In commemoration of Mother's Day, Save the Children has published its fourth annual report focusing on the tens of millions of mothers and children whose lives have been disrupted by war and armed conflict and suggesting actions required to support women who are raising the children under horrific conditions and to shield children from the most brutal excesses of war. The report highlights the first-ever "Conflict Protection Scorecard," which analyzes 40 of today's brutal conflicts against six areas of protection, which include protection from military recruitment of children, separation from family, and trafficking of women and children for prostitution. Findings reported include the following: (1) the Scorecard finds widespread violations of women's and children's human rights in every conflict zone and in every region of the world; (2) the Scorecard identifies Afghanistan, Angola, Burundi, Democratic Republic of Congo, and Sierra Leone as five of the worst conflict zones for women and children; (3) each of the six protection needs was prevalent across the conflicts analyzed; and (4) regardless of the cause, type, or location of conflict, protection needs were generally consistent, suggesting that humanitarian agencies can anticipate human rights abuses in times of armed conflict and take concrete measures to be proactive. Recommendations for addressing protection needs include the following: (1) governments and international organizations must make more resources available to nongovernmental organizations responding to conflicts where the protection needs of women and children are the greatest; (2) because protection from psychological trauma is the most widespread need in conflict zones, and the level of response falls far short of need, governments and international organizations must make more resources available for programs to protect women and children from such harm, and to restore emotional well-being to those traumatized; and (3) existing early warning systems and humanitarian response priorities must be improved to better target the specific protection needs of women and children at the earliest possible stages of conflict. The report also includes the fourth annual Mother's Index, comparing the well-being of mothers and children in over 100 countries, along with explanations of the research methodology and indicators used. (Contains 49 endnotes.) (HTH)