Children, Torture and Power is a call to the international community to place the torture of children onto the international human right agenda, and to start combatting this deep-rooted problem. The report shows how children in countries all over the world are being subjected to torture and ill-treatment at the hands of their own governments and armed opposition groups. Drawing on documentary evidence from the UN and inter-governmental bodies, as well as a wide range of NGO's this report indentifies the following factors which increase children's vulnerability to torture and ill-treatment: conflict with the law; poverty; discrimination (for example, ethnicity, religion, gender, social, origin, birth); family associations; political activism; and involvement in armed conflict. The report also considers: the international definition of torture and problems in its application to children the effects of torture on children mechanisms which exist to protect children from torture. This report sets out a series of concrete recommendations for governments, inter-governmental agencies and NGOs, and donors.