Archive Posts 2018

Please find below a summary of the posts in 2018.
(originally posted at https://www.childrenbornofwar.com/)


December 20, 2018 New Article: “Children Born of War Are Not the Enemy. How Can They Be Integrated into Society?”

“This year, the Nobel Peace Prize has been awarded jointly to the Congolese doctor Denis Mukwege and the Iraqi human rights activist, and witness and survivor of human-trafficking, Nadia Murad. These two voices are an extremely important contribution to ongoing efforts to combat war-related sexual violence. We are among the many people who are delighted that the two prize-winners are getting the recognition that their courage and efforts deserve. At the same time, there are other voices that are seldom heard and who have few spokespersons. These are the voices of the children who have been conceived as the result of conflict-related sexual violence. Scarcely any statistics or overviews exist of how many children are involved, about what happens to them, and how their lives are shaped by the manner of their conception.”

The original version in Norwegian: “De blir ofte betraktet som fiendens barn. Barna av seksuelle overgrep i krig” can be found here.

December 17, 2018 New Book Presentation: “La valise oubliée. Enfants de guerre (1940-1945)“ By Dr. Gerlinda Swillen.

“The CegeSoma (State Archives) and the Auschwitz Foundation – Remembrance of Auschwitz are pleased to invite you to the presentation of the latest book by Dr Gerlinda Swillen titled ‘La valise oubliée. Enfants de guerre (1940-1945)’ * on the occasion of which the author will be interviewed by Alain Colignon.”

December 16, 2018 New book: “Når krigen slutter“ by Bent Haller.

“Når krigen slutter er et stykke lokal Danmarkshistorie fortalt af en af Danmarks mest elskede forfattere. Vi følger pigen Edith, der netop har fået en tjenesteplads hos mejeristen i Frederikshavn, da krigen bryder ud. Det lille samfund vågner op til en ny virkelighed, hvor alle må sno sig for at tilpasse sig besættelsesmagtens lune. Frederikshavn bliver et knudepunkt i krigen, hvor tyskerne kan transportere deres tropper videre nordpå. Edith forsøger at forsætte livet på bedste vis, hun tager ud og danser og forelsker sig. Som altid går kærligheden sine egne veje – især i krigstider. Edith forelsker sig i den østrigske soldat Helmut, hvilket får store konsekvenser for resten af hendes liv. For en dag slutter krigen, men slutter den også for Edith?”

November 7, 2018 New Article: “Love letters unlock secrets of Yorkshire wartime romance”

“Love letters sent from a Belgian soldier to the mother of his illegitimate child have helped unlock the secrets of a wartime romance.”

October 22, 2018New Article: “Norway Apologizes, 70 Years Later to Women Who Had Relationships With WWII Germans”

October 19, 2018 News Article: “Norway apologises to its World War Two ‘German girls'”

“Norway’s Prime Minister Erna Solberg has issued an official government apology to Norwegian women who were mistreated over World War Two-era relationships with German soldiers.”

October 19, 2018 New Book: Bringing Poetry to the Cruel History of Comfort Women

By author Emily Jungmin Yoon.

October 9, 2018 New Book: “German Soldiers and the Occupation of France, 1940–1944”

Part of Studies in the Social and Cultural History of Modern Warfare

October 8, 2018 New Movie: Wars Don’t End

“During World War II 12,000 children were born to Norwegian mothers and German soldiers. In WARS DON’T END five of these children tell their stories about lives of discrimination and abuse stemming from the choices of their mothers and the actions of their fathers. Liv Ullmann’s narration binds together a horrific story that starts with Nazi soldiers being encouraged to have children with Norwegian women in order to strengthen the Aryan race. Several decades later the children break the silence, seeking justice for themselves and protection for future children born of war.”

September 17, 2018 New Article: Iraq demands repatriation of foreign ISIS children

“Governments being called upon include Germany and Russia.”

September 5, 2018 New Article: Marriage and Fatherhood in the Nazi SS

“From 1931 to 1945, leaders of the SS, a paramilitary group under the Nazi party, sought to transform their organization into a racially-elite family community that would serve as the Third Reich’s new aristocracy. They utilized the science of eugenics to convince SS men to marry suitable wives and have many children.”

