Time is ticking for mosul's children

TIME IS TICKING FOR MOSUL’S CHILDREN

Protecting the most vulnerable during the military offensive

Savethechildren.net

A LOOMING HUMANITARIAN CATASTROPHE The Iraqi Government is expected to make its move to retake the city of Mosul, currently held by the so-called Islamic State (IS), in October 2016. As Mosul is a strategic territory for both parties, the battle for its control is likely to be fierce and prolonged. In addition to the risk of mass civilian casualties, the UN estimates the military offensive could trigger the displacement of between 1.2 to 1.5 million people1 – potentially the largest and fastest single displacement of people ever recorded.2 The humanitarian impact – and response required – is likely to be enormous.

Children will make up approximately half of those either trapped in Mosul or forced to flee. Unless the right measures are urgently taken, the upcoming military operation in Mosul and its aftermath will have a heavy toll on children. The UN and humanitarian actors have given donors early warning of the scale of humanitarian crisis that is likely to unfold as a result of the Mosul offensive and the minimum amount of funding – US$284 million – needed to adequately prepare and respond. Donor governments have had months to commit funding that would enable the humanitarian community to put in place measures to mitigate the potentially catastrophic fallout of the military operation on the civilian population. Yet the international donor community has failed to fully step up and the Mosul Flash Appeal is currently only 48% funded3.

It is highly unusual to have such a long period of notice and lead-in time to a humanitarian crisis, and there are no excuses for being underprepared. If the worst case scenario unfolds, the UN estimates that over six times more funding (US$1.8 billion) may be needed to respond to the needs generated by the Mosul offensive. The need to fully fund the current Mosul Flash Appeal has never been more urgent.

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THE IRAQ CRISIS IN NUMBERS Currently:  10 million people, including 5 million children, are affected by conflict in Iraq.  3.4 million people are already displaced – half are children.  Iraq is also host to 250,000 Syrian refugees.

As a result of the Mosul offensive:  1 million more Iraqis are expected to be displaced, possibly suddenly and en masse, and at least 700,000 may require shelter and humanitarian assistance in the coming months.  By the end of 2016, the UN estimates 12– 13 million people will need humanitarian assistance in Iraq – with an estimated 6.5 million children in need.

The likely scenario for Mosul’s children The purpose of this briefing is to highlight the extreme risks that children could be exposed to as a result of the upcoming Mosul offensive, the life-threatening journeys they are likely to face in their search for safety and the challenging reality they may face once they are displaced.

While it is hard to predict with certainty what will happen to Mosul’s children during the offensive, we can make a fair estimation of the likely situations children will face based on what occurred during and in the aftermath of other displacements caused by smaller but similar military operations, such as Ramadi, Fallujah, Makhmur, Shirqat and Qayyaara.

We can also draw from the first-hand testimonies of people who have already left Mosul or were displaced from Fallujah, Shirquat or Hawija.

Impossible choices Mosul’s children have been living under IS rule for over two years, and are likely to have been exposed to extreme violence and mental distress, with limited access to food, water and healthcare. When the offensive starts, it is likely the situation will only worsen for children if no action is taken, and families will face an impossible decision:  If they stay: the Mosul offensive is likely to be brutal and decisive, with attacks carried out in densely populated civilian areas. Any effort to limit people’s ability to move to safety could leave families caught in the crossfire and at high risk of serious injury and death. They could face significant deprivation as food and water supply lines, already restricted, are at risk of being completely cut off. 

Parties to the conflict must not use explosive weapons in populated areas and must protect civilian infrastructure such as schools and hospitals.

 If they attempt to flee: children and their families will face another set of risks if they try to flee – they may be caught by IS and ill-treated, tortured and killed; they may be injured or killed by landmines or snipers; or they may perish if they fail to access shelter, food and water in a timely manner. 

Parties to the conflict must identify and maintain safe routes for civilians to flee active areas of conflict.

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Humanitarian actors should be able to access displaced populations to provide humanitarian assistance.

Humanitarian access to areas where internally displaced people (IDPs) are gathered should be expedited by the authorities and must include areas where IDPs are being gathered before transportation to screening facilities. If an area hosting displaced people is not deemed safe for humanitarian actors, it is not safe for IDPs.

