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Christine Knudsen, a children and war specialist with Save the Children, spoke about the children of Afghanistan at 6 p.m. Monday, March 11, in Lincoln Hall at the Law School.

The speech, "The Way Forward for Afghanistan's Children: Insights from Save the Children's Experience," kicked off a speakers series commemorating the 10th anniversary of the founding of the Children and Family Justice Center of the Bluhm Legal Clinic.

Knudsen shared insights and expertise concerning the overwhelming problems that Afghan children face, including two decades of war, three continuous years of drought in northwest Afghanistan, hunger, mass migrations and alarming child mortality rates due to disease and lack of proper medicine. Much of the infrastructure of the country has been devastated, and access to education and health care for women and children remains limited.

"Children are our world's greatest resource, and our goal, since our founding in 1992, is to improve and ensure the highest degree of justice and legal advocacy for them," said Bernardine Dohrn, director of the Children and Family Justice Center. "While our work focuses primarily on the needs of children in Illinois and the U.S., we have become increasingly involved in international human rights issues."

Among the statistics Knudsen cited about Afghanistan and its children:

• One of every four children dies before his or her fifth birthday.
• There are an estimated 10 million land mines - the equivalent of roughly one for every child.
• One in five children is born in a refugee camp.
• Only 3 percent of girls and 39 percent of boys are enrolled in school.
• Fifty thousand children are working on the streets of the capital, Kabul.

In her work with Save the Children, Knudsen has traveled to Pakistan twice since Sept. 11 and will be going to Afghanistan in May.

A 70-year-old international child relief program, Save the Children has been responding to the needs of Afghan children refugees since 1985. It delivers emergency supplies of food, shelter, fuel and medicine and ensures children's safety and well-being through land mine awareness and health education. Save the Children also implements programs that address long-term development needs such as literacy, nutrition, health and economic security.

Knudsen, a children and war specialist in the Children in Crisis Unit, joined Save the Children in 1999. Prior to that, her field postings included work with UNHCR (the UN Refugee Agency), in Chechnya and with Catholic Relief Services in Burundi. Between field assignments, she also spent one year as a researcher for the War-Torn Societies Project of the United Nations Research Institute for Social Development, exploring the interaction of national and international actors in post-conflict reconstruction.

The Children and Family Justice Center, part of the Bluhm Legal Clinic at Northwestern University School of Law, is a multifaceted children's law center that provides legal representation for children with a wide variety of needs. Northwestern law students, working under the direct supervision of clinical professors and attorneys, work on cases as part of their coursework. The Children and Family Justice Center has led local and national efforts to increase public knowledge about justice matters for youth and has been instrumental in the reform of Cook County Juvenile Court, the oldest and largest juvenile court in the country.

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