Homepage with many documents and articles about Children and Youth in Organised Armed Conflict. COAV is the abbreviation for ‘Children and youth in Organised Armed Violence’: Children and youth employed or otherwise participating in Organised Armed Violence where there are elements of a command structure and power over territory, local population or resources.
Examples of groups that involve children and youth in these conditions are: drug trade factions in territorial dispute (as in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil); organized criminal gangs in general (drug and arms traffickers and kidnappers); structured and armed youth gangs; armed ethnic groups; death squads and vigilante groups that execute criminals. The problem is also found in post-conflict regions where organized crime employs armed groups.