The situation of girls in War
UNICEF, August 2007

It is clear also that there are categories of children who are especially vulnerable in situations of armed conflict, such as girls, refugee and internally displaced children, and child-headed households. These children require special advocacy, attention and protection. The girl child is often the victim of sexual violence and exploitation, and, increasingly, girl children are being recruited into fighting forces. In intervention initiatives for war-affected children, such as community-based reintegration programmes for children associated with fighting forces, it is girls that are most often being bypassed, even though they are in greatest need of care and services. We miss girls in our interventions because many of them are unwilling to come forward in the first place, to be identified as “bush wives” or to have their children labelled as “rebel babies.” Communities often stigmatize and ostracize girls because of their association with rebel groups and the “taint” of having been raped.

Often, rebel groups categorically refuse to give up the girls at all even after commitments have been made to release children. In these cases, even where associations between perpetrators and their victims began with abduction, rape and violence, over several years “family units” have developed which include babies born of rape. In terms of programme response, all of these factors represent critical challenges for the international community, and more often than not, resources available fall short of the scope and complexity of the challenges. A deeper understanding is required of the acute vulnerability of girls in situations of armed conflict, which should inform more gender-sensitive strategies and protection and programme responses.

Special attention must be given to the specific needs of girls. Despite the establishment of separate facilities for boys and girls and gender-specific programmes in certain countries, such as the Democratic Republic of the Congo, girls in the majority of disarmament, demobilization and reintegration situations remain at a disadvantage in access to demobilization and in reintegration into their communities. In many conflict situations — such as in Liberia, Sierra Leone and the Democratic Republic of the Congo — combatants have been reluctant to release girls to transit care facilities, holding them captive as "wives." Girls who have become pregnant in these circumstances have encountered stigmatization upon returning to their communities. As has been implemented in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, disarmament, demobilization and reintegration programmes should include special attention to girl victims of sexual exploitation and girl heads of households.

From:http://www.un.org/children/conflict/english/girlsinwar101.html