A woman and son arrive at the border crossing between Ukraine and Poland. (AP Photo/Visar Kryeziu)
All war is always war on children. As a vulnerable population, children’s lives are at the mercy of the adult community. The Russian invasion of Ukraine has threatened children’s lives and severed them from their everyday lives. Overnight, their lives have become unimaginable.
In times of social and political conflict, children are overlooked, positioned either as bystanders or victims. Despite their front-line experience of wartime events, children’s voices are barely heard. And too often, children are often the only ones left behind to account for what happened to their parents, communities and homelands.
“For the past 20 years, my research has examined children’s expressions of social and political events, in particular, those affected by war, forced migration and mass degradation”, says Associate Professor Aparna Mishra-Tarc.
“Mostly, the narratives of children who experience war and political and social violence are undocumented and unheard. With the rise of social media, however, I detect a noticeable shift: a global forum for children’s testimony is fast emerging.”
Read the full article by Aparna Mishra Tarc in The Conversation Canada.