 If they succeed in crossing the frontline: families may have to go through security screenings run by armed forces where children could be exposed to a range of 2

new protections risks, including separation from their families and abuse. 

The UN must put in place a third party monitoring mechanism to ensure screening procedures are fair, clear and transparent, and applied consistently.

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Authorities conducting screening must protect the dignity of individuals, and should not create protection risks for children and women.

Children should be allowed to remain with family during screening and it should be carried out in a child-sensitive manner.

 And at the end of this risky journey: for children who escape, there is no guarantee that once they reach safety, they will be able to access adequate humanitarian assistance. This is largely because the scale of need is likely to overwhelm the services and supplies available but is also due to the chronic lack of funding of the Mosul Flash Appeal, which has significantly impacted on the ability of the UN and humanitarian agencies to adequately prepare in advance.

Children’s emotional wellbeing is also likely to be deeply affected by two years of exposure to extreme violence, which is likely to be compounded by the additional stress factors that will arise from their entrapment in Mosul or their displacement, such as family separation, fear for their lives, and the harsh conditions they may experience in screening and displacement camps. 

The international donor community must act now and fully fund the Mosul Flash Appeal to ensure supplies and support are prepositioned in time to respond to the scale of needs of people uprooted from Mosul in both the immediate and medium term.

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The humanitarian community must identify and minimise child protection risks and integrate mental health and psychosocial support in the first phase of the response.

As outlined in this briefing, there are a number of immediate measures the international community must take in order to avert the child protection crisis that we predict is highly likely to occur. If donors, parties to the conflict, the UN and humanitarian partners fail to prepare and implement the scale of response required, as well as measures to ensure civilians’ safety and protection, the situation that will unfold for children and their families is likely to be catastrophic.

A LOST GENERATION IN THE MAKING  Iraq was once a country where over 90% of children were going to school, but it now has 3.5 million children out of school.4 And, as of September 2016, education received only 40% of required funding as part of the 2016 Humanitarian Response Plan.  Almost 1 million girls in Iraq were married before the age of 15, and more than half a million children are estimated to be working, twice as many as in 1990.5  Save the Children’s consultation with displaced youth in Iraq6 shows they face isolation, insecurity, psychological distress, extended disruption of education, heighted protection risks, exploitative working conditions, desperation and hopelessness.

PHOTO: OLIVIA WATSON/SAVE THE CHILDREN

Children wait outside the Child Friendly Space in an IDP camp in Northern Iraq.

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INSIDE MOSUL – AT RISK FROM VIOLENCE AND LACK OF SERVICES Over the past two years, Mosul’s children have been living under extremist rule.

As described in the UN Secretary General’s recent report on children and armed conflict, children in Iraq have been killed and maimed, abducted, recruited and used by armed groups, and made victims of sexual violence and exploitation by IS.7 Over the past two years, children are likely to have also witnessed extreme violence, including against family members. Threats, extortion of assets and restrictions – in particular against women and girls – all contribute to the distress children and their families experience while living in areas held by armed groups. As a consequence, children are likely to be suffering from acute psychological distress, if not toxic stress, which could have an irrevocable impact on their lives and their futures.

In addition to threats to their protection, Mosul’s children have also missed out on quality education for the past two years. Testimonies from recently displaced children show armed groups have

imposed a curriculum that includes extremely violent content in the areas they control.12 As a result, parents try their best to make sure their children do not attend school so they are not exposed to this violence. Teachers may also be targeted for refusing to teach this new content. For example, the UN reports that a female teacher in Ninewa was tortured and killed for refusing to implement the new curriculum.13 Children are also afraid to go to school buildings that are often clearly marked as occupied or controlled by armed groups, making them more likely to be targeted by airstrikes.

“Life in our village was difficult, there were many restrictions, and they watched my uncle and his house. I didn’t like it – I had to wear black clothes and cover my face. We didn’t go to school. My parents didn’t want me to go to school because there was a flag on the building and they thought it would be targeted. So it’s been three years since I went to school now. I like the Save the Children centre here, but I want to go back to a real school so much. I miss school a lot.” Ghalia*, 10, displaced from a village near Mosul, now in Northeast Syria

MOSUL’S CHILDREN AND TOXIC STRESS Save the Children is concerned that children who are trapped inside Mosul or have a harrowing escape will be at high risk of toxic stress, which can have an irreversible impact on their brains and development.

