REPORT ON IMPACT OF ARMED CONFLICT ON CHILDREN EXPOSES MORAL VACUUM, SECRETARY-GENERAL'S EXPERT TELLS THIRD COMMITTEE

8 November 1996

Press Release
GA/SHC/3382

REPORT ON IMPACT OF ARMED CONFLICT ON CHILDREN EXPOSES MORAL VACUUM, SECRETARY-GENERAL'S EXPERT TELLS THIRD COMMITTEE

19961108 Study Given Special Presentation by Author, Calls for Ban on Land-mines, End to Recruitment of Child Soldiers

A report on the impact of armed conflict on children exposed a moral vacuum in which all taboos had been eroded and discarded and a world in which children were no longer considered precious, according to its author, Graça Machel. Her report was examined this afternoon at a special presentation to the Third Committee (Social, Humanitarian and Cultural).

Ms. Machel, who was appointed three years ago as the Secretary-General's expert to examine the issue, said the report was a testimony to the millions of children who had been killed, injured and permanently disabled in armed conflict, and the countless others who had been forced to witness and take part in horrifying atrocities. For too long, the consequences for children have been tolerated as an unfortunate but inevitable side-effect of war. In reality, children had increasingly become targets, and not incidental victims, as a result of the conscious and deliberate decisions made by adults, she added.

However, there was reason for hope. Concern for children presented new opportunities to confront the problems that caused their suffering. She called for preventive measures that addressed the root causes of violence and promoted sustainable and equitable development. She also recommended that the Secretary-General appoint a special representative on children in armed conflict who could be both a catalyst and a focal point to support United Nations efforts already under way.

Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali said Ms. Machel's report posed a fundamental challenge to the way the United Nations system and the humanitarian community responded to violations of children's rights in armed conflict. It proposed a comprehensive agenda for action to improve the protection and care of children and prevent conflicts from breaking out.

Children could also be the path to enduring peace, he continued. "We must refuse to inflict upon new generations the unspeakable atrocities and cruel deprivations that this century has, so tragically, inflicted on the

young and which, to our collective shame, continue in parts of the world even as we meet today", he added.

The President of the General Assembly, Razali Ismail (Malaysia), said the arms trade should be singled out for its role in catalysing aggression, profiting from the type of violence and suffering being perpetrated in the Great Lakes region of Africa. Societies should demand regulation of the arms trade. It was pertinent to ask why the United Nations Arms Register remained a virtual blank piece of paper. Despite moral outrage, governments were more concerned with supporting the rights of arms manufacturers than with protecting the rights of people and children.

Carol Bellamy, Executive Director of the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), endorsed the report's call for the appointment of a special representative. Ms. Machel's recommendation to ban land-mines, end the recruitment of child soldiers and tailor humanitarian relief efforts to meet children's special needs should also be implemented, she said.

Ibrahima Fall, Assistant Secretary-General for Human Rights, said the number of child soldiers was increasing, and an incalculable number of children were being traumatized by armed conflict. He called for resolute action by governments to end the terrible spectre of child soldiers. The Committee on the Rights of the Child would continue to play a focal point for global cooperation and was working towards strengthening implementation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child.

There was general support for the appointment of a Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Children and Armed Conflict, except for the representative of the United States who said creating such a position risked compartmentalizing the issue and forcing it out of the mainstream.

James Gustave Speth, Administrator of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), Soren Jessen-Petersen, Director and Special Representative of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), and Francesca Pometta, Vice-President of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), also addressed the Committee.

The representatives of Ireland (on behalf of the European Union), Portugal, Botswana, Uruguay, United States, Netherlands, Cameroon, Costa Rica, Burundi and Libya participated in a dialogue with Ms. Machel.

Ms. Bellamy and Mr. Fall also made introductory statements on the promotion and protection of the rights of children.

The Committee will meet again at 10 a.m. Monday, 11 November, to continue its consideration of the programme of activities of the International Decade of the World's Indigenous People.

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Committee Work Programme

The Third Committee (Social, Humanitarian and Cultural) met this afternoon to hear the introduction of a report on the impact of armed conflict on children (document A/51/306 and Addendum 1). The report was prepared by Graca Machel, former Minister for Education of Mozambique and the expert appointed by the Secretary-General on 8 June 1994, pursuant to Assembly resolution 48/157 of 20 December 1993. It was undertaken with the support of the Centre for Human Rights and the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) and recommends action Member States and the international community can take to improve the protection and care of children in conflicts and prevent them from occurring.

The Assembly asked for recommendations in five areas: participation of children in armed conflict; reinforcement of preventive measures; relevance and adequacy of existing standards; measures required to improve protection of children affected by armed conflict; and, actions needed to promote the physical and psychological recovery and social reintegration of children affected by armed conflict.