August 6, 2018 New Article: Number of women and children who joined Isis ‘significantly underestimated’

New article on the following topic: Number of women and children who joined Isis ‘significantly underestimated’

June 21, 2018 New Conference: Securing health care of hidden populations: The case of Children Born of War

“Children born of war” (CBOW) are children born in conflict and post-conflict situations to native women and members of foreign troops. Empirical evidence indicates that these children are born in almost every armed conflict. Additionally, because of their (paternal) biological origin, the children are discriminated against and stigmatized in post-conflict societies. According to previous research, health problems have a fundamental influence on the development of the CBOW. As an expert on this topic, Ingvill C. Mochmann was invited with the Center for Global Health, Oslo, University of Oslo and the Peace Research Institute Oslo (PRIO), to organize and guide a conference, to be held on the 5th of June 2018 and funded by the University of Oslo and PRIO on “Securing health care of hidden populations: The Case of Children Born of War”. In addition to research-based knowledge from various conflicts such as the Second World War, Bosnia, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda, humanitarian organizations have reported on the critical situation of this group of children in today’s conflicts. In particular, they are children of suspected IS supporters or sympathizers and children born of sexual assaults by ISIS members. These children are often seen as a security risk, not only in the conflict regions, but also in their parents’ countries of origin, as soon as they want to return to their (European) homeland.

June 21, 2018 New Report: Closing the Protection Gap for Children Born of War

Addressing stigmatisation and the intergenerational impact of sexual violence in conflict

June 21, 2018 New Book: Quartermaster is not a father’s name

“The children Portuguese soldiers left in the Colonial War. Between 1961 and 1974 Portugal endured a colonial war in three African countries that were then Portuguese colonies (Guinea-Bissau, Angola and Mozambique). Around a million young Portuguese men were stationed in these territories during the conflict. The end of this war, after a military coup (25th April 1974), was also the end of a 48 year old dictatorship that led to the independency of the three African countries. The children some of these men had with local women remained a private subject for more than 40 years. It was only discussed among veterans and known only by some of their families, up until 2013, when I first wrote about it in a reportage (text and vídeo) for the daily national newspaper Público. It was the first time this subject was mentioned in the media. In 2015, I went to Angola with a father that knew he had left an Angolan woman pregnant to meet with his unknown son.” by Catarina Gomes (Original Title: Furriel Não é Nome de Pai)

June 21, 2018 Alen Muhic, spoke in the UN (NY) today on behalh of the Bosnian Association Forgotten Children of War

Alen Muhic, from the Association Forgotten Children of War, BiH, was invited speaker today in the UN, NY. His speech and message on behalf of the Bosnian CBoW were so powerful.

June 18, 2018 Panel Discussion, International Day for the Elimination of Sexual Violence in Conflict

2018 Theme: “The Plight and Rights of Children Born of War”. “The effects of conflict-related sexual violence echo across generations, through trauma, stigma, poverty, poor health and unwanted pregnancy. The children whose existence emanates from that violence have been labelled “bad blood” or “children of the enemy”, and alienated from their mother’s social group. Children conceived through rape in wartime often struggle with issues of identity and belonging for decades after the end of war. They are rarely accepted by society, and unsafe abortion remains a leading cause of maternal mortality in conflict-affected settings.

The stigma associated with sexual violence can have life-long, and sometimes lethal, repercussions for both survivors and children conceived through rape. Socioeconomic reintegration support, aimed to alleviate stigma and mend the social fabric, should therefore infuse all post-conflict reconstruction and recovery efforts.

On this day, we strive to foster solidarity with survivors who endure multiple, intersecting stigmas in the wake of sexual violence, including the stigma of association with an armed or terrorist group, and of bearing children conceived through rape by the enemy. Often, these women and children are viewed as affiliates, rather than victims, of armed and violent extremist groups. These children may be left stateless, in a legal limbo, and susceptible to recruitment, radicalization, trafficking and exploitation, with wider implications for peace and security, as well as human rights. However, the issue of children born of war has been missing from both the international human rights framework and from peace and security discourse, rendering them a voiceless category of victims.”

June 12, 2018 New Review on ‘My Child Lebensborn’

“My Child Lebensborn review – could you raise a Nazi baby? The trials of caring for a child of the ‘master race’ are explored in a fearless game that brings the past to life and reveals the damage caused by social isolation”

June 11, 2018 “Anerkennung und Unterstützung”

“Erstmalig empfing ein deutscher Botschafter Vertreter von “Danske Krigsbørn” mit deutschen Vätern”

June 7, 2018 New Interview: “Hvordan tar vi i mot krigsbarna?”

