Summarizes the ongoing risks facing millions of the world’s children. Prepared by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), this paper outlines the challenges of both protecting children and persecuting their tormentors. UNHCR’s largest single clientele are 10 million minors, many of whom are refugees. While a global involvement in children’s issues has accelerated since the ratification of the 1989 Convention on the Rights of the Child, millions of young people remain in desperate straits. Since the 1990s, more than 2 million children have been killed by war, another 6 million wounded, and 1 million orphaned. These figures do not capture the unknown numbers of children who were raped and brutalized or who died of starvation and disease. In an era of budget cuts, the question is whether agencies like UNHCR will have the resources to address this critical situation. UNHCR has designated 5 priorities: (1) education of uprooted children; (2) separation of children from families; (3) sexual exploitation of children; (4) military recruitment of minors; and (5) the troubling world of adolescence. An overarching goal is to ensure a fair distribution of assistance to children, especially those in the poorest countries.
