"E.Ma. European Master's Degree in Human Rights and Democratisation Awarded Theses of the academic Year 2002/2003" by Joana Daniel, Sophie Hofbaur - Marsilio.
Two million children killed, five million maimed and twelve million orphaned in the wars during the last decade of the 20th century alone.
These are the results of the UN study presented to the UN Commission for Human Rights and thè UN General Assembly in November 1996. Millions of children have been killed as deliberate targets of warfare or caught up as fighters. Others have fallen victims to malnutrition, disease, sexual violence and the depredations of forced fight. Children are among those that suffered thè most during armed conflicts.
Meanwhile, in each and every war, there were always sexual relationships between soldiers and locai women. These relations range in a continuum from mutual consent to prostitution and rape. The outcome gives rise to a group of children, whose suffering often starts when the war has formally ended: the war children'. Born in different circumstances, thè conditions and thè future of these children will depend on the way their mothers were treated.