In her report, which was the result of extensive and wide-ranging consultations, Ms. Machel identified a number of additional concerns, including: changing patterns of conflict; specific impacts on girls and the children of minority and indigenous groups; economic embargoes, rape and other forms of gender-based violence and sexual exploitation; torture; inadequate provision of education, health and nutrition and psychological programmes; the protection and care of refugee and internally displaced children and other children at particular risk; and the inadequate implementation of international human rights and humanitarian law.

In the last 10 years, an estimated 2 million children have been killed in conflict and three times as many have been seriously injured or permanently disabled, many of them maimed by land-mines. Countless others have been forced to witness or take part in horrifying acts of violence. The patterns and characteristics of contemporary armed conflict have increased the risks for children. Distinctions between combatants and civilians disappear in battles fought from village to village or from street to street. When any tactics are employed and all standards abandoned, human rights violations against children and women occur in unprecedented numbers. In recent years, the proportion of civilian war victims has leapt from 5 to 90 per cent, and struggles that claim more civilians have been marked by horrific levels of violence and brutality. Increasingly, children have become the targets and even the perpetrators of violence and atrocities.

Child Soldiers

One of the most alarming trends in armed conflict, according to the report, is the participation of children as soldiers. Studies indicate that Governments and rebel armies have recruited tens of thousands of children.

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Most are adolescents, though many are 10 years of age or younger. While the majority are boys, girls are also recruited. They are recruited by conscription, press-gangs and kidnapping. The report describes recruitment practices in Ethiopia, Myanmar, Afghanistan, and El Salvador, and notes that the ideological indoctrination of youth had disastrous consequences in Rwanda.

Hunger and poverty may drive parents to offer children for service or attract children to volunteer as a way to guarantee regular meals, clothing or medical attention. Some children become soldiers to protect themselves or their families in the face of violence and chaos around them, while others, particularly adolescents, are lured by ideology. Children also identify with social causes, religious expression, self-determination, national liberation or the pursuit of political freedom, as in South Africa or the occupied territories.

According to the report, the removal of everyone under eighteen years of age from armies is an urgent priority. Countries should ensure the early and successful conclusion of the drafting of the optional protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on involvement of children in conflicts, raising the age of recruitment and participation in the armed forces to eighteen years. In addition, all peace agreements should include specific measures to demobilize and reintegrate child soldiers into society. A global campaign should be launched, aimed at eradicating the use of children under the age of eighteen in the armed forces. Diplomatic efforts should be pursued with Governments and non-State forces and their supporters to encourage immediate demobilization of child soldiers and adherence to the Convention.

Refugees and Internally Displaced Children

The number of refugees worldwide has increased from 5.7 million in 1980 to 27.4 million refugees, returnees and people living in so-called "safe havens", the report states. In addition, the number of displaced persons has escalated in recent years to an estimated 30 million and they are often worse off than refugees, since they may lack access to protection and assistance. The death rate among displaced persons has been as much as 60 per cent higher than the rate of persons within the same country who are not displaced. At least half of all refugees and displaced persons are children who are often the first to die, as they succumb to attacks, shelling, snipers, land-mines, disease or lack of water and food. Unaccompanied children who are separated from both parents and are not in the care of another responsible adult are particularly vulnerable to neglect, violence, military recruitment, sexual assault and other abuses.

The report says refugee camps are often complex societies where traditional systems of social protection are strained or broken down completely -- resulting in high levels of violence, alcohol and substance abuse, family quarrels and sexual assault, with women and children especially vulnerable. The first days of mass displacement usually bring a high mortality rate to children. Camps are often highly militarized and basic resources such as food, water or firewood are frequently controlled by men, who often abuse their power.

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Ms. Machel recommends, as a priority in all emergencies, the establishment of procedures to ensure the survival and protection of unaccompanied children. Family tracing programmes should be established from the outset and unaccompanied children cared for, wherever possible, by their extended family and community rather than institutions. Practical measures to prevent sexual violence, discrimination in the delivery of relief, and the military recruitment of children must be a priority in all assistance programmes for camps. Women and children should be involved in the design and delivery of such measures. In each emergency a lead agency should be assigned overall responsibility for the protection and assistance of internally displaced persons, and UNICEF, in collaboration with the lead agency, should provide leadership for protection and assistance of the children.

Sexual Exploitation and Gender-based Violence

Rape, prostitution, sexual humiliation and mutilation, trafficking, and domestic violence pose a continual threat to women and girls during armed conflict, the report continues. Adolescent girls are particularly at risk, sometimes, because they are considered less likely to have sexually transmitted diseases such as the HIV/AIDS virus. Most child victims of violence and sexual abuse are girls, but boys are also affected, and cases of boys who have been raped or forced into prostitution are under-reported.

