ABSTRACT
The appalling experience of children in armed conflict has motivated the creation of a complex international architecture to ensure their protection. In 2003, the UN Security Council called for ‘an era of application’ with respect to the various legal norms which the international community has developed in order to protect children associated with armed conflict.1 This chapter aims to identify the central features and underlying values of these norms. Section 1 provides a brief historical analysis, which reveals a shift in states’ attitudes towards children, moving from a historically instrumentalist vision to the contemporary child protectionist paradigm. It also reveals a transformation of the orthodox understanding of the law of armed of conflict. Originally synonymous with international humanitarian law as the lex specialis for armed conflict, the contemporary understanding of a state’s obligations in times of armed conflict must now encompass international human rights law.
