Tag

#children

Incidents affecting children's rights, including family separation, detention of minors, denial of education or healthcare, and failure to treat the best interests of the child as a primary consideration.

11 incidents

Updated March 25, 2026 Complicity in Genocide
War Crime / Crime Against Humanity Ongoing

2026 Lebanon War — US Weapons Complicity in Mass Civilian Casualties and White Phosphorus Attacks

Israel's 2026 Lebanon offensive — conducted with US-supplied weapons including white phosphorus munitions used over civilian areas — has killed over 1,000 people, wounded nearly 3,000, and displaced 700,000. The United States bears complicity through continued arms transfers despite documented violations. HRW and UN experts have called for suspension of military assistance.

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8
Lebanon warwhite phosphorusUS weaponscivilian casualtiesdisplacement
Updated May 20, 2026 Foreign Policy & War
War Crime / Crime Against Humanity Ongoing

Minab School Strike: US Tomahawk Cruise Missile Kills 175-180 Schoolgirls

A Tomahawk cruise missile struck a girls' elementary school in Minab, Iran, killing up to 180 schoolchildren in one of the deadliest single incidents of civilian harm in the 2026 Iran war. Investigations by the New York Times, CBC, NPR, and BBC Verify confirmed US responsibility.

Sources
9
Iran warschool strikecivilian casualtiesTomahawk missilechildren
Updated March 26, 2026 Deportation & Immigration
Critical Rights and Rule-of-Law Concern

Midnight Deportation of 76 Guatemalan Children: Labor Day Weekend Mass Removal Attempt

The administration attempted a mass deportation of unaccompanied minor children in the middle of the night during a holiday weekend, circumventing legal protections that require children to appear before an immigration judge. A federal judge halted the operation after being awakened at 2:35 AM, but one plane had already taken off before turning around.

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12
deportationchildrenunaccompanied minorsGuatemalaTVPRA
Updated March 26, 2026 Foreign Policy & War
Critical Rights and Rule-of-Law Concern Ongoing

Afghanistan Frozen Assets and Aid Termination: 22.9 Million Face Humanitarian Catastrophe

The combined effect of freezing Afghanistan's sovereign assets and terminating all US humanitarian aid has created a catastrophic humanitarian crisis in which millions face starvation. UN officials have explicitly warned the policy will directly cause deaths, particularly among children.

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7
Afghanistanfrozen assetshumanitarian aidfaminemalnutrition
Updated January 15, 2020 Deportation & Immigration
Critical Rights and Rule-of-Law Concern

Children in Detention: Overcrowded Border Facilities and Humanitarian Conditions

The DHS Inspector General's July 2019 report documented conditions at Border Patrol facilities in El Paso, Texas: some detainees held for over a month in single-occupancy holding rooms, standing room only conditions, limited access to showers and clean clothing, insufficient food, and inadequate medical care. The Clint facility conditions, documented by attorneys visiting to conduct interviews, included children sleeping on floors, a 2-year-old with dirty clothes, limited access to soap and toothbrushes, and sick children not separated from healthy ones. The administration's response was that the facilities were overwhelmed by a surge in arrivals and that Congress needed to provide additional funding.

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4
immigrationdetentionchildrencivil-rightsfirst-term
Updated January 1, 2020 Deportation to Torture
War Crime / Crime Against Humanity

Children in Cages: CBP Overcrowding, Freezing Cells, and Documented Child Deaths

The CBP Border Patrol stations along the southern border were designed for 72-hour holding. Under the Trump administration's enforcement surge, they held children for days and weeks, sometimes in chainlink-fenced areas — the 'cages' — without adequate food, water, sleep, or sanitation. At least seven children died in custody in fiscal years 2018-2019, compared to zero in the previous decade. The DHS OIG described conditions presenting 'immediate risk' to detainee health and safety.

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5
CBPchildrendetentioncustody-deathsfirst-term
Updated January 20, 2021 Deportation to Torture
War Crime / Crime Against Humanity

Family Separation Continuation: Violating Federal Court Orders to Reunify Families

A federal judge in the ACLU's Ms. L. v. ICE case ordered the government to reunify all separated families within 30 days. The administration missed the deadline, admitted it lacked a tracking system, and was repeatedly held in contempt. Parents were deported without their children; children were 'lost' in the system; in some cases children remained in U.S. custody for years after their parents had been removed to their home countries. The ACLU's family tracking project located hundreds of deported parents who didn't know where their children were.

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5
family-separationchildrendeportationcourt-order-violationfirst-term
Updated October 1, 2018 Deportation to Torture
War Crime / Crime Against Humanity

Tender Age Shelters: Separating and Warehousing Infants and Toddlers

While the Zero Tolerance policy is documented elsewhere, the specific treatment of children under 5 — the 'tender age' population — constituted a distinct category of harm. Infants as young as a few months old were taken from parents and placed in facilities where they were cared for by strangers. Whistleblowers described children crying inconsolably. The American Academy of Pediatrics called the policy 'child abuse.' A federal court gave the government 30 days to reunify this group; the administration missed the deadline.

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4
family-separationtender-ageinfantschildrenfirst-term
Updated June 16, 2022 Deportation to Torture
War Crime / Crime Against Humanity Ongoing

Zero Tolerance Family Separation: Systematic Removal of Children from Asylum-Seeking Parents

Attorney General Sessions announced a zero tolerance policy in April 2018 requiring criminal prosecution of all illegal border crossers. Because federal criminal custody excludes children, this automatically separated minors from their parents. Over 5,500 children were separated in six weeks. Courts ordered reunification; as of 2024, hundreds of families remain separated.

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7
family-separationzero-tolerancechildrentortureimmigration
Updated October 2, 2020 Civil Rights
Critical Rights and Rule-of-Law Concern

Zero Tolerance: 5,500+ Children Separated, HHS Lost Track of Hundreds

Zero tolerance created systematic family separation as deliberate policy — not incidentally but intentionally, with separation designed as a deterrent. The administration did not build a system to track which children belonged to which parents. A federal judge ordered reunification within 30 days; the government said it could not comply. By October 2020, the ACLU reported that 628 children had parents who still could not be found — many of whom had been deported to Central America without their children, without being told where their children were.

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5
family-separationzero-tolerancechildrenimmigrationfirst-term
Updated October 30, 2020 Deportation to Torture
Critical Rights and Rule-of-Law Concern

Zero Tolerance Family Separation: 5,500+ Children Separated at the Border

The zero tolerance policy was the direct cause of mass family separations: parents were referred for criminal prosecution, children were taken to Office of Refugee Resettlement shelters, and the two systems — criminal justice and child welfare — did not have adequate mechanisms to track and reunite families. Senior administration officials including Chief of Staff John Kelly had discussed using family separation as a deterrent as early as 2017. Trump publicly and repeatedly denied a family separation policy existed while it was operating. A federal court ordered family reunification; the government struggled to comply, partly because adequate records had not been kept linking children to parents.

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4
family-separationimmigrationchildrenzero-tolerancefirst-term