Children have been trafficked from conflict situations to work in brothels in other countries, transported from Cambodia to Thailand, for example, and from Georgia to Turkey. In refugee camps in Zaire, Ms. Machel heard numerous reports of girls pressured by their families to enter prostitution. Parents among internally displaced communities in Guatemala have been forced to prostitute their children. In Colombia, there have been reports of twelve-year-old girls submitting themselves to paramilitary forces to defend their families against other groups. Children may also become victims of prostitution after the arrival of peace-keeping forces. In Mozambique, after the signing of the peace treaty in 1992, soldiers of the United Nations Operation in Mozambique (ONUMOZ) recruited girls aged twelve to eighteen years into prostitution. In six out of 12 country studies on sexual exploitation of children during armed conflict, the arrival of peace-keeping troops has been associated with a rapid rise in child prostitution.

Ms. Machel made a number of recommendations on sexual exploitation and gender-based violence. Humanitarian responses must emphasize the special reproductive health needs of women and girls and give attention to the psycho- social needs of mothers. Instruction should be available for all military and peace-keeping personnel on their responsibilities towards civilian communities, particularly women and children; clear and easily accessible systems must be available for reporting sexual abuse within both military and civilian populations. The treatment of rape as a war crime must be clarified, pursued within military and civilian populations, and punished accordingly.

She also recommended that refugee and displaced persons camps be designed to improve security for women and girls. Women should be involved in

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all aspects of camp administration, especially in organizing distribution and security systems.

Land-mines and Unexploded Ordnance

Today, the report states, children in at least 68 countries live amid more than 110 million land-mines. There are millions more unexploded ordnance, bombs, shells and grenades. Afghanistan, Angola and Cambodia have a total of at least 28 million land-mines, as well as 85 per cent of the world's land-mine casualties. Angola, with an estimated 10 million land-mines, has an amputee population of 70,000, of whom 8,000 are children. African children are the most plagued by land-mines -- there are as many as 37 million mines in at least 19 African countries.

The victims tend to be concentrated among the poorest sectors of society, where people face danger every day working in their fields, herding their animals or searching for firewood. In many cultures, children carry out these tasks. Child soldiers are particularly vulnerable, as they are often the personnel used to explore known minefields and a mine explosion is likely to cause greater damage to the body of a child than to that of an adult. Medical problems related to amputation are often severe, as the limb of a growing child grows faster than the surrounding tissue and requires repeated amputation.

Ms. Machel recommends that Governments immediately enact legislation to ban the production, use, trade and stockpiling of land-mines. They should support the campaign for a worldwide ban, at least on anti-personnel mines, at the next review conference to the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons in 2001. The conference should also make concrete proposals to address the impact on children of other conventional weapons, such as cluster bombs and

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small-calibre weapons. Humanitarian mine clearance should be part of all peace agreements and should incorporate strategies to develop national capacity for mine clearance. Countries and companies that have profited from the sale of mines should be required to contribute to funds for mine clearance and mine awareness programmes.

Sanctions

The imposition of economic sanctions has a serious impact on children, the report states. In theory, most sanctions regimes exempt critical humanitarian supplies from general embargoes. In practice, humanitarian exemptions often cause resource shortages; disrupt the distribution of food, pharmaceuticals and sanitation supplies; and reduce the capacity of the public health system to maintain the quality of food, water, air, and medicine. The effects fall most heavily on the poor. Children have much less resistance, and they are less likely to survive persistent shortages. Studies from Cuba, Haiti and Iraq following the imposition of sanctions showed a rapid rise in the proportion of children who were malnourished.

The international community should ensure that whenever sanctions are imposed, such sanctions should provide for humanitarian, child-focused exemptions, Ms Machel said. It should establish effective monitoring mechanisms and child impact assessments with clear application guidelines. Humanitarian assistance programmes of the United Nations and non-governmental organizations should be exempt from approval by the Security Council Sanctions Committee. The impact on vulnerable groups, particularly children, should be a primary concern when planning sanctions regimes. The Sanctions Committee should closely monitor the humanitarian impact of sanctions and amend them immediately if they cause undue suffering to children.

Health and Nutrition

Thousands of children are killed every year as a direct result of fighting, but many more die from malnutrition and disease caused or increased by armed conflicts, according to the report. The interruption of food supplies, the destruction of food crops and agricultural infrastructures, the disintegration of families and communities, the displacement of populations and the destruction of health services and water and sanitation systems take a heavy toll on children. Many die as a direct result of acute and severe malnutrition or common childhood diseases and infections. Some of the highest death rates occur among children in refugee camps. Many of today's armed conflicts take place in some of the world's poorest countries, where children are already vulnerable to malnutrition and disease, and the onset of armed conflict increases death rates up to 24 times.

Ms. Machel recommends that all parties to a conflict must ensure the maintenance of basic health systems and services and water supplies. Special attention should be paid to primary health care and the care of children with chronic or acute conditions. Child-focused basic health needs assessments involving local professionals, young people and communities should be speedily carried out by organizations working in conflict situations and take into

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account food, health and care factors and the coping strategies likely to be used by the affected population.

