Exposure to violence, displacement and extreme poverty and deprivation have defined millions of children’s experiences of the crisis, and contributed to specific humanitarian needs. Grave violations against children, as monitored and reported through the Monitoring and Reporting Mechanism for Syria have progressively increased since reporting commenced in 2013. The major monitored violations are the killing and maiming of children, recruitment and use of children in conflict, detention of children associated to parties to the conflict, abduction, and sexual violence against children.
In response, UNHCR’s partners conducted 5,601 awareness raising sessions on various child protection risks and vulnerabilities in community and satellite centres, targeting approximately 186,300 IDP children and their parents. These sessions helped to identify 4,559 IDP children in need of protection support to resolve their issues and refer them to needed services. 82 community-based structures such as children clubs and child welfare committees were established. These helped communities support in protecting children and enhance their response to child protection issues within available resources and capacities. 192,760 IDP and host community children benefited from social and recreational activities conducted in community centres, child friendly spaces, schools as well as via phone or social media.
with COVID-19-imposed teleworking, service continuity was ensured with virtual outreach replacing personal contact. UNHCR developed general guidelines for remote service provision of all child protection interventions along with a specific guideline for remote case management as a safe way of conducting remote assessments. UNHCR delivered this information through online sessions to field child protection teams and team leaders, who further delivered these sessions to all case managers, ensuring that all relevant actors were well informed and that adherence to the new safety protocols regarding COVID-19 pandemic was respected.
The UNHCR -ILO collaboration for the “Worst from of Child Labour Programme” which started in 2019 continued in 2020. In the first phase, “Rehabilitation and Reintegration of children affected by child labour”, a total 655 children received specialized case management services; 14% returned to school, 24% were enrolled in vocational training and 51% joined remedial and accelerated learning classes with the objective of returning to school the next year.
The second phase of ILO’s Supporting Children’s Rights through Education, Art and Media programmes reached 195 children and adolescents with 33 awareness sessions and recreational activities in Homs and Aleppo Governorates.