Toxic stress occurs when a child experiences strong, frequent or prolonged adversity, such as extreme violence and conflict.8 The impact of toxic stress on children can be minimised if a supportive adult or caregiver is present to help them cope and normalise. However, if a supportive adult or caregiver is not present – which is likely to be the case for many of Mosul’s children if they get separated from or lose their parents, or whose parents may be psychologically impacted as a consequence of the offensive – the stress response they experience may be extreme and long-lasting.9 In the worst case scenario, it could disrupt the development of children’s brain architecture and other organ systems, and increase the risk for stressrelated disease and cognitive impairment, well into their adult years.10 More research is needed to identify an adequate long-term integrated programmatic response to address toxic stress in conflict situations, and cater to the needs of different age groups of boys and girls affected by conflict. Innovative approaches exist to reduce stress and restore a sense of normality in children’s lives.

Save the Children’s approach to psychosocial support in emergencies – including in our Mosul response – is to set up mobile or static spaces where we implement recreational and non-formal educational activities intended to promote resilience in children and adolescents by improving self-confidence, building life skills such as problem-solving, critical reflection and teamwork, emotional self-regulation, and strengthen social relations. We also integrate psychosocial support as part of other interventions, through education and community-based programming.11 4

Mosul’s children are also at risk of becoming malnourished and are likely to lack access to essential services as a result of the offensive. Children’s health and nutrition are already under threat after over two years living under IS rule. A recent assessment14 of areas currently held by armed groups and cut off from the rest of Iraq, including Mosul, show that the cost of food and essential goods has significantly increased, leaving children and families food insecure and vulnerable to malnutrition.

Access to healthcare and medication is also a major concern. Hospitals have been looted and are lacking staff because many have already fled. As a result, the youngest children have not been vaccinated and families have been using negative coping mechanisms to address their children’s health needs, such as taking expired medicine. Due to poorly maintained public services and facilities, lack of clean water and sanitation is a concern and assessments have shown that the poorest families are drinking untreated water from rivers and other natural water sources, exposing children to water-borne illnesses.15

“There were no jobs, and even if you had a job sometimes you would not be allowed to work. My father sold his car because our neighbour had a car, and IS came and killed him and took his car to use it. Food had become very expensive and we used the money to buy food.” Mahmoud*, 14, recently displaced from Mosul This situation could worsen as a result of the Mosul offensive and in particular if military forces impose a siege. We saw this play out most recently in Fallujah. After a few months of siege, Fallujah’s markets had exhausted food supplies and the price of food and fuel had skyrocketed, increasing between 10 and 15 times in cost.16 According to data gathered

by Save the Children, the price of a single can of infant milk formula rose to US$50 at times during the siege, leaving thousands of children without sustenance; 56 infants reportedly died as a result. Only 4 of 30 healthcare centres were functioning and 24 babies died during delivery over this time.

PHOTO: OLIVIA WATSON/SAVE THE CHILDREN

Rawan*, 4, and her family come from a town in Iraq that was taken by IS in 2014. They have been in constant fear the past two years, until they fled and arrived at a camp in Northern Iraq.

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SEEKING SAFETY – STILL AT EXTREME RISK “Sometimes we knew that IS was nearby because we could hear gunfire and the sounds of fighting.

Every time the noises came closer we all lay flat on the ground, hidden. We were all very afraid, hiding and then running when we thought the IS men were distracted. It was raining heavily that day and sometimes we had to stay flat on the ground for more than an hour in the rain before we could move again … When we began moving in the morning at 7am the Peshmerga didn’t attack us because their helicopter saw that we were children, but IS shot at us with heavy weapons as we raced towards the frontline.

Thankfully no one was hurt, but we all injured our legs and ankles trying to run so fast. ” Ahmed*, 12, recently displaced from Mosul

Before the offensive – taking huge risks to escape Children and families inside Mosul are likely to face extreme risks if they try to leave Mosul.

Since taking control of the city in 2014, IS militants have put checkpoints and explosives along all main exit routes to prevent people from leaving. According to testimonies of recently displaced people from Mosul, if children and families are caught in their attempt to escape Mosul they are likely to be severely punished and detained, if not killed.

