The conflict in Syria is now in its third year. The death toll has reached well over 120,000 and more than 9.3 million people are in need of assistance inside Syria, including at least 6.5m internally displaced people (IDPs). Another 2.5m have fled to other countries.1 Children have been particularly hard-hit, with an estimated 5.5m affected by a conflict which for many has become a fact of life.2 Clearly, even if the conflict ended tomorrow Syria would not return to normality any time soon. This Policy Brief is based on a first round of field research conducted as part of a two-year project exploring the ‘protection gap’. In recent decades international law, policies and norms around the protection of civilians have expanded significantly