Welcome Message

 
 
 
Dr. Andy Knight
Professor, Department of Political Science
University of Alberta
 

In spite of past and recent attempts to safeguard the rights of the child and to strengthen the protection regime for children caught in the midst of armed conflicts, children are disproportionately affected by civil conflict – as both targets and perpetrators of violence.

Armed conflict traumatizes children, strips them of their innocence, and denies them the protection needed to develop physically, intellectually, spiritually and socially. Today’s war-affected child may become a considerable problem for tomorrow’s generation. Exposure of children to the atrocities of armed violence can have long lasting, detrimental consequences for future generations, fuelling a continual cycle of societal violence. Children are the future, and if we are to live in a relatively peaceful world, the cycle of violence that is currently affecting them must be broken.

Welcome to this website on Children and War. Visitors to the site will be able to follow the progress of a three year multi-disciplinary research project that examines

1. the impact of war on children;
2. global, regional and national legal attempts to protect children in ³conflict zones; and
3. the rehabilitation of children affected by the war in Sierra Leone.

The project will identify critical gaps in knowledge about the scope, nature, and multidimensionality of this problem and fill knowledge gaps through interdisciplinary discussion, field research and data collection. It will also identify and critically assess the legal approaches to child protection and evaluate a specific set of indigenous intervention strategies used in post-conflict settings like in Sierra Leone to rehabilitate children and reintegrate them back into society.

Research outputs will include an interdisciplinary conference, an edited volume, a legal compilation, research papers to be presented at major international conferences, journal and newspaper articles, a policy brief of outcomes and recommendations, and a documentary film on “The Plight of Children in Conflict Zones.”

All of these items will be featured on this website. So please enter, browse and provide us with feedback.

We are thankful to the following for their financial support of the project:
  • The Social Science and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRCC)
  • The United Nations University (UNU), Tokyo, Japan.
  • Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA)
  • The University of Alberta, Faculty of Arts’ Endowment Fund for the Future
  • Support for the Advancement of Scholarship (SAS) Research Fund
  • The Canadian Consortium on Human Security (CCHS)
  • Government Of Alberta, Ministry of Children's Services
In addition, we'd like to recognize the assistance of the University of Alberta International, particularly the staff of the International Centre who are providing logistical support to the project, as well as a number of individuals who agreed to sit on local and international advisory committees. Their assistance is invaluable.

Dr. W. Andy Knight
Project director
McCalla Research Professor