For those that manage to escape, the routes they take are likely to be extremely unsafe.

As data collected by Save the Children shows, when children and families tried to flee the city of Hawija over the past six months, a number of children died after triggering explosive devices. In one shocking case, women and their children were captured and burnt alive. Even if children and their families manage to run this gauntlet, their journeys to safety are long and perilous and we have received reports of families dying of starvation en route to safety.

During the offensive – a terrible dilemma While it is difficult to know how the Mosul offensive will unfold, an escalation in conflict is likely to put children at extreme risk if no precautions are taken to keep them safe.

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Previous experiences from military operations in Anbar (such as Ramadi and Fallujah) show that IS is likely to prevent the evacuation of civilians from Mosul when the offensive begins.17 In such cases, families have two options: stay and risk being killed and injured by the use of explosive weapons in populated areas; or flee and risk being killed by landmines, captured by IS or shot by armed actors.

If escape routes are not identified and maintained to allow civilians to safely evacuate during the offensive, families may face even greater difficulties to leave than they did before the start of the assault.

During the first weeks of the Fallujah offensive, civilians were initially trapped and when families with children tried to escape some were caught in crossfire. Others triggered explosive devices or drowned when attempting to cross the Euphrates in search of safety18. When safe routes out of Fallujah eventually opened, tens of thousands of civilians were able to cross the frontline.

Any effort by armed forces to limit displacement from Mosul – as acknowledged by the co-chairs of the UNGA high-level event on Iraq19 – could also have a devastating impact on civilians. For example, during the offensive on Qayyarah, armed forces urged 40,000 civilians to stay in their homes,20 leaving families at risk of shelling and explosive devices, and exposed to environmental hazards, such as smoke from oil wells set on fire by IS. The situation is likely to be even more challenging in Mosul as the city has a much bigger civilian population. The risk that civilian infrastructure will be classified as a legitimate military target and attacked is also high, as IS is reportedly using a variety of buildings in Mosul, including people’s homes, to store weapons.

“Often men with ISIS would take a family house and use it to store weapons, use it as a military base. If it was attacked then the whole neighbourhood was destroyed. There was a base near our house and we were afraid it would be attacked.”

Abed*, father of two, recently displaced from Mosul

HALTED ON THEIR WAY TO SAFETY AND ASSISTANCE Children and families who have fled Mosul, will have to go through a security screening process by the Iraqi Government to ascertain whether they are a security risk before they can move onto displacement camps or shelters. The Iraqi Government has a legitimate right to put in place measures to ensure members from armed groups do not infiltrate movements of civilians, but in the aftermath of previous military operations Iraq’s security screening procedures have often been implemented inconsistently and may not have respected humanitarian and human rights standards. For example, screening facilities vary in form and location – from ad hoc checkpoints to reception centres in abandoned buildings – and displaced families have found themselves going through several screening centres, sometimes being held in unsafe locations that are close to the frontline.21

Due to the current lack of access to screening facilities for humanitarian actors, it is difficult to assess the impact of the screening process on displaced people in Iraq and there is no mechanism in place to monitor whether the screening conducted is respecting international and national standards.

Security screening procedures not only delay families’ access to safety, they also often act as a barrier to receiving lifesaving assistance such as shelter, water, food and medicine. This is because authorities may experience difficulties in screening large waves of displaced people in a timely manner, like we expect to see during the Mosul offensive. As a result, families on the move may find themselves in limbo and stranded for days or weeks in screening centres located in areas that humanitarian actors cannot access or where they can only deliver limited emergency relief. Children and infants are a particularly vulnerable population in screening centres, and are likely to suffer from malnutrition, dehydration and lack of medicine. They may also contract preventable diseases if they have not been vaccinated and do not have access to clean water. Families without relatives in nearby urban areas or who lack identification (IS often confiscates IDs) are at higher risk of staying long-term at screening facilities that do not have the infrastructure or conditions to sufficiently accommodate them.

If there is no male caregiver to accompany them, boys aged 12 and older are at risk of separation from their families, making them vulnerable when held in crowded environments with adults and during interrogations if screening authorities are not trained on child sensitive practices and interrogation of minors. When separated from male family members, women and girls can be more vulnerable to sexual and genderbased violence and, after living for two years in an environment where violence against women and girls committed by armed groups was prevalent,23 being left alone with armed actors can cause them significant distress.

