Mohammad Al-Amin was 14 years old when he was arrested. He had been accused of vandalism and was transferred to a child detention centre in the outskirts of Bangladesh’s capital, Dhaka. He was terrified. Al-Amin would go on to spend 9 months in detention. He was eventually released through a virtual court system that had been established by Bangladesh’s Supreme Court, with UNICEF’s support. Since Bangladesh’s first virtual children’s court was set up, more than 5,000 children have been granted bail and released from detention. The majority have been reunited with their families and so far, only two children have reoffended.

All time top-ranking DJ sisters Liv and Mim Nervo have written a new track to raise awareness of child vulnerability, child labour and trafficking. Here they explain their motivation and the origins of the song.

UNRWA launched its annual Summer Fun Weeks (SFWs) last week to serve some 120,000 Palestine refugee children and youth in the Gaza Strip. SFW will be held between 25 June - 28 July and will be provide vital psychosocial support for child and youth impacted by the repeated rounds of conflict and violence they have survived. Some 42 per cent of first grade UNRWA students surveyed require psychosocial support.

The war changed everything for Ukraine’s children, robbing them of stability, safety, their friends. As the fighting moved closer to civilian populations, life for many children moved underground. Relatively protected from the physical horrors unfolding above their heads, children who sought shelter below struggled to piece together some semblance of normalcy. UNICEF brings us the stories of five children whose lives have been upended by the war.

In this course, you will learn about your rights as young people and children and about how your rights are connected to the environment.

In Burkina Faso, Latifatou dreamt of becoming a seamstress to escape poverty and child labour. Thanks to support from the CLEAR Cotton project, her dream is about to come true.

According to a new Education Cannot Wait study, the number of crisis-affected children and adolescents who need education support is estimated at 222 million - much higher than a previous estimate and an alarming trend.

Between 2005 and 2020, the United Nations verified over 266,000 grave violations against children committed by parties to conflict situations across Africa, Asia, the Middle East, and Latin America. The data comes from a new UNICEF report – 25 years of children and armed conflict: Taking action to protect children in war. This figure is a fraction of the violations believed to have occurred, as access and security constraints, and the shame, pain, and fear that survivors suffer often hamper the reporting, documentation and verification of grave violations.

Images are a testament to the decades-long work UNICEF has been carrying out to ensure that essential supplies reach children and their families. In 1987, a small girl, held by her mother, is vaccinated by a nurse in the village of Köskköy, Turkey. This was part of the final round of a UNICEF-supported child immunization campaign, delivered through UNICEF’s Child Survival and Development Revolution, a global initiative launched in the early 1980s.

In cotton-growing communities of Pakistan, many children were working in the fields because they were deprived of accessible schools. Therefore, the CLEAR Cotton project partnered with the local government and civil society to set up education centres at their doorsteps. The CLEAR Cotton project is co-funded and implemented by the ILO and partners.

Our mental health is a fundamental part to our overall health and well-being. UNICEF brings expert tips and resources to help parents support their child's and their own mental health.

100 days of war in Ukraine has caused one of the fastest large-scale displacements of children since World War II.

Severe wasting, also known as ‘severe acute malnutrition’, is an excruciatingly painful condition – which is caused by a lack of nutritious food and repeated bouts of diseases such as diarrhoea, measles and malaria – that affects millions of children. Children with severe wasting are thin and frail. Their immune systems are weak, leaving them vulnerable to developmental delays, disease and death. UNICEF works with partners across the globe to support the early detection and treatment of children with wasting and other life-threatening forms of malnutrition.

It is a sad reality that in situations where armed conflict breaks out, it is the most vulnerable members of societies – namely children, who are most affected by the consequences of war. During armed conflict, children may be forced to flee their homes, some torn from their families and exposed to exploitation and abuse along the way. They may be recruited by armed forces. Especially for girls and women, the threat of gender-based violence soars. On the International Day of Innocent Children Victims of Aggression the United Nations affirms its commitment to protect the rights of children.

Children are the most vulnerable in times of armed conflict. Wars and hostilities deprive them of their lives, families, homes, essentially from their very childhood. Despite the horrors they have endured, children have a chance to recover from atrocities and become positive agents of change in their communities. The photo exhibit “From Despair to Hope: Children Beyond Armed Conflict,” organized by the Office of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict, aims at reflecting on the complexity of the lives of children amidst conflict, emphasizing both the tragedy and the faith in a better future.