The UN convention needs an enforcing arm

Once wars and other conflicts begin, children suffer abuse—physical, sexual, and emotional. This is despite international laws to protect them.1 Recent studies on the psychological consequences of armed conflict have shown that the resultant unhappiness and mental disturbance is so great in children that it can rarely be repaired.2 4 The answer therefore has to be prevention, and, if that fails, the international community needs to act rapidly to protect vulnerable children.

In conflicts over the past 10 years 90% of casualties have been civilians. Two million children have been killed and 4–5 million seriously injured (usually without analgesia, anaesthesia, or surgical facilities to treat them). Twelve million children have been made homeless, over one million orphaned, and countless psychologically traumatised. Three quarters of deaths from antipersonnel mines are among children.

Inequalities in health care, and the poverty in which a …