Women and children are victims of war in many ways because they are weak. Use of children in hostilities by armed formations is common. They are used as combatants and in various support roles. They are often forced or misled to commit atrocities, even against members of the communities they belong to. Use of girl children, as sex slaves is widespread in many conflict areas.
These would no doubt leave lasting and permanent psycho-social effects on children who are directly involved in hostilities. War spares no children in areas it engulfs. For the refugee child, for the child who has been internally displaced, for boys and girls who have been abducted and sexually abused; for the child who has to flee her home, and who has been separated from his family, the horrors of war are as real as the child who has been involved in hostilities.
Militarism everywhere is out of control, cutting a violent swath of pandemic proportions across our planet. Women and children account for almost 80% of the casualties of conflict and war as well as 80% of the 40 million people in world who are now refugees from their homes. It is one of the unspoken facts of militarism that women often become the spoils of war, their deaths are considered collateral damage and their bodies are frequently used as battlegrounds and as commodities that can be traded.
"Women and girls are not just killed, they are raped, sexually attacked, mutilated and humiliated. Custom, culture and religion have built an image of women as bearing the 'honor' of their communities. Disparaging a woman's sexuality and destroying her physical integrity have become a means by which to terrorize, demean and 'defeat' entire communities, as well as to punish, intimidate and humiliate women," according to Irene Khan.........
