Although children constitute approximately one-third of the world’s population, they remain marginalized when it comes to law and policy discourses and actions. Disasters do not change this dynamic. Despite being the face of media portrayals in the aftermath of disasters, children often are relegated to the margins and not adequately accounted for in disaster response initiatives. Moreover, children continue to receive insufficient attention in research on disasters and their impact, even though in disaster settings, they are among the most vulnerable and hard-hit populations.

This chapter discusses the various ways disasters affect children and the international law frameworks relevant to children and disasters (notably IDRL and children’s rights law). It then examines how the international community and national governments must reframe their approach to children in the context of disasters so that they are no longer overlooked, urging a mainstreaming of both children’s views and children’s rights in the prevention of and responses to disasters.