On 5 December 2024, the Bosnian “Forgotten Children of War Association” received the University of Oslo Human Rights Award, kicking off the Oslo Peace Days. The prize winners Ajna Jusic, Alen Muhic and Lejla Damon shared powerful stories about their upbringing as war children in Bosnia.

Foto: Yngve Vogt/UiO og Jarli&Jordan/UiO

On 19 June 2024, EuroWARCHILD’s Inger Skjelsbæk and Lina Stotz were invited to present at the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) in Vienna at a Breakfast Seminar on children born of war.

Image: Ghada Hazim/OSCE

This article traces the normative development in international criminal law on children born of war (CBOW). In a historical cross-contextual approach, primary and secondary sources, and particularly jurisprudence of international criminal courts from 1945 to today, are interpreted in reference to political psychologist Inger Skjelsbæk’s epistemology conceptualising conflict-related sexual and reproductive violence as carrying essentialist, structuralist and socio-constructivist implications.

The edited volume „Children and Youth at Risk in Times of Transition. International and Interdisciplinary Perspectives” edited by Baard Herman Borge, Elke Kleinau and Ingvill Constanze Ødegaard was published online by De Gruyter. The book includes chapters by EuroWARCHILD team members Ingvill Constanze Ødegaard and Lina Stotz.

The growing attention to CBOW in research and advocacy has contributed to a greater awareness of this group . Yet, there are clear discrepancies between how CBOW are conceptualized by academics and how they are approached by policy makers. This divide risks hampering the support CBOW urgently need.
Image by Andy Nelson via flickr. https://www.flickr.com/photos/andynelson/

Over nine months have passed since Russia’s attack on Ukraine. Several of the first Ukrainian women who became pregnant as a result of wartime sexual violence have now given birth to children who were conceived as a result of this violence. More will be born in the coming months.
Photo: Kelly Sikkema / Unsplash

After being systematically raped by Russian soldiers, countless Ukrainian women are now becoming mothers. The “Children Born of War” might face a multitude of problems that should be addressed now.

​On June 1st, the Centre for Gender Research and the PRIO Centre on Gender, Peace and Security hosted the launch of the EuroWARCHILD project. The launch brought together scholars and practitioners, as well as European war-children, to discuss what it means to be a child born of war.

A recent UN report published by the Secretary General in late January is one of the first to focus exclusively on women and girls who become pregnant as a result of sexual violence in conflict and on children born of war.

The Centre for Gender Research (STK) is pleased to announce that the EuroWARCHILD project was kicked off on January 20 2022, when the project participants were finally able to meet in person in Oslo. The project is funded through a Consolidator Grant of the European Research Council (ERC) from 2021-2026.

Professor Inger Skjelsbæk has been awarded a Consolidator Grant by the European Research Council (ERC) for a project that seeks to understand the needs and rights of children born of war.