Introduction by Croakey: An international group of child health experts has supported concerns about the cancellation of a medical education event at Perth Children’s Hospital that was to have examined the toll of war upon children.
Dr Sue Wareham OAM, President of the Medical Association for Prevention of War (Australia), who was to have been one of the speakers, says the cancellation can only be seen as another example of anti-Palestinian racism occurring in Australian hospitals, as one reason given for the cancellation was to “prevent any perception of pro-Palestinian bias”.
“What had been proposed and planned as an examination of the severe but preventable harm being inflicted on many millions of children across the globe was cancelled on the basis of the nationality of some of those children. It is impossible not to regard this as anti-Palestinian racism, extending even to children,” she writes below.
Wareham quotes in her article from a message of support sent by the International Child Health Group, a special interest group of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health in the United Kingdom, which says: “Opportunities to discuss the impact of conflict on children should be approached with openness and a commitment to the rights and wellbeing of every child, without discrimination.”
She has asked the WA Minister for Health Meredith Hammat and the Perth Children’s Hospital to reschedule the Grand Rounds on “Children and War”.
Sue Wareham writes:
In multiple war zones around the world, children are suffering disproportionately from severe, long-lasting preventable harm. They are often the hidden victims of wars, where their physical and psychological health, home, nutrition, education and family and other caregivers can all vanish.
Almost one in five of the world’s children live in conflict zones. Save the Children states that: “In today’s conflicts, children are not just caught in the crossfire. They are on the frontlines of suffering.”
The World Health Organization (WHO) reported recently that children under five living in fragile and conflict-affected settings face mortality rates nearly three times higher than those of other children.
Many factors lead to children’s particular vulnerability in wars. They include:
Direct violence: Modern warfare particularly affects populated areas that are targeted with explosive weapons. It is estimated that not only are 91 percent of the casualties from such use civilians, but that children are seven times more likely than adults to die from blast injuries.
Destruction of critical infrastructure, including health: Children are particularly vulnerable to outbreaks of many infectious illnesses as a result of the destruction of clean water, sewerage and electricity in war zones.
There are many examples. The Lancet reported in 2025 that violence in Sudan had “transformed cholera from a controllable disease into a cause of recurrent epidemics”. In Gaza, multiple humanitarian agencies, including Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), have reported on the widespread destruction of healthcare, sanitation and other infrastructure, which creates severe health risks for children.
Hunger: This is increasingly being exploited as a weapon of war, and children are particularly vulnerable. The UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food, Michael Fakhri, states that: “Conflict is the main cause of hunger… I’m seeing food being used more and more as a tool of war, and the people that suffer the most are always children.”
Displacement: As at the end of 2025, 117.8 million people had been forcibly displaced from their homes; 45 million of them are children. Displaced people face very many risks, which for unaccompanied or separated children include exploitation and trafficking.
Suppression of evidence
The landscape for children in war zones is bleak. Awareness-raising, education and medical advocacy are needed to urge far greater protections for these young victims.
However, the exact opposite is happening. The subject of children and war is being politicised and medical evidence on it actively suppressed.
On 17 September, a Grand Round was to have been held at Perth Children’s Hospital on the subject “Children and War”. The speakers were to be this author, and two doctors who had between them worked in Afghanistan, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Gaza.
It was cancelled by hospital authorities less than a week before that date, for shifting reasons, including that the proposed topic did not “align with the forum’s purpose to improve care of children and young people”.
However, this reason cannot be reconciled with the hospital’s own Refugee Health Service, which cares for the over 5,000 refugee children and adolescents in WA alone.
Perhaps more disturbingly, the cancellation was also explained as being necessary to “prevent any perception of pro-Palestinian bias”.
Thus, what had been proposed and planned as an examination of the severe but preventable harm being inflicted on many millions of children across the globe was cancelled on the basis of the nationality of some of those children. It is impossible not to regard this as anti-Palestinian racism, extending even to children.
What happened at Perth Children’s Hospital was not the first instance of such racism in our hospitals.
In September 2025, the CEO of the Royal Children’s Hospital in Melbourne cancelled a planned Grand Round on the same topic “Children and War”, after he had been lobbied to do so. In 2024, the Fiona Stanley Hospital in Fremantle cancelled an education session on delivering medical care in Gaza, after a speaker had been asked to “avoid any mention of Israel or the Israel Defense Forces”.
Following the most recent cancelled event, the International Child Health Group, which is a special interest group of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health (RCPCH) in the United Kingdom, sent MAPW a message of support.
It reads:
“The International Child Health Group (ICHG) supports open, inclusive and evidence-informed discussion of the impact of war and armed conflict on children. Such discussions are essential to understanding and addressing the profound physical and psychological harms experienced by children affected by conflict, and to informing our responsibilities as health professionals.
“All children deserve equal protection, compassion and access to healthcare, irrespective of their nationality, ethnicity or religion. Opportunities to discuss the impact of conflict on children should be approached with openness and a commitment to the rights and wellbeing of every child, without discrimination.
“ICHG believes that creating space for these conversations is an important part of our shared responsibility to advocate for children’s health and uphold their rights.”
Leadership needed
Racism in any form is anathema to our profession, and is particularly egregious when directed against vulnerable children in the most dire of circumstances such as war zones.
Advocacy by medical professionals for these children is very much needed. The prevention of harm before it occurs must always be our priority. To achieve this, medical voices play a critical role in demanding strict adherence to the legal protections for children in war zones, and accountability for violations of those protections.
The Medical Association for Prevention of War (Australia) has written to the WA Minister for Health Meredith Hammat and asked her to reinstate and support Grand Rounds on “Children and War”.
We also urged Minister Hammat to help ensure that the health impacts of specific named conflicts, anywhere, may be discussed in health settings, and that all forms of racism – including anti-Palestinian racism – are addressed equally. Medical education must not be decided along political or ethnic lines.
MAPW awaits a reply from Minister Hammat. We have also asked Perth Children’s Hospital to reinstate the Grand Round on “Children and War” for a date this year.
Collectively, health professionals rightly regard the prevention of child abuse here in Australia as being of the utmost importance. For the very many millions of children globally who suffer the multiple abuses that wars inflict, prevention is equally important.
The first step is talking about it.
• Dr Sue Wareham OAM is President, Medical Association for Prevention of War (Australia)
Further reading
- MAPW letter to WA Health Minister Meredith Hammat (24 September, 2026)
- Letter to MAPW from Dr Clare Matthews, Executive Director Medical Services, Child and Adolescent Health Service, WA (5 October, 2026)
- MAPW letter to Dr Clare Matthews, Executive Director Medical Services, Child and Adolescent Health Service, WA (8 October, 2026)
Note from Croakey: The WA Minister for Health, Dr Clare Matthews, Executive Director Medical Services, Child and Adolescent Health Service, and Valerie Buic, CEO of the Perth Children’s Hospital, will be invited to respond to the concerns raised in this article.
See Croakey’s archive of articles on children’s health
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