A/HRC/37/33 I. Introduction 1. The present report is submitted to the Human Rights Council pursuant to its resolution 34/16, in which the Council requested the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) to prepare a report on the theme of protecting the rights of the child in humanitarian situations, in close cooperation with all relevant stakeholders, including States, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), other relevant United Nations bodies and agencies, the Special Representative of the SecretaryGeneral on Violence against Children and the Special Representative of the SecretaryGeneral for Children and Armed Conflict, relevant special procedure mandate holders, regional organizations and human rights bodies, national human rights institutions and civil society, including children themselves, and to present it to the Council at its thirty-seventh session, with a view to providing information for the annual day of discussion on the rights of the child. 2. Pursuant to the request of the Human Rights Council, OHCHR solicited contributions and received a total of 39 responses from States, national human rights institutions, civil society organizations and other stakeholders. II. Humanitarian situations: terminology, scale and impact on children 3. In the UNICEF Core Commitments for Children in Humanitarian Action, a humanitarian situation is defined as “any circumstance where humanitarian needs are sufficiently large and complex to require significant external assistance and resources, and where a multi-sectoral response is needed, with the engagement of a wide range of international humanitarian actors.” For the purposes of the present report, the term “humanitarian situation” is understood in a broader sense, and includes complex emergencies and disasters. It also encompasses the terms “humanitarian crisis” and “emergency”, which include events or series of events that constitute a critical threat to the health, safety, security or well-being of a community or other large group of people, for example, as a result of armed conflict, situations of violence and insecurity, or natural or human-made disasters. 4. In 2016, 43 million children in 63 countries required humanitarian assistance as a result of complex emergencies and natural disasters. 1 In 2017, children have been affected by humanitarian situations around the globe, such as by floods in India, Nepal, Bangladesh and Sierra Leone, the earthquake in Mexico, the hurricanes affecting the Caribbean and the United States of America, and a number of situations of political and economic instability in all regions of the world that have forced children to migrate. Nearly a quarter of the world’s school-aged children live in countries affected by a humanitarian crisis, and children in these countries account for 43 per cent of all out-of-school children at primary and lower-secondary levels.2 Children also make up nearly half of the world’s displaced people and more than half of all refugees. 3 This status can affect them for their entire childhood – with people remaining refugees for 17 years on average. 4 5. In addition to being affected by humanitarian situations, children are particularly susceptible to their impact. Children are especially vulnerable to human rights violations committed in humanitarian situations, such as the deprivation of health care and education, forced displacement, the separation of children from their families, abduction and trafficking, their recruitment and use by armed forces or groups, and sexual abuse and 1 2 3 4 2 UNICEF, Humanitarian Action for Children, January 2016, p. 5. UNICEF, Children in Humanitarian Crises: What Business Can Do, September 2016, p. 10. UNICEF, Children in Crisis: What Children Need from the World Humanitarian Summit, 2016, p. 1. UNICEF, Children in Humanitarian Crises (see footnote 2), p. 10.