The Human Rights of Children Born of War
The Human Rights of Children Born of War: Case Analyses of Past and Present Conflicts
Ingvill C. Mochmann & Sabine Lee
Abstract: »Menschenrechte der Kinder des Krieges: Fallstudien vergangener und gegenwärtiger Konflikte«. This paper addresses the human rights of ‘children born of war’ as measured against the standards formulated in the Convention of the Right of the Child. Taking five 20th century cases studies which cover different conflict and post-conflict situations in diverse geographical regions, the paper concludes despite greater awareness of children’s rights as evident in their codification throughout the 20th century, there has been no noticeable improvement in the application of these rights to children born of war. Keywords: children born of war, children of occupation, war children, human rights, Convention on the rights of the child, child soldiers, 20th century conflicts.
1. Introduction
Children born of war are children fathered by foreign soldiers and local women. There have always been children born as a consequence of consensual relationship or sexual violence where the father has been a member of an enemy, allied or peacekeeping force and the mother a local citizen. Thousands of children are believed to have been fathered by French and British soldiers in Germany during the First World War (Hirschfeld 1934, 236). An estimated 10.000 to 12.000 children fathered by German soldiers were born to Norwegian mothers during the Second World War (Olsen 1998, 48) and the number of German-fathered children of French mothers is believed to be as high as 120,000-200,000 (Virgili 2005, 144). An estimated 30,000 children were born of unions between Canadian service men and women in Britain and the rest of Europe between 1940 and 1946 (22.000 in Britain, around 6000 in the Netherlands and around 1000 in other European countries) (Rains et al. 2006, 16). 40,000 children were born of American GIs and local Vietnamese women, generally biracial and many
Ingvill C. Mochmann & Sabine Lee
Abstract: »Menschenrechte der Kinder des Krieges: Fallstudien vergangener und gegenwärtiger Konflikte«. This paper addresses the human rights of ‘children born of war’ as measured against the standards formulated in the Convention of the Right of the Child. Taking five 20th century cases studies which cover different conflict and post-conflict situations in diverse geographical regions, the paper concludes despite greater awareness of children’s rights as evident in their codification throughout the 20th century, there has been no noticeable improvement in the application of these rights to children born of war. Keywords: children born of war, children of occupation, war children, human rights, Convention on the rights of the child, child soldiers, 20th century conflicts.
1. Introduction
Children born of war are children fathered by foreign soldiers and local women. There have always been children born as a consequence of consensual relationship or sexual violence where the father has been a member of an enemy, allied or peacekeeping force and the mother a local citizen. Thousands of children are believed to have been fathered by French and British soldiers in Germany during the First World War (Hirschfeld 1934, 236). An estimated 10.000 to 12.000 children fathered by German soldiers were born to Norwegian mothers during the Second World War (Olsen 1998, 48) and the number of German-fathered children of French mothers is believed to be as high as 120,000-200,000 (Virgili 2005, 144). An estimated 30,000 children were born of unions between Canadian service men and women in Britain and the rest of Europe between 1940 and 1946 (22.000 in Britain, around 6000 in the Netherlands and around 1000 in other European countries) (Rains et al. 2006, 16). 40,000 children were born of American GIs and local Vietnamese women, generally biracial and many