"The impact of armed conflict on children is devastating and total. War wounds children's bodies and destroys their spirit. Using examples from around the world, this book analyses the special vulnerabilities of children when families and communities are torn apart, schools are destroyed and stability shattered. Children are routinely forced into active combat, sexually exploited and abandoned to malnutrition, starvation and disease. This book demonstrates how war's legacy of horror continues to affect children long after hostilities cease, especially through landmines and unexploded ordnance, the proliferation of small arms, the instability of refugee existence and the spread of HIV/AIDS. The toll demands an urgent response to protect children everywhere."--BOOK JACKET.