Unlikely protection: non-governmental organisations and the representation of war-affected children

Abstract

In 2009, Save the Children Australia launched a visual advertising campaign to raise awareness of war-affected children. The exhibition featured representations of children as refugees, sex trade workers and soldiers. The message encrypted into each of these pieces was one of suffering, fleeing from conflict, and being subjected to socio-economic abuse. The depiction of children suffering is intended to evoke an emotional response in the viewer. International non-governmental organisations that work specifically with children have used the emotive appeal of children to help secure a level of response from those who witness the violence. The purpose of this article is to question how childhood and childhood identities are framed by nongovernmental organisations. In doing so, the article will first explore how childhood has been structured by the role of non-governmental organisations. Second, the article will use the 2009 Save the Children exhibition to help illustrate how children are framed in ways that depoliticise the causes of their suffering. The article will then reveal that the framing of childhood as an idealised period of innocence is used to shame adults or states that are unable to provide protection to their children.