(Text in Norwegian) “Korleis behandlar me krigsbarna? Ei kvinne som får barn med ein soldat eller annan part i konflikten i ein krigssituasjon, risikerer å bli fordømt av samfunnet. Det gjeld også barnet som blir fødd. Krigsbarn opplever ofte å bli utstøytte, sjølv etter at krigen offisielt er over. No kjem barn fødde av kvinner som verva seg til IS tilbake til Noreg. Korleis tek me imot dei? Kan me lære noko av måten me behandla barn av norske kvinner og tyske soldatar etter andre verdskrigen”

May 28, 2018 New Thesis: ‘I feel out of place’: children born into the Lord’s Resistance Army and the politics of belonging

New Thesis by Stewart, Beth W.”In the aftermath of nearly three decades of conflict in northern Uganda, children born into the rebel group the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) experience social, economic, and political exclusion. Thousands were born to mothers and often fathers who were abducted by the LRA and forced to marry inside the rebel group.”

May 28, 2018 New Journal Entry: Collaboration of the Heart: The Forbidden Love Affairs of French Prisoners of War and German Women in Nazi Germany*

New Journal Entry (‘The Journal of Modern History’) by Raffael Scheck.

May 18, 2018 Securing health care of hidden populations: The case of Children Born of War

“What are the special risks and needs of Children Born of War (CBOW)? Time and place: Securing health care of hidden populations: The case of Children Born of War June 5, 2018 8:15 AM – 2:00 PM, Tøyen Hovedgård, Botanical Gardens, Oslo”

May 18, 2018 New Game released: My Child Lebensborn

“What Happens When the War Ends? Does hatred just go away? My Child Lebensborn is a story-driven nurture game – a dark tamagotchi – letting you experience the fates of Children Born of War.”

May 7, 2018 Nine months after Myanmar assaults Rohingya camps ready for spate of births.

“Agencies braced for spike in unwanted children who were conceived as a result of sexual violence by Myanmar soldiers and militiamen”

April 26, 2018 Regrets of an ISIS midwife

“Forced to deliver babies for the Islamic State, she shared moments tender, cruel and grotesque”

April 20, 2018 Iraqi women accused of ISIS ties subjected to sexual abuse and isolation at camps, says Amnesty.

“BAGHDAD — In December, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi declared “complete” victory over Islamic State militants after Iraqi forces backed by U.S. advisers and air power clawed back major cities occupied by the extremists for years.”

April 13, 2018 PhD on Children Born of War in Colombia

Congratulations to Tatiana Sanchez Parra! April 6 2018: Tatiana Sanchez Parra, Department of Sociology, University of Essex, UK, defended her PhD “Born of War in Colombia: Narratives of Unintelligibility, Contested Identities, and the Memories of Absence”. Her thesis addresses the production and reproduction of narratives about children born as a result of war-related sexual violence in Colombia and focuses on the social processes though which they have become part of realities of the armed conflict that are apprehended by the Colombian government, human rights organisations and transitional justice agencies, the media, and the communities.

External examiner and INIRC-CBOW network founder Professor Ingvill C. Mochmann, PhD candidate Tatiana Sanchez Parra, internal examiner Professor Nigel G. South, University of Essex

External examiner and INIRC-CBOW network founder Professor Ingvill C. Mochmann, PhD candidate Tatiana Sanchez Parra, internal examiner Professor Nigel G. South, University of Essex

February 26, 2018 CHILD SOLDIERS WORLD INDEX

“The global authority on the recruitment and use of children by state armed forces and non-state armed groups. This global map visualises trends in the military exploitation of children according to three essential criteria: ratification of OPAC (the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the involvement of children in armed conflict), minimum recruitment age, and use of children in hostilities. Click on any country to see full details of the national legal framework, policies and practices.”

January 22, 2018 We congratulate our network member Professor Elke Kleinau with the Kölner Universitätspreis für Forschung 2017.

January 5, 2018 Article: The Most Dangerous Places for Children in 2017

“In wars around the globe, thousands of children were front-line targets, used as human shields and recruited to fight this year on “a shocking scale,” Unicef said on Thursday. The United Nations agency warned against normalizing the brutality, a sentiment it has echoed in reports year after year.”