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During recent displacements from Anbar and Northern Iraq, women and children were systematically separated from men and adolescent boys over the age of 12 during screening. Gender segregation, with men and boys held in one location and women and children in another, creates a number of protection risks, particularly for women and children. During the first few weeks of the Fallujah offensive for instance, there were concerns22 about prolonged security screening and the detention conditions of an estimated 8,200 individuals, including 1,200 minors – some as young as 13 years old.

With the escalation of the military operations in Northern Iraq, we have seen more and more children arriving at reception centres unaccompanied or separated from family. As family tracing and reunification services are often unavailable in screening facilities, it is likely that children will remain alone and unaccompanied for the rest of their journey.

SAFE…BUT LACK OF ADEQUATE SHELTER AND ASSISTANCE Once children and their families leave security screening facilities, it may not necessarily follow that they will immediately access safety, shelter and humanitarian assistance.

While the UN and humanitarian partners have developed a preparedness plan to meet the needs of people displaced from Mosul, lack of funding means the bulk of the supplies required have not been prepositioned, nor have enough shelters been constructed.

OLIVIA WATSON/SAVE THE CHILDREN

Sabreen*, 3, displaced from Mosul, lives with her family in an IDP camp in Northern Iraq

The Shelter Cluster sought US$110 million in extra funding to help it prepare camp sites and pre-position essential stocks and supplies, including construction materials, repair kits, plastic sheeting, tents and household supplies.

Despite the request for additional funding being made over three months ago, the Shelter Cluster’s call has not been answered and the sector is 0% funded for the Mosul response.24 The UN estimates that 700,000 displaced people are likely to require shelter assistance as a result of the Mosul offensive but without funding, it is unclear how they will be accommodated. While there are a number of displacement camps in Iraq, most are close to full capacity with many families already living in overcrowded and unsanitary conditions.

The humanitarian community is already struggling to respond to the arrival of 33,000 people in Debaga camp over the past six months – a camp which originally hosted

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5,000 people. There are 9,000 people stranded in Debaga stadium, which serves as a transit facility, and protection risks for women and children are increasing due to the overcrowded conditions. Many camps are also located away from areas expected to receive the largest numbers of people displaced from Mosul.

UNHCR is planning to build six new camps to absorb the majority of people displaced from Mosul. In addition to lack of funding, land availability is also a key barrier to camp construction. Many private landowners are unwilling to lease land while other areas are unsuitable because of their topography, proximity to fighting, risk of unexploded ordinance or landmines or alleged potential to inflame ethnic, sectarian, religious or tribal tensions.

There is also a risk that camps will not meet SPHERE standards25 as there is not enough time to prepare temporary living sites for 700,000 people. As of September 2016, there was only shelter to accommodate 150,000 IDPs. This is because humanitarian actors were originally planning for only 300,000 IDPs (30%) from Mosul to settle in camps and 700,000 IDPs (70%) to move to host communities. This original plan reflected the current displacement trends in Iraq – where only 14% of the displaced population lives in camps.26 However, after difficulties in reaching an agreement with authorities on where to locate IDPs in host communities, humanitarian actors had to revise their plan and move from a 30% to a 70% camp-based response. As accommodating the majority of IDPs in camp settings was not originally planned for, adequate funding was not requested under the Mosul Flash Appeal. Without enough funding and sufficient time to prepare for the majority of IDPs to settle in camp settings, the humanitarian community simply will not be able to cope.

PHOTO: OLIVIA WATSON/SAVE THE CHILDREN

Displaced children in Northern Iraq, watch a fire spreading in a field adjacent to the camp.

The land here is so dry in the summer that fires are a major risk to the displaced population.

As a consequence of these challenges, children and their families may have to shelter in informal settlements such as abandoned buildings (including schools), sleep in the open or share tents with other families. In these types of situations, they will be vulnerable to extreme weather conditions – especially as winter approaches – and other dangers such as fire hazards and attacks from wild animals, including stray dogs and venomous snakes.

