Children First? We need to rethink global governance to prioritise child health

Abstract

In response to the new US administration’s policies endangering children and global health, we need to reconstruct the international system based on respect for children, solidarity, and hope, write James Radner and colleagues This year marks a time of extreme peril for the world’s children. Emergencies including brutal violence, climate disasters, state failure, and extreme poverty have left over 200 million children globally at “a historically high level” of humanitarian need.1 Children in humanitarian and low income settings, and in the US, face a new threat that the world community must attend to: the arrival of an “America First” government under Donald Trump. This is a dangerous development, but it also presents an opportunity for the world community to rethink and develop new models for helping children—something that we almost all say is our priority. For a taste of what is coming, consider some of the executive orders Trump signed on his first day. One order disbanded the task force charged with reuniting families after children were forcibly taken from their parents at the US southern border by the first Trump administration. An estimated 1000 children are still separated, and their treatment has been described as …