Is it time to create an International Criminal Court for Children to protect them from war crimes?

Twenty years after a UN report on the effects of armed conflict on children, Kevin Watkins looks at how little has changed, and what can be done to end the killing and maiming of young people in warzones

TWENTY years ago this month, the UNGeneral Assembly received a report by former Mozambican education minister Graça Machel detailing the effects of armed conflict on children.

Documenting a pattern of systematic and targeted attacks, including killing, rape, and forced recruitment into armed groups, Machel concluded: “This is a space devoid of the most basic human values….There are few further depths to which humanity can sink.”