RETHINKING THE PLACE OF INTERNATIONAL HUMANITARIAN LAW AND HUMAN RIGHT LAW IN THE PROTECTION OF DISPLACED CHILDREN DURING HUMANITARIAN CRISIS: WHAT NECESSITY FOR THE RIGHT TO FAMILY REUNIFICATION?

Abstract

Children as a minority group are comprehensibly and unsurprisingly strongly affected by the effects of armed conflict. The negative experience becomes precarious for these children in situations where they are separated from their families. As a maiden remark, it should be acknowledged that while the effects of armed conflict are not always noticeable and quantifiable in children, they remain present and multi-dimensional to such an extent that it would be extremely ambitious for any legal or normative framework to pretend to tackle them holistically. For those separated from their families, the risk of abuse and exploitation mathematically increases. In that sense, the quality of the experiences does not differ fundamentally between Internally Displaced Children or refugee children in that they are both deprived of their primary role model, their parents.  In legal terms, however, displaced children do not benefit from the same level of protection that the status of refugee affords. The otherwise clear-cut legal distinction of human rights law and humanitarian law between Internally Displaced Persons and refugees appears, nevertheless, increasingly complicated to distinguish in its practice as both ‘internal’ and ‘external’ conflicts result often in refugee flows into the neighbouring countries.