Contribute to a Voice for Children in Conflict Areas
Dr Marieke Hopman and Guleid Jama are launching a new research project on the role of children in peacebuilding in conflict areas. With this project, they aim to examine how children in non-recognised states can actively contribute to sustainable peace and how their voices can be structurally embedded in peace initiatives. Through a financial contribution, you can help make this research possible and give children in conflict areas a voice.
Worldwide, 473 million children are growing up in conflict zones. Around 9 million of them live in so-called non-recognised states: territories without international recognition or protection. These children are among the most vulnerable, as they fall outside the scope of international law and are rarely heard.
Hopman and Jama aim to change this through CHILD-PEACE. Building on the CHILD-WAR project, this research focuses on how children in non-recognised states can be actively involved in peacebuilding. The research takes place in three regions: Gaza, Sool/Sanaag and Nagorno Karabakh/Artsakh. The project combines legal analysis with empirical research. What rights do children in these non-recognised states have? And what do they experience during and after conflict? In a next phase of the project, the research team aims to explore how children themselves can contribute to sustainable peace and how their voices can be structurally embedded in peace initiatives.
Help Make This Research Possible
To make this next step possible, additional funding is required. For this reason, a crowdfunding campaign has been launched in collaboration with UM Crowd, part of the University Fund Limburg. With donations, the research team can work on:
carefully and safely involving children in peacebuilding activities;
working with local partners to involve children in conversations about war and recovery;
developing concrete interventions that international organisations can use to give children a structural voice.
Do you want to contribute to a future in which children in conflict areas have the right to recovery, perspective and peace?
Ambassadors
Jan Pronk – Former Dutch Minister for Development Cooperation and the Environment, and former Special Representative of the United Nations in Sudan. A long-standing international leader in development, peacebuilding and human rights.
Mohamed Barud Ali – Chair of the National Human Rights Commission of Somaliland, long-time human rights activist and former Minister of Rehabilitation in Somaliland.
Marc Dullaert – Founder of the KidsRights Foundation and former Dutch Children’s Ombudsman. A leading advocate for children’s rights in the Netherlands and internationally.
Nigel Cantwell – Founder of Defence for Children International and a leading international expert on children’s rights and alternative care.
Kees Matthijssen – Lieutenant General (ret.) of the Royal Netherlands Army and former Force Commander of the UN mission in Mali (MINUSMA), with extensive experience in peace operations and conflict situations, including Afghanistan, Iraq and Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Lisa Macheiner – Frontline humanitarian aid worker with Médecins Sans Frontières, with experience working with children in conflict and crisis situations, including Afghanistan, Libya and Gaza.
About CHILD-WAR
In 2024, Dr. Marieke Hopman and Guleid Jama started their research project CHILD-WAR. This project focuses on questions about which international legal treaties apply and who is responsible for the protection of children in de facto states. The first 130 interviews conducted as part of this ongoing research reveal a painful pattern: children in these areas are given little space to talk about war, loss and fear. Where adults focus on moving forward, children are left behind with unanswered questions, unresolved trauma, and identity issues. Their experiences and perspectives fade into the background.
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