Building Safe Spaces: Understanding Child Protection Needs in Afghanistan
On World Children’s Day, we share insight on critical protection threats to children and recommendations to humanitarian actors — identified and proposed by children themselves.
By Samuel Hall Staff
Decades of violence, war, and natural disasters have left Afghanistan with massive humanitarian issues. However, the crisis has worsened post-August 2021. Most development and humanitarian organisations have left the country and the sanctions continue. 97% of Afghans live below the poverty line as they wait — for solutions, for protection, and for clarity.
The impact of the economic and humanitarian crisis is not just immediate — but also long-term on future generations as girls are left out of school, and over 1 million children under five are facing severe malnutrition.
In fact, children, who make up more than half of Afghanistan’s population, have been one of the groups most impacted. As past research by Samuel Hall has found, children are often forced to work, support families, and even take on the role of a parent before age 18.
Children’s rights are also under grave threat due to service disruptions across sectors, especially in education, health, water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH), mental health, and psychosocial services (MHPSS). In addition, girls are at particular risk of increasing sexual violence and restrictive gender norms. According to Amnesty International’s research titled Death in Slow Motion, ‘child marriage, early marriage, and forced marriage have risen sharply in Afghanistan under the Taliban regime.’
As a research organisation founded in Kabul over a decade ago and rooted in Afghan soil, we continue to witness Afghan children’s lives, fight for their rights and amplify their voices through our research. Working with various local and global partners such as War Child, UNICEF, IOM and Colombo Plan, we have data and on-the-ground insight detailing critical protection threats to children and recommendations to international and humanitarian development actors — most of which were identified and proposed by children themselves.
On World Children’s Day, we highlight some quotes on what they said and urge the international community to take urgent, gender-inclusive action.
As a social impact organisation, our recommendations are rooted in our research. Here is what we are calling for :
Support from within Afghanistan
- Integrate mental health and psychosocial support into more generalised programming such as livelihoods, community development, social cohesion, counselling, and women/children-only spaces wherever possible. Young girls have also requested walls to be built around schools, so that they could play freely. Programming can also encourage community-led models and peer groups to provide mental health support by building capacity.
- Build necessary infrastructures such as bridges in flood-prone areas as well as safe and warm accommodations, local health facilities, clean and consistent water supply, and playgrounds. Fund research on the impact of climate change on children. Organisations working specifically on return and reintegration in Afghanistan should adopt a holistic approach to child rights programming and incorporate climate change within that.
- There is a need to focus on the implementation and reinforcement of alternative opportunities for education such as Community Based Education (CBEs) for children who have been out of school or are continuing to engage in work. We also need to develop programmes to support the reintegration of returnees into the education system — including supporting documentation and financial resources to access educational opportunities.
- Distribution of aid and access to basic services has decreased over the last year — with unequal distribution of aid by district, as well as based on personal relationships with community leaders or along ethnic lines. Afghans need to see donor investments leading to impartial aid delivery and to changes in service delivery, notably on WASH, healthcare and education.
Support from Outside Afghanistan
- Countries, especially those with feminist-foreign policies and donors need to continue advocating for the de-facto governments into opening schools for girls and encouraging the right to education and employment opportunities for women.
- Universities can and should do more. Their role should be to continue to provide academics and students with scholarships & access to programs, giving those who wish to leave the opportunity to do so. Higher education in a third country is a possible pathway to protection.
- Prima facie recognition makes it possible to give international protection to a group — Afghans — without having to go through the process of individual determination of their status. Prima facie recognition to provide international protection to Afghans — without having to go through the individual determination of their status. This will also require that evacuations be continued as it is very hard for Afghans to leave their country without external support. Addressing the gaps in documentation and financial support are key pathways to protection.
Names have been changed to protect identity.
