UNICEF is committed to ensuring special protection for the most disadvantaged children, including victims of conflict. We work day in and day out for every child to grow up in a safe environment free of violence.

2018 marked one of the worst years on record for the official number of children killed in conflict zones. To address and promote peaceful societies for sustainable development, call for the protection of children against violence and further goal #16 of the Sustainable Development Goals, UNICEF set out to depict the number of children killed in a way that had never before been attempted.

Our objective was to amplify the message in a way that was impossible to ignore, particularly among world leaders & decision makers. We wanted it to speak to the reality and senselessness of child deaths in conflict beyond just stating a statistic or figure.

In a context where shocking statistics don’t generate much shock anymore, how could we bring global attention to the senselessness of children’s death and leave an impact on world leaders? When and on which platform do we meet them? What should the nature of the message be?

The idea was to bring the statistic of 3,758 children killed in conflict zones in 2018 to life at one of the prime meeting spots for world leaders, the United Nations General Assembly, guaranteeing visibility and accuracy in targeting our audience.

We laid out 3,758 iconic UNICEF blue backpacks, one for every child robbed of their chance to learn, and to live – creating a backpack graveyard on the North Lawn of the United Nations. Using an item usually symbolic of children thriving and able to attend school, we plotted each backpack carefully like a tombstone in a child-sized version of military graveyards.

We knew we were working with a challenging brief – finding an intersection point for bringing a statistic to life; reaching world leaders with a heartfelt message; operating with close to zero budget; all while staying authentic to the brand.

We crunched data from the 2019 Annual Report of the Secretary-General on children and armed conflict to focus on the number of child deaths.

Our target was world leaders and decision makers, but a secondary target of the wider public would help provide pressure and support.

Just as leaders converged from every corner of the planet and as children in North America were heading back to school, we laid out 3,758 backpacks on the North Lawn of the United Nations, one for every child robbed of their chance to learn, and live. Each backpack represented a child’s life lost in conflict in 2018 – a backpack graveyard.

Phase 1 – The Backpack Graveyard (Sept 8 - 15): We laid out 3,758 backpacks, forming the backpack graveyard. Global media outlets covered the installation and UNICEF issued a press release about the display and report findings.

The UN Secretary General responded by visiting the installation, writing to UN Ambassadors to do the same and spread the message, and asking for the display to be extended by three days.

Phase 2 - Message of hope (Sept 15): Most backpacks were removed leaving a few to spell “HOPE” and remind the world that the graveyard scene can and should be replaced by peace and hope for all children.

Phase 3 – Advocacy and support (Sept 17 – Present): The backpacks were sent to Latin America to support children facing violence and education-related issues. Some were also sent to dignitaries as an ongoing advocacy symbol and reminder of the cost of conflict.