Syria: Child Protection Assessment 2013

The humanitarian situation in Syria has steadily and dramatically deteriorated since the onset of the conflict in March 2011. Fighting across large parts of the country has led to massive and repeated internal displacements and mounting refugee outflows. Over 100,000 people have been killed since the conflict began. An estimated 6.8 million people in Syria, or almost one-third of the entire population, now require humanitarian assistance, including 4.25 million internally displaced people. About 3.1 million, or some 50 per cent of those who require assistance, are children. On the 17th January 2013 the United Nations Emergency Relief Coordinator declared an L3 humanitarian system-wide emergency for Syria and its neighbouring countries hosting refugees.

Restricted humanitarian access inside Syria has resulted in limited information being available to humanitarian-decision makers on the child protection needs and capacities of the affected communities. At the request of the international humanitarian organisations working in the child protection sector, the global-level Child Protection Working Group (CPWG) initiated an assessment, using remote information gathering methodologies, to determine the scale and scope of child protection issues to inform responses, planning, advocacy and resource mobilisation.