During conflicts, Governments should facilitate "days of tranquillity" or "corridors of peace" to ensure continuity of basic child health measures and delivery of humanitarian relief. The World Food Programme (WFP), in collaboration with World Health Organization (WHO), United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and other agencies and international organizations, should consolidate attempts to ensure that emergency food and other relief distribution is structured so as to strengthen family unity and coping mechanisms.

Promoting Psychological Recovery and Social Reintegration

Historically, those concerned with children during armed conflict have focused primarily on their physical vulnerability. However, article 39 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child requires States parties to take appropriate measures to promote children's physical and psychological recovery and social reintegration. From the outset, assistance programmes should address the psycho-social concerns intrinsic to child growth and development. A 1995 UNICEF survey of 3,030 children in Rwanda found nearly 80 per cent of them had lost immediate family members, and more than one third had actually witnessed their murders.

Ms. Machel recommends that all phases of emergency and reconstruction assistance programmes take psycho-social considerations into account, while avoiding the development of separate mental health programmes. Programmes should support healing processes and re-establish a sense of normalcy through daily routines of family and community life, and through structured activities such as school, play and sports, and mobilize the community care network around children. Governments, donors and relief organizations should prevent the institutionalization of children.

Education

The report stresses that education is particularly important at times of armed conflict. In the middle of chaos, schooling can represent a state of normalcy. Relief programmes direct most attention in times of armed conflict to the education of refugee children. Insufficient attention to the education needs of non-refugees during armed conflict is attributable to the fact that some of the donors most active during conflicts are constrained by their mandates to work exclusively with refugees.

Ms. Machel recommends efforts be made to maintain education systems during conflicts. Education should be sustained outside of formal school buildings, using community facilities and alternative education strengthened through a variety of community channels. Donors should extend emergency funding to include support for education. Educational activity, including the provision of teaching aids and basic educational materials, should be a priority component of humanitarian assistance. As soon as camps are established for refugees or internally displaced persons, children should be

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brought together for educational activities. Support for the re-establishment and continuity of education must be a priority strategy for donors and non- governmental organizations in conflict and post-conflict situations.

Legal Standards for the Protection of Children

The report addresses the relevance and adequacy of existing standards for the protection of children. Ms. Machel describes the Convention on the Rights of the Child as a unique instrument that almost every country has ratified and stresses that the single most important resolve the world could make would be to transform universal ratification into universal reality. Currently, only six States have not ratified the Convention on the Rights of the Child: Cook Islands, Oman, Somalia, United Arab Emirates, Switzerland and the United States of America. In accepting the role of the Committee on the Rights of the Child in monitoring the implementation of the Convention, States parties have recognized that the protection of children is not just a national issue, but a legitimate concern of the international community.

This is especially important since many of the most serious violations of children's rights are in places such as Liberia and Somalia, where there is no functioning national Government, the report states. National and international strategies to protect children must empower and build the capacities of women, families and communities to address the root causes of conflict and strengthen local development. Increased efforts are needed to ensure that relief and protection measures specifically include child-centred actions. Assistance offered by many relief organizations does not take into account children's needs and often gives only cursory attention to age and gender in emergency responses.

One of the greatest challenges in providing protection is to ensure safe access, Ms. Machel emphasizes. Hospitals and refugee camps are no longer safe havens. Relief convoys and health clinics have all become targets. In some conflicts, temporary cessations of hostilities have been negotiated to permit the delivery of humanitarian relief in the form of "corridors of peace" and "days of tranquillity". In El Salvador, Lebanon and Afghanistan, for example, the warring parties supported such agreements to permit the vaccination of children. In the case of Operation Lifeline Sudan, relief supplies and vaccines were delivered during lulls in the conflict. The precedents set by these child-centred agreements are useful models to relate practical protection measures to the implementation of humanitarian and human rights law.

The Convention can only be formally ratified by States. Nevertheless, it is worth encouraging non-State entities to make a formal commitment to abide fully by the relevant standards. In order to establish their commitment to the protection of children, non-State entities should be urged to make a formal statement accepting and agreeing to implement the standards contained in the Convention. In 1995 in Sudan, for example, several combatant groups became the first non-State entities to commit to abide by the provisions of the Convention.

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The report states that the Committee on the Rights of the Child has recognized the importance of raising the minimum age of military recruitment to eighteen years, and in 1994 it established a working group to draft an optional protocol to the Convention to achieve that end. The scope of the draft text has been significantly broadened to include articles on non-State entities, on rehabilitation and social reintegration of child victims of armed conflicts, and on a procedure of confidential enquiries by the Committee on the Rights of the Child. Despite the progress that has been made, there continues to be resistance on the issue of voluntary recruitment and on distinguishing between direct and indirect participation.