With more than 150,000 people already displaced along the Mosul corridor between March and September 2016, some displaced families are also increasingly incentivised by authorities to return to their homes – in areas recently retaken from IS, which may still be unsafe or lack – to make space for new arrivals.27 If children and families do manage to find shelter in formal camps or settlements, there is a risk these shelters will become overcrowded in the coming months, stretching available services and increasing the likelihood of unsanitary living conditions and protection risks for women and children. We see this scenario playing out in Debaga and Garmawa camps. For instance, the Debaga camp site was initially intended to house only 5,000 displaced people but has now grown to several sites housing more than 34,000 people.

In addition to lack of shelter, displaced children and families may also face challenges in accessing adequate humanitarian aid. While 9

every effort is being made to ensure enough ready-to-eat food rations, safe water and medicine are prepositioned to rapidly assist displaced people as they arrive in safe areas, there is likely to be a chronic lack of supplies due to limited funding. For example, as of 5 October 2016, the food and health sectors are only 50% and 23% funded respectively while water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) and key coordination sectors (such as logistics and the rapid response mechanism, which will ensure supplies are distributed to affected people within 72 hours) are 0% funded. This will be a dire situation for children and families to face, especially as they are likely to have already faced significant deprivations during their two years living in IS-held Mosul and on their long journeys to safety. Without adequate funding for childhood vaccines or WASH facilities, the potential for disease outbreaks is high and young children from Mosul, who may have not been immunised during the past two years, will be at acute risk.

Humanitarian actors may also struggle to respond to the scale of people who require humanitarian assistance in a short time frame.

As we saw after the Fallujah crisis, humanitarian actors were completely overwhelmed by the sudden influx of 85,000 displaced people and struggled to meet the needs of families who had experienced five months of siege. Without funding and prepositioning, we may see a scenario similar

to Fallujah unfold – but ten times worse because of the size of the affected population likely to present.

Considering children from Mosul are likely to also be suffering acute psychological distress, they will require immediate and intensive psychosocial support once they reach safe

areas, in addition to sustenance and shelter.

The Protection Cluster has included the provision of emergency psychosocial support services in their preparedness plan but, again, the protection sector for the Mosul response is 0% funded.

SAVE THE CHILDREN’S PLANNED RESPONSE FOR MOSUL Save the Children has been working in Iraq since 1991, with a brief interruption from 2007 to 2008 due to security reasons. Since the outbreak of renewed violence in early 2014, we have been responding to mass displacement in northern and eastern Iraq, with offices in Erbil, Kirkuk, Dohuk, Kalar and Baghdad. We are also operating in Salah Adin through partners and are responding to displacement in north-eastern Syria both for conflict-affected Syrians, and Iraqis fleeing the conflict in Northern Iraq.

To address acute and chronic needs, we aim to provide assistance to 200,000 people displaced by the Mosul offensive through the following activities: During the emergency: 

Save the Children will integrate protection services including identifying the most vulnerable children and families, preventing separation, providing alternative care for unaccompanied children and reunifying children with their families. We will set up tents so children can access safe areas, and our mobile teams will assess what kind of psychosocial support each child needs, make referrals to child psychologists, and provide recreational activities.

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We will provide families with access to safe and clean water, emergency hygiene and sanitation, temporary shelter support, food rations and potentially cash for families. We will also screen children for acute malnutrition and other health conditions and refer them to adequate services.

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We will set up tent schools which can be easily put up, taken down and moved, and each learning space will also receive teaching and learning materials, such as a “School in a Box”.

During protracted displacement: 

Save the Children will strengthen community and national child protection systems, provide psychosocial support, promote social cohesion among the displaced and host communities, conduct programming to build the resilience of children, teach life skills and build the capacity of local staff for specialised programming such as case management.

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We will respond to ongoing water, sanitation and hygiene needs, and increase accessibility to clean water to prevent outbreaks of cholera and other waterborne diseases. We will continue to provide emergency food assistance, basic household items and support families’ access to livelihoods. We will continue to screen children for health problems and malnutrition, and refer them to adequate services.

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We will identify and train teachers among the displaced community on how to deliver emergency education. We will provide Accelerated Learning Programs (ALP) and catch up classes, and integrate psychosocial support in education programming.

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RECOMMENDATIONS Time is ticking. The international community must act now to ensure children are protected during the Mosul offensive and that, with their families, they can access safety and assistance, with dignity and full respect of their human rights.

