Abstract

Recently, the republic of Iraq continue to experience a surge of sectarianism and violent confrontation between armed groups a leading to sharp increase in the overrunning and takeover of several major cities in the country, which has invariably generated lots of negative consequences and government troops the country’s quest for national development. Four decades of conflict, sanctions, violence, insecurity and economic stagnation have brought development in the country to its knees. One area in which the persistent incidences of conflict negatively affect the country’s progress is the gross violation of children rights. Iraq is now one of the most dangerous places in the world for children. The intensification of conflict since 2014 has had a catastrophic impact on children in the country. Toward the end of 2015, Iraq had missed all, bar one, of its eight Millennium Development Goals including focuses for expanding school enrolment, decreasing children mortality rate and enhancing access to safe drinking water. In 2014 UNICEF evaluates that 4.7 million children in the country need aid that is around 33% of all children in the nation. Since the war started in Syria in 2011, Iraq has additionally been facilitating in excess of 245,000 Syrian displaced people, about a fourth of who are children. Very nearly 66% of Iraqi children in need of assistance are situated in regions that were formally under the control of ISIS. This paper therefore tries to explore the intersection between the rights and welfare of the Iraqi children and the ugly reality of sectarian clash and violent confrontation that have epitomized both social and political life in the country. The paper adopts a qualitative research approach with heavy reliance on secondary data which were contently analyzed.