Stressing that Governments bear the primary responsibility for protecting children from the impact of armed conflict, and indeed, for preventing conflicts from occurring, Ms. Machel recommends, among other things, that all Governments should adopt national legislative measures to ensure the effective implementation of relevant standards. They must train and educate the legal and military authorities. Humanitarian organizations should train their staff in human rights and humanitarian law; they should assist Governments in educating children and seek agreements with non-State entities.

In addition, the report offers recommendations in the areas of reconstruction and reconciliation following conflicts, as well as in conflict prevention. In the area of overall implementation, Ms. Machel recommends the establishment of a special representative of the Secretary-General on children and armed conflict. The representative would act as a standing observer, assessing progress achieved and difficulties encountered in the implementation of the recommendations in the study.

The Addendum to the report contains statements (Annexes I-VI) from the six regional consultations on the impact of armed conflict on children (the Horn, Eastern, Central and Southern regions of Africa; Arab region; West and Central Africa; Asia and the Pacific; Latin America and the Caribbean; and Europe.

Ms. Machel concludes by saying that "the present report has set forth recommendations for the protection of children during armed conflict. It has concentrated on what is practical and what is possible, but this cannot be enough. In considering the future of children, we must be daring." She goes on to say, "the flagrant abuse and exploitation of children during armed conflict can and must be eliminated. For too long, we have given ground to spurious claims that the involvement of children in armed conflict is regrettable but inevitable. It is not. Children are regularly caught up in warfare as a result of conscious and deliberate decisions made by adults. We must challenge each of these decisions and we must refute the flawed political and military reasoning and the protests of impotence." But above all else, she concludes, "the present report is a call to action."

Report on Impact of Armed Conflict on Children

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The President of the General Assembly, RAZALI ISMAIL (Malaysia), said the contents of Ms. Machel's important study presented chilling facts of the immense brutality that governments and individuals were capable of towards the most innocent and vulnerable. The use of children as actors, targets and hostages in war and violent conflict was so base in its violation against universal values that one's conscience should be provoked to the highest degree of moral outrage. It was vital that the United Nations move beyond the prescription of solutions, and seize the ground to force political will that would halt such brutal treatment of children. "Let us not be dismal, this can and must be done", he added. Action to protect children's rights in armed conflict would only be successful if it was accompanied by a universal and sustained outpouring of moral outrage. It must be carefully directed against the key players and forces which bore the greatest responsibility for sustaining such crimes against children.

It was the primary responsibility of governments and policy-makers in both developed and developing countries to address this matter, he said. The arms trade should be singled out for its role in catalyzing aggression, perpetuating and profiting from violence and suffering. Recent events in the Great Lakes region testified to this. Governments and societies should demand regulation of the arms trade, and it was also pertinent to ask why the United Nations Arms Register remained a virtual blank piece of paper. It was distressing that, despite moral outrage, governments were more concerned with supporting the rights of arms manufacturers than with protecting the rights of people and children.

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The international community should find the compassion and tenacity required to protect children all over the world, he said. He hoped that children who lived in relative comfort and safety would be made aware of the disparity between their situation and the millions of their contemporaries who were killed violently or faced bleak prospects either looking down a barrel of a gun, or falling victim to endless cycles of terror.

Secretary-General BOUTROS BOUTROS GHALI said for the first time in history, the international community had a comprehensive appraisal of the plight of children caught in armed conflict. The study demonstrated the centrality of children and their human rights to the peace and security agenda, and to political, military and humanitarian affairs. And it posed a fundamental challenge to the way the United Nations system -- and especially the humanitarian community -- responded to violations of children's rights in armed conflict. The study also documented how civilians, and children most of all, had suffered because of the civil conflicts that had torn apart nations and communities in recent years. It brought together the latest understanding of how war assaults society's most vulnerable members.

But the study provided more than just facts and analysis, the Secretary- General continued. It also proposed a comprehensive agenda for action to improve the protection and care of children during conflict and to prevent conflicts from breaking out in the first place. Children could also be the path to enduring peace. "We must refuse to inflict upon new generations the unspeakable atrocities and cruel deprivations that this century has, so tragically, inflicted on the young and which, to our collective shame, continue in parts of the world even as we meet today", he added.

Armed clashes in the Great Lakes region of Africa were once again exacting a tragic toll among civilians, the vast majority of whom were refugees, most of them women and young children, he said. According to the latest information, a minimum of 1 million people, or more, were on the move, amidst total insecurity and acute deprivation. The international community must do everything in its power to prevent a re-enactment of the 1994 genocide and refugee crisis that destabilized and devastated that part of the world. Immediate application of the Machel study's recommendations would go a long way towards alleviating the suffering of the children involved. Adoption of the recommendations would also help accelerate longer-term solutions to the complex problems of the subregion. The study proposed practical ways for governments, civil society and the United Nations to enlighten the lives of the world's children.

