The children from the Shajareh Tayebeh primary school, a girls’ school in Minab, Iran, should have been sitting in classrooms, giggling with their friends and dreaming about recess — not wondering if they would survive that day. Their parents should have been looking forward to picking them up that afternoon, hearing the day’s stories and helping with homework — not frantically digging through rubble to find them.
On Feb. 28, an airstrike killed around 170 people at the school, mostly children between 7 and 12 years old. This tragic loss is a devastating reminder that when conflict erupts, children inevitably pay the price.
We are humanitarian pediatricians who have worked in conflict settings. Our job, wherever we are, is to protect children’s health, advocate for their needs and help them grow into adulthood. Most days, that means treating infections, stabilizing injuries or reassuring worried parents that their children are going to be OK. But at moments like this, it also means speaking a simple truth that unfortunately has become necessary to emphasize: Children must be protected from the harms of armed conflict.
Recognizing the growing number of children affected by increasingly protracted armed conflicts, the American Academy of Pediatrics recently published a policy statement that calls on pediatricians to advocate for the protection of children in armed conflict settings; the safeguarding of schools, hospitals and health care workers; access to health and mental health services both during and after conflicts; and humanitarian support for families affected by war. Within one month of its publication, we find ourselves heartbroken and compelled once again, in the wake of the tragedy in Iran, to demand that the spaces children depend on to survive and thrive must not be a target, that children must not be collateral damage.
More than 520 million children, or roughly one in five globally, currently live in areas affected by armed conflict. When conflict erupts, children face immediate dangers, such as traumatic injuries, the loss of their caretakers and possibly death. Risks to children linger as conflicts progress, including trafficking, sexual violence, recruitment and abduction, and both the physical and mental impacts of conflict can last a lifetime and affect generations.