childhood.  Article 32 of the UNCRC says that the government should protect children from work that is dangerous, or might harm their health or their education.

 

Billboard 2 - According to Palestinian law the minimum age for children to begin work is 15 years old.

 

Billboard 3 - Article 31 of the UNCRC says that all children have the right to relax and play, and to join in a wide range of activities.

 

Billboard 4 - The Siege and War on Gaza has led to poverty and unemployment, which has led to child labour.

  

 

 

 
Logo of CPN in Gaza


Logo of CPN in North Lebanon

 

This webpage has been produced with the assistance of the European Union. The contents of this webpage are the sole responsibility of Save the Children and can in no way be taken to reflect the views of the European Union.