GRACA MACHEL, the Secretary-General's expert, introduced the report and described it as a testimony to the millions of children who had been killed, injured and permanently disabled as a result of armed conflict, and the countless others who had been forced to witness and take part in horrifying atrocities. The report was also a testimony to a fundamental crisis in civilization. It exposed a moral vacuum in which all taboos had been eroded and discarded, a world in which children were no longer considered precious. It demonstrated the failure of the international community to love, protect and cherish its children. However, there was reason for hope. Concern for

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children could present new opportunities to confront the problems that caused their suffering. In her travels over the past two years to every region of the world, Ms. Machel said she had seen how children could be a unifying force among diverse groups. But the humanitarian imperative was too often surrendered to political and military considerations.

Ms. Machel said she was representing the voices and testimonies entrusted to her. The voice of a nine-year-old girl in Sierra Leone who was raped by soldiers and forced to watch her family slaughtered; the anguished Cambodian mother who saw her children torn apart by land-mines, soon after their safe return as refugees; the bitter remorse of a fifteen-year-old former soldier, mourning his lost childhood and haunted by his part in three years of unimaginable violence; the hopelessness of the thirteen-year-old Bosnian girl deliberately sterilized while in hospital to have a bullet removed from her leg.

For too long, the consequences for children have been tolerated as unfortunate but inevitable side-effects of war, she continued. Yet the reality was that children had increasingly become targets, and not incidental victims, as a result of the conscious and deliberate decisions made by adults. In contemporary armed conflicts, nothing was spared or held sacred -- not hospitals, schools, not places of worship. There were no safe havens. The proliferation of inexpensive light weapons had also transformed warfare. Assault weapons were readily available to the poorest communities. The guns were so light, they could be stripped down and reassembled by a ten-year-old, which made it easier for adults to cynically exploit children as combatants.

War violated every right of the child -- the right to life, to grow up in a family environment, to health, to survival and full development, and the right to be protected and nurtured by others, she said. Their physical wounds, psychological distress and the sexual violence they suffered were an affront to every humanitarian impulse that inspired the Convention on the Rights of the Child. Yet, the Convention and other relevant standards would only be effective if they were widely known, understood and implemented. In armed conflicts, children must be treated as a distinct and priority concern in all human rights, humanitarian and developmental activities.

Ultimately the report called for preventive measures that addressed the root causes of violence and promoted sustainable and equitable patterns of human development, Ms. Machel continued. The international community must shatter the political inertia that allowed armed conflicts to escalate. The

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Great Lakes region of Africa was developing into a catastrophic human tragedy. Despite repeated warnings, increasing deaths and clear violations of children's rights, the world had failed to act. Within the United Nations and at national and regional levels, information must be gathered about the reality faced by children. The information would help streamline and set priorities for common and individual action, assess progress and difficulties. She recommended that the Secretary-General appoint a special representative on children in armed conflict who could be both a catalyst and a focal point to support United Nations efforts already under way.

Preparing the report had strengthened her conviction that adults must do everything to protect children, give them priority and leave them a dignified legacy for a better future, she said. "My report is a vibrant testimony to a global movement seeking to give visibility to children affected by armed conflict." Its recommendations were an urgent call to embrace a new morality that puts children where they belong, at the centre of human rights, peace, security and development agendas. The protection and care of children caught in armed conflict requires greater political will, continued vigilance and increased cooperation. "We cannot fail our children. Peace is every child's right", she concluded.

CAROL BELLAMY, Executive Director of UNICEF, said children needed peace, and war was the ultimate violator of their rights, the absolute denier of their dreams. Fifty years ago, UNICEF was founded to come to the aid of a generation of children devastated by war. Today, UNICEF was still on emergency footing, stretching its limited resources in order to respond to conflicts, attempting to prevent them by helping nations and communities build peace one child at a time. From eastern Zaire to northern Uganda, from Bosnia and Herzegovina to Liberia, UNICEF's front-line staff knew first-hand the terrible impact of war on children. Much was being done to relieve their suffering, but so much more could be done.

The UNICEF enthusiastically endorsed the recommendations in Ms. Machel's report and urged the international community to begin implementing them immediately, she said. There could be no better place to do so than the Great Lakes region of central Africa, where the international community must prevent a new genocide, massive displacement, separation of children from families, widespread hunger, illness and trauma. Among the report's many important recommendations, UNICEF believed several worthy of urgent implementation: name a special representative of the Secretary-General; ban anti-personnel land-mines; end the recruitment and participation of children as soldiers; tailor humanitarian relief efforts to meet children's special needs; stop gender-based violence and sexual exploitation; and pay greater attention to refugee and internally displaced children.

The implementation of the report's recommendations would make a real difference in the lives of millions of children living in, or emerging from, situations of armed conflict, she said. On behalf of the world's children, the international community should work together to build the peace to which every child was entitled.