Failing to respond to the needs of the affected population in a principled way could have devastating consequences on children’s lives and futures, as well as Iraq’s future peace and stability. We urge parties to the conflict, the Government of Iraq, the Kurdistan Regional Government, governorate authorities, donors, Iraq’s Humanitarian Country Team and humanitarian response partners to take the following action:

Parties of the conflict  Respect their obligations under international law and take all feasible precautions to protect children and their families – not making use of explosive weapons in populated areas and protecting civilian infrastructure, in particular schools and hospitals, from the impact of hostilities.  Enable families inside Mosul to escape active areas of conflict. All parties must ensure that safe routes are identified, decontaminated, maintained and safely communicated to allow civilians to flee sites of conflict and access safe places of refuge.

National and local authorities in Iraq  Ensure that screening procedures respect international and national standards; are fair, clear and transparent and applied consistently; protect the dignity of individuals, and do not create protection risks for children and women.  Ensure the screening of minors is carried out in a child sensitive manner and that they are allowed to remain with family during screening. To ensure children are protected during screening:

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Screening procedures must preserve family unity as much as possible.

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Special provisions should be made to expedite the security screening of children and special attention should be paid to the impact of

protracted screening on children’s wellbeing and protection. 

Any interrogations of children should be conducted by investigative authorities that are trained in child sensitive and child rights approaches, ensuring children can exercise the right to be accompanied by a caregiver and to have access to legal representation during the interrogation.

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Security screening procedures for any child alleged to have committed crimes should respect the existing international principles and national juvenile justice standards that say that security forces are obliged to hand over any child arrested under security charges to the Juvenile Investigation Unit within 24 hours, and that no child under the age of 9 (11 in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq) should be arrested for any reason.

 Ensure humanitarian actors are able to access displaced populations to provide humanitarian assistance. Humanitarian access to areas where IDPs are gathered should be expedited by the authorities and must include areas where IDPs are being screened, detained, or held before transfer. If an area hosting IDPs is not deemed safe for humanitarian actors, it is not safe for IDPs.  Ensure that IDPs are only returned to recently retaken villages or towns once those areas have been deemed safe for civilian return. Any returns must be done in accordance with international standards and be safe, informed, voluntary, and done in a manner that maintains the dignity of those returning.

Donors  Fully fund the Mosul Flash appeal and the 2016 Iraq Humanitarian Response Plan. Funds pledged at the Pledging Conference in Support of Iraq and the UNGA high level event for the Humanitarian Crisis in Iraq must be disbursed as soon as possible.  Prioritise child-focused aid as part of the first phase of the response. As well as funding food, water, shelter and medical care, donors must support the delivery of childhood vaccines, therapeutic food and nutrients for children,

alternative care for unaccompanied children, family tracing and reunification services, mobile education and child protection services including appropriate mental health and psychosocial support.  Support flexibility in funding to enable the response to adapt to the needs of an unpredictable crisis. Donors should allow humanitarian partners to change programming and reallocate funding to tailor the delivery of humanitarian assistance to a rapidly-evolving context.

UN agencies and humanitarian partners  Put in place a UN third party protection monitoring mechanism at screening facilities to ensure international and national standards are respected.  Revise the current planning for the Mosul response to ensure that it is based on the needs of the affected population and ensure the delivery of aid is line with humanitarian principles.  Ensure humanitarian activities take a conflict-sensitive approach and do not fuel the conflict or cause further harm, and prioritise the protection of civilians.  Improve coordination between agencies and sectors, promote collaboration between humanitarian actors and with government authorities, and empower INGOs, national partners and civil society in strategic decision-making when preparing and responding to the emergency.  Identify child protection concerns through Rapid Protection Assessments (RPAs) conducted at different stages of the crisis, addressing issues raised in the RPAs throughout the response

PHOTO: OLIVIA WATSON/SAVE THE CHILDREN

Children in displacement camp in Northern Iraq. Many children in the camp are arriving having left

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everything behind when they fled, and many have experienced significant trauma.

ENDNOTES 23

1

OCHA, July 2016. Mosul Flash appeal If the Mosul offensive displaces 1.2 million people in less than two months, it could potentially be a faster displacement than the one triggered by the IS assault on Mosul in 2014, displacing 1.2million people within 3 months, and fastest displacement ever recorded (see: IDMC, May 2015. Global Overview 2015: People internally displaced by conflict and violence http://www.internaldisplacement.org/publications/2015/global-overview-2015-peopleinternally-displaced-by-conflict-and-violence) 3 OCHA Financial Tracking Service (https://fts.unocha.org/), th accessed on 26 September 2016.

