INTRODUCTION

This book represents a, hopefully significant, step in clarifying an underresearched topic in the field of reparations. The right to reparation has been steadily gaining momentum and it is well rooted in the international law framework. Nonetheless, shift ing the attention from the inter-State to the individual dimension of reparations has triggered several questions and raised a large number of important issues. The abundance of armed conflicts worldwide and the emergence of new methods of warfare have resulted in high numbers of persons affected, individually or collectively, by violations of IHRL and IHL. Children are among those who suffer the most in connection wiThan armed conflict, be it international or internal. Recent global trends regarding the impact of armed conflict on children show that lately children have been affected ‘to a degree which is an affront to our common humanity’. 1004 Almost 20 years ago Ms Machel reported to the General Assembly that

Since then, despite the mechanisms set up by the UN and the efforts made by specialised NGOs and other local and international actors, very little has changed and atrocities committed against children show no sign of abating, although these violations are, at last, recognised as a stand-alone category that requires the adoption of specific measures for prevention and intervention. Armed conflicts, especially protracted ones, ‘have a significant impact on healThand well-being across almost all domains of children's lives, due to exposure to violence, pervasive poverty, ongoing insecurity, strained family relations, disrupted networks of social support, curtailed education and poor health’.