The COVID-19 pandemic constitutes a global challenge to the world community and the whole system of individual and collective human rights, including the rights to life, to personal security, to be free from suffering and discrimination, to fair trial, to due process, freedoms of opinion, expression, assembly, association, and religion and belief, to property, to health, to food, to decent labour, to freedom from poverty, to access information, to education and to development. It also…

This year, the 16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence comes at a time when there is un-precedented global attention on violence against women and children (VAW/C). The theme of “Fund, Respond, Prevent and Collect!” puts a focus on the need for increased financing to support survivors and prevent future violence, as well as the importance of data collection, rigorous analysis and research to guide effective financing and policy decision making. Seeking to prevent a…

This document aims to provide practical suggestions – for UNHCR operations and partners – on how the specific needs of refugee children, youth and families can be addressed as schools begin to re-open. It complements and draws on detailed guidance issued by the Inter-Agency Standing Committee, Global Education Cluster, other UN agencies and NGOs and includes links to key resources. Ensuring a safe and full return to schooling by refugee children and youth depends on…

How are children with disabilities faring during the covid-19 pandemic? What added challenges are children with disabilities facing in the current crisis? Are children with disabilities accessing online learning? How are families of children with disabilities coping with the socioeconomic fallout? Several months into the COVID-19 crisis, the questions above remain largely unanswered. However, evidence is beginning to emerge that points to increased risks for children with disabilities as well as reduced access to services….

One billion people live with a disability. The International Day of Persons with Disabilities provides a key opportunity to highlight the issues they face and take stock of how the humanitarian sector can play its part in building a more inclusive post-Covid-19 world. This is an urgent challenge. People with disabilities already face multiple risks to their health, safety, food security and livelihoods, and are disproportionally affected in humanitarian emergencies. These difficulties are compounded by…

An estimated 34 million children around the world have been forcibly displaced from their home 3 – and this number is growing year on year. Digital technologies have the potential to transform programming with migrant and displaced children by making it easier to reach and assist mobile populations, increasing efficiencies and driving improvements in programme quality, enabling Save the Children and other agencies to deliver greater impact for some of the world’s most vulnerable children….

Key messages Globally, 2.2 billion children and young people aged 25 years or less – two-thirds of children and young people worldwide – do not have an internet connection at home. More than two-thirds of school-age girls and boys aged approximately 3 to 17 years (1.3 billion children) and 63 per cent of youths aged 15 to 24 years (almost 760 million youths) lack internet access at home. 768 million children and young people aged…

Humanitarian crises often involve the daily threat of violence, forced displacement and a host of other protection risks that cause immeasurable suffering to civilians. The Covid-19 pandemic has exacerbated these concerns and presented new challenges. The humanitarian community in 2013 took the bold step of committing to the “centrality of protection” within humanitarian action. As a report from the Global Protection Cluster (GPC) that the same year showed, however, the protection sector has perennially been…

This report investigates how COVID-19 and other shocks have impacted child well-being in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) during 2020 and the potential role of cash transfers and external resources to help children and economies. It reviews the latest social, economic and financial information from a range of global databases and modelling exercises, draws on emerging country-level reporting and carries out projections where recent data are unavailable. Although information remains incomplete and things are quickly evolving, the…

This report looks at the extent to which older people’s rights are being upheld in emergencies and their needs met. The picture it paints is a bleak one. Although some efforts are being made to support older people, overall, the humanitarian system is failing by the standards it has set itself. The report draws on the findings of needs assessments carried out by HelpAge International in the 13 months to the end of 2019. We interviewed…