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JAMES GUSTAVE SPETH, Director of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), said it was unconscionable that wars were responsible for the deaths and injuries of millions of children. At the turn of the century, the victims of war were nearly all soldiers. Today, 90 per cent of war casualties were civilians, mainly women and children. The UNDP had created an emergency response mechanism to deal with the effects of armed conflicts on children. It was unconscionable that hundreds of thousands of children were again the victims of conflict in Zaire and that there were camps with populations of over 100,000 children. The UNDP had increased its role to facilitate the early return of children and their families and target early development programmes for their settlement and reintegration.

He said it was unconscionable that soldiers targeted children and that children were increasingly becoming soldiers. The UNDP was working to reintegrate and disarm combatants in Angola and Mozambique. It was also working to improve national capacity to de-mine -- often a decades-long task. The international community must work harder to counteract the effects of armed conflicts and their underlying causes. He could not underscore strongly enough the importance of Ms. Machel's report and her call for preventive measures which addressed the root causes of conflict. Poverty and despair made people susceptible to conflicts, and sustainable people-centred development was almost always part of the cure.

IBRAHIMA FALL, Assistant Secretary-General for Human Rights, said the number of child soldiers was increasing, and an incalculable number of children were being traumatized by armed conflict. It was therefore vitally important to analyze the reasons for war and formulate solutions. The concept of the inherent dignity and harmonious development of children had encouraged the Human Rights Committee's 1993 session which had stressed the need for implementing humanitarian standards to address the needs of children during armed conflicts, to respond urgently to the care and attention of child victims and to raise the minimum recruitment age to eighteen years.

The study stressed the need for a global approach for the rights of the child, he continued. The Human Rights Commission had set in motion a strategy which would be the starting point for a dynamic long-term, agency-wide approach throughout the Organization to the plight of children in armed conflict. He called for resolute action by Governments to end the terrible spectre of child soldiers. The Committee on the Rights of the Child would continue to play a focal point for global cooperation. The reports must also

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be considered systematically under other monitoring mechanisms. The Committee would establish a reinforced implementation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child.

SOREN JESSEN-PETERSEN, Director of the UNHCR Office at Headquarters, said the study on the Impact of Armed Conflict on Children offered a unique framework to rethink what humanitarian action meant in a post-cold war world. The UNHCR's efforts must now be extended to ensure that all members of emergency response teams were prepared to initiate thorough assessments of the dangers faced by women and children. Searches for children in orphanages, prisons, exploitative labour situations and the military must be undertaken. Measures to prevent sexual violence, discrimination in delivery of relief commodities and recruitment of children into armed forces must be at the forefront of emergency planning and programming. To that end, the UNHCR, UNICEF and members of the International Save the Children Alliance were finalizing plans to launch new training programmes for governments, international organizations and non-governmental organizations to facilitate those required actions.

Ms. Machel's study documented how teenage boys and girls were too often ignored in organized responses to armed conflicts and population displacements, he said. Given the pandemic of AIDS, where 60 per cent of new HIV infections occurred in youth aged fifteen to twenty-four years of age, that neglect could be deadly. The UNHCR, in partnership with over 50 agencies, had already strengthened its efforts to provide comprehensive reproductive health programmes. The international community must act now to accelerate all critical health services.

The recent UNICEF-UNHCR Memorandum of Understanding provided important opportunities to promote and coordinate programming for women, children and adolescents across borders, he said. There existed clear memoranda and policy guidelines to ensure a proper and timely response to the rights of women and children, but the challenges remained to translate them into action. Ms. Machel's study and its recommendations pointed the way, and the UNHCR was prepared to support the recommendations for structured follow-up.

FRANCESCA POMETTA, Vice-President of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), said her organization shared the fears and hopes expressed by the speakers that preceded her. The initiatives of the United Nations and Ms. Machel's report should prompt the international community to mobilize on behalf of those unfortunate children. The ICRC had involved itself in that effort since it adopted a plan of action to ban the military recruitment of children under 18 and a ban on mines.

The ICRC Plan of Action aimed at bringing immediate urgent assistance to the victims and addressing the best ways to protect children in hostilities, she said. Those procedures did not differentiate between protection and prevention, and the services included registering unaccompanied children, health care, reuniting families and orthopaedic hospitals.

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The current political, moral and legal vacuum caused abuses and violations throughout the world, she said. Those abuses occurred, not because of an absence of legal protection, but because governments were not implementing such protection. Unfortunately, the international community was powerless to deal with those abominations. Humanitarian work, because of its nature, did not deal with political motivations, and it was not up to humanitarian organizations to decide how to enforce international law. Unless there was an international movement, those circumstances would continue. The ICRC supported the establishment of an international court and the banning of the use of anti-personnel mines. It was vital not to underestimate the difficulties involved in those problems, and the situation in the Great Lakes region should act as a vivid warning to the international community of possible atrocities.

