Child Wellbeing

United Nations Finds 70 Percent Of Gaza Deaths Women And Children

November 9, 2024 News Desk, The Cradle. Educate! Child Wellbeing, Crimes against humanity, Gaza, Genocide, Israel, Israeli war crimes, Palestine, Report, United Nations (UN), Violence against Women, War crimes

The majority of the casualties in Israel’s genocidal war on the Gaza Strip have been women and children, according to a report released on 8 November by the UN Human Rights Office. According to the report, nearly 70 percent of the confirmed number of dead are women and children, which “demonstrates an apparent indifference to the death of civilians and the impact of the means and methods of warfare selected.” It also marks a “a systematic violation of the fundamental principles of international humanitarian law,” the report said. It notes that 80 percent of the deaths took place in residential buildings or in homes.

Should Children Take Part In Nonviolent Struggle? 

June 8, 2024 George Lakey, Waging Nonviolence. Strategize! Capitalism, Child Wellbeing, Human Rights, Youth Activism

In fifth grade I was introduced to children as nonviolent warriors. In one of our elementary school’s story collections I ran into a tale from the Norwegian resistance to Nazi German occupation during World War II. It was centered on the problem of preventing Norway’s store of gold bullion from falling into the hands of the occupiers. The first step was moving the gold to storehouses on farms in Norway’s mountainous western coast. The next step — of getting the gold on ships to Britain, where the country’s royal family had already fled — was going to be a lot harder due to the patrols of German warships.

A Crucial Part Of Colonization Is Taking Our Children

December 15, 2022 Janine Jackson, Fairness and Accuracy In Reporting. Educate! Child Wellbeing, colonization, ICWA, Indigenous Rights

On November 9, the Supreme Court heard the case Haaland v. Brackeen. You might not have seen much about it; media coverage has been spotty. I will drop us into the center of it with the lead of our guest’s recent piece for Truthout.org: Anywhere colonizers have invaded, Indigenous children have been separated from their communities. Whether through boarding or residential schools, child protective services, or outright murder, the theft of Indigenous children destroys tribal nations—which is what’s at stake in the US Supreme Court case Haaland v. Brackeen. Nominal plaintiffs in the case, Chad and Jennifer Brackeen, fostered a Native child whom they subsequently adopted, but were upset that they might not be able to as easily adopt his half-sister. But, as with many Supreme Court cases, their story is not the story, which extends far beyond them. It requires critical, thoughtful, human rights–centered storytelling to untangle an intentionally snarled story, to explain what—and who, really—are truly at stake.

UN Report Shows 11,000 Children Killed Or Maimed In This US-Backed War

December 14, 2022 Julia Conley, Common Dreams. Educate! Child Wellbeing, Human Rights, US Imperialism, Wars and Militarism, Yemen

After launching an urgent appeal for humanitarian aid for children in war-torn Yemen, the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund on Monday released a report showing that more than 11,000 young people have been killed or injured in the U.S.-backed conflict, where a Saudi-led coalition has been carrying out attacks since 2015. The true death toll of children is likely far higher, said the agency, commonly known as UNICEF, as millions face hunger and disease. "Thousands of children have lost their lives, hundreds of thousands more remain at risk of death from preventable disease or starvation," UNICEF executive director Catherine Russell said in a statement. The report was released just over two months after the expiration of a cease-fire between the Saudi-led coalition and the Houthis, who oppose the Saudi-backed Yemeni government.

Cash Assistance Boosted Infants’ Brain Development, Study Shows

January 29, 2022 Danilo Trisi, Center for Budget and Policy Priorities. Educate! Child Wellbeing, Children, Health Care, Tax Credit

When mothers with low incomes received just over $300 in monthly cash assistance during the first year of their children’s lives, their infants’ brains displayed more high-frequency brain waves when they reached 12 months old, a major new study by a team of investigators from six U.S. universities and released this week by the National Academy of Sciences shows. These types of brain waves are associated with higher language and cognitive scores and better social and emotional skills in children as they grow older. The expanded Child Tax Credit, which Congress enacted in 2021 and which expired last month, provided support very much like the cash assistance described in the new paper. The paper is a pathbreaking combination of social science and neuroscience, is methodologically rigorous, and adds heft to the substantial evidence about the difference that extending the Child Tax Credit expansion would make in children’s lives.

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