4 UNICEF, July 2016. Violence destroys childhood in Iraq.

5 Ibid 6 Save the Children, March 2016. Uncertain Futures: the impact of displacement on Syrian refugee and Iraqi internally displaced youth in Iraq. See: https://www.savethechildren.org.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0020/135 209/Uncertain-Futures-low-res.pdf 7 Report of the Secretary General on Children and Armed Conflict, June 2015 and May 2016 8 Marshall, P. J., Reeb, B. C., Fox, N. A., Nelson, C. A., & Zeanah, C. H. (2008). Effects of early intervention on EEG power and coherence in previously institutionalized children in Romania.

Development and psychopathology, 20(03), 861-880 9 Lupien, S. J., de Leon, M. J., de Santi, S., Convit, A., Tarshish, C., Nair, N. P. V., … & Meaney, M. J. (1998). Cortisol levels during human aging predict hippocampal atrophy and memory deficits.

Nature Neuroscience, 1(1), 69-73.; and Lupien, S. J., McEwen, B. S., Gunnar, M. R., & Heim, C. (2009). Effects of stress throughout the lifespan on the brain, behaviour and cognition. Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 10, 434-445.

10 Nelson, C. A. (2000). Neural plasticity and human development: The role of early experience in sculpting memory systems.

Developmental Science, 3(2), 115-136.

11 Save the Children. 2016. Childhood In The Shadow Of War https://www.raddabarnen.se/Documents/vad-vigor/Barn%20p%C3%A5%20flykt/childhood-in-the-shadow-ofwar.pdf 12 Save the Children. August 2016. Educating Iraq's Future Generations. https://www.savethechildren.org.au/about-us/mediaand-publications/latest-news/years/educating-iraqs-futuregenerations 13 Report of The Secretary General on Children and Armed Conflict, May 2016 14 REACH assessment on hard to reach areas, July 2016 15 Ibid 16 UNHCR, 1st September 2016. Iraq: Flash Update. http://reliefweb.int/sites/reliefweb.int/files/resources/wfp282924.pdf 17 IRC, NRC, July 2016. In search for safety. See: https://www.rescue.org/report/search-safety 18 NRC, June 2016. Nuriya's grandchildren drowned trying to flee besieged Fallujah. https://www.nrc.no/news/2016/juni/nuriyawitnessed-her-grand-children-drown-fallujah/ 19 High-level event on the Humanitarian Crisis in Iraq - Co-chairs joint statement: http://ec.europa.eu/echo/sites/echosite/files/unga_iraq_event_co-chairs_joint_statement_0.pdf 20 UNHCR, 1st September 2016. Iraq: Flash Update.

21 IRC, NRC, July 2016. In search for safety.

22 UNICEF Iraq Briefing Note Iraq, Anbar Governorate – Update 24 June 2016. See: http://reliefweb.int/sites/reliefweb.int/files/resources/UNICEF%20Ira q%20%20Anbar%20Briefing%20Note%20June%2024%2C%202016.pdf 2

13

OHCHR, Report on the Protection of Civilians in Armed Conflict in Iraq 1 May – 31 October 2015. http://ohchr.org/Documents/Countries/IQ/UNAMIReport1May31O ctober2015.pdf 24 OCHA Financial Tracking Service (https://fts.unocha.org/), th accessed on 26 September 2016.

25 The Sphere Project, Minimum standards in shelter, settlement and non-food items. See: http://www.spherehandbook.org/en/1shelter-and-settlement/ 26 IOM, September 2016. Displacement Tracking Matrix DTM Round 54 See: http://reliefweb.int/sites/reliefweb.int/files/resources/Round54_Repor t_English_2016_September_15_IOM_DTM.pdf 27 th UNHCR, 4 October 2016. Iraq: Flash Update.

* after a name indicates that the name has been changed to protect identity.

Cover: Amira* and her sister are displaced in a slum like village near Kirkuk, Central Iraq. They left their home with little more than the clothes on their back. (Photo: Joshua Baker/Save the Children)