Children born of war often do not have a voice as they are either too young to voice it or because they are often forgotten by policy makers around the world. The CBOW Project is engaged in various advocacy projects in order to change this. Through our advocacy interventions at national and international levels, we aim to achieve that the interests of children born will be heard and translated into effective policies.
Recent examples of our interventions include a UN Statement we submitted to the UN Human Rights Council Session in Geneva in February-March 2021. In our statement, we called on the UN to routinely acknowledge the existence of children born of war and their needs in any case of conflict-related sexual violence. Specifically, we demanded changes of Iraqi laws that would be critical for the integration of children born of war within the Yazidi community. Regarding children born of war within the Rohingya community, we demanded that they be better protected from the imminent abuse and violence against this particularly vulnerable group in the refugee camps in Bangladesh.
A report on the specific situation of children born of war within the Rohingya community was published in 2020 with our support.
Further, we had the honour to be invited to a high-level event with the UN Representatives on the situation of children born of war within the Rohingya community. This group of Rohingya victims of the 2017 genocide is thus far not being considered in many international and civil society interventions helping the Rohingya. This made our conversation with the Special Rapporteur of Myanmar, Tom Andrews, Special Rapporteur on the sale and sexual exploitation of children, Mama Fatima Singhateh, Special Rapporteur on human trafficking, Siobhan Mullaly, all the more important. We are grateful that as a follow-up to this conversation, the CBOW Project was invited to submit expertise on the threats of abuse and trafficking that children born of war face.
Oslo Conference: “Ending Sexual and Gender-based Violence in Humanitarian Crises”
23-24 May 2019 the international conference “Ending Sexual and Gender-based Violence in Humanitarian Crises” took place in Oslo, Norway. The conference was hosted by Norway, Iraq, Somalia, United Arab Emirates, UN OCHA, UNFPA, ICRC and other partners. It was the first time the Children Born of War were addressed at a donor meeting. Board member Ingvill C. Ødegaard (formerly Mochmann) was invited to give an overview on major topics and stat-of-the art knowledge on children born of war at the session “Forced motherhood and children born of war”.
