‘No arts; no letters; no society; and which is worst of all, continual fear and danger of violent death; and the life of man, solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short’.

Thomas Hobbes (1651)

In an effort to protect them from ‘continual fear’ and a life that is ‘nasty, brutish, and short’ children, worldwide, have been recognised as having some basic rights. The purpose of these was to provide for each child a protective framework which would allow them to develop physically, psychologically, and emotionally. The United Nations (UN) Convention on the Rights of the Child is clear about this, ‘...Recognising that the child, for the full and harmonious development of his or her personality, should grow up in a family environment, in an atmosphere of happiness, love and understanding’.1 Nowhere is it suggested that war provides this.

While instinctively we might feel that war is bad for children, what proof is there for this? Unhappily, the body of evidence that exists is overwhelming. The breadth and depth of this evidence gives testimony to the appalling consequences war has had for children, repeated in many different conflicts. It also stands as a reproach to those of us who have recognised the effects and failed to do anything about the causes and consequences.