In Pictures: Children in Conflict and War Zones

In Pictures | On International Day of Innocent Children Victims of Aggression, pictures of children in conflict.

Tell her it’s a game

Tell her it’s serious

But don’t frighten her

Don’t tell her they’ll kill her

Tell her it’s important to be quiet

— Seven Jewish Children, Caryl Churchill

The child who speaks the above lines, is one of the seven child characters in Caryl Churchill’s play Seven Jewish Children. Set in the backdrop of the continuing Israel-Palestine conflict, the play is not only evocative of the brutalities of war, but also puts them through the perspective of children, told as words of advice given to them.

The United Nations (UN) observes every June 4 as The International Day of Innocent Children Victims of Aggression. Founded to commemorate victims of the 1982 Lebanon War, its purpose expanded to “acknowledge the pain suffered by children throughout the world”, after an emergency special session of the UN Assembly on the question of Palestine in 1982, citing the sufferings of Palestinian children caught in the conflict.

33 years down the line there has been fresh attacks on Palestine, fresh casualties, an alarming number of which are children. 140 children died at the heinous attack on a school in Peshawar, while over 10,000 children have been killed in the Syrian unrest.

We look back at a few faces of innocence, marked by the shockingly cavalier barbarity of war and conflict.