Dialogue

FRANCES VELHO RODRIGUES (Mozambique) said children caught in armed conflict represented one of the most serious challenges, because they were both targets and instruments of war. Ms. Machel's study presented the magnitude of the problem in all its facets, and it advanced recommendations for action by all concerned players. Mozambique found the recommendations well-balanced, action-oriented and applicable to the different kinds of conflict situations. It also believed that the key to the success of the study lay in the follow-up actions and the appropriate mechanism to implement what was agreed upon.

The Government supported the recommendation regarding the establishment of a special representative of the Secretary-General on the impact of armed conflict on children, she said. This representative would establish the link among all players, appraise and advise on developments within the context of the study. The urgency of the matter could not be overemphasized. The best course must be decided as soon as possible, because children were dying in Angola, Somalia, Liberia, the Great Lakes region, Afghanistan and in many more areas of conflict.

The representative of Ireland, speaking on behalf of the European Union, said the report must be seen as a basis for mitigating the effect of armed conflict on children. The Union supported the appointment of a special representative who could serve as a focal point for action. The impact and effect of the report would be judged by the response it drew and the debate it stimulated.

The representative of Portugal said the report was unique, with its wide participatory process. It had created an undeniable awareness of the plight of children and assembled a diversity of areas of concern which had never before been addressed in an integrated manner. He supported the appointment of a special representative. The report stressed the essential importance of the Convention on the Rights of the Child and other international instruments. The world community must look for ways to improve their implementation.

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The representative of Botswana said the report summarized all the terrible things the world had known of for a very long time but had done nothing about. There were children in Angola, Mozambique and other countries who were running around with guns. Too many children today were growing up in an environment characterized by bloodshed and terrible violence. And they were the future generation. Ms. Machel had first-hand knowledge of the effects of war, and was therefore an excellent choice to document its horrors on children. Children should be going to school, playing at home and even going to McDonald's in the afternoon, he said, adding that he did not want to promote junk food. But such childhood activities were important because the world needed people who were psychologically balanced and who knew the differences between right and wrong. Ms. Machel would be addressing the Security Council next week.

The representative of Uruguay said the most positive response to Ms. Machel's study would be to endorse all of the report's recommendations. The details of the report did not require more talk. The international community must implement concrete steps that would end the suffering of children due to armed conflicts. The common goals of peace and development could be not achieved if there were children who had been harmed physically and psychologically by wars.

The representative of the United States said the issue of the impact of armed conflict on children was one of compelling concern to the world community and deserved the serious attention it had received this afternoon. The effects could be long-lasting and broad-ranging. The report's recommendations merited thoughtful attention and needed to be weighed in terms of international legal precedent, in the context of domestic laws, and in accordance with available resources. There were, however, areas of concern. His Government questioned the need of establishing a special representative of the Secretary-General. Had there been consideration of that position being included in an existing United Nations entity? Creating a special representative risked compartmentalizing the issue and forcing it out of the mainstream of the Organization.

The representative of the Netherlands said the scope and research in Ms. Machel's report, which was also unusually rich in content and analysis, were impressive. The report should play an important international role, but first it must be disseminated widely as its recommendations should be studied widely. The Government of the Netherlands agreed with the recommendation which called for a distinct entity of a special representative of the Secretary-General, who could foster international cooperation and coordinate efforts inside the United Nations institutions.

The representative of Cameroon said his Government considered the report's recommendations important for the present and future of humanity. It was now up to the international community to act, and Africa prayed that the action would come sooner rather than later.

The representative of Costa Rica said her Government had previously been in favour of abolishing land-mines and other weapons that were low in cost but

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difficult to deactivate. Costa Rica had always struggled to support children in every way and was ready to support the report's recommendations. In addition, the number of experts on the Committee of the Rights of the Child should be increased to a total of 18, the same approximate number as there were in other human rights instruments.

The representative of Burundi said the report's contents were a challenge to the conscience as well as a call to action. Follow-up steps must be taken. Children paid for the mistakes committed by their parents in particular, and by all adults in general. Developing countries, whose resources and financial means were the most reduced, suffered most from the epidemic of war. Conflicts currently ravaging Africa, and particularly the Great Lakes region, should be viewed in the context of extreme poverty, and the root of those armed conflicts should be attacked. States must support human rights and good government, and there should be international cooperation to stem that scourge. The future of our nations was being jeopardized, so adults must listen to the complaints of children.

The representative of Libya said the report had drawn attention to one of the effects of conflict on children -- namely economic sanctions to which his country was subject. He supported the report's recommendations that, because of their negative impact on health, no sanctions regime should be allowed to continue indefinitely and that the international community should amend sanctions immediately when they caused undue suffering to children.

Ms. MACHEL thanked the delegates for their support and reminded them that the report was the result of a collective effort and broad consultations. The recommendations had been shaped by the response from governments, agencies, communities and from women and children who had been the victims of armed conflict. Many people had shaped the recommendations.

She acknowledged the concerns expressed by delegates about the appointment of a special representative. The proposal had been given serious consideration and discussed during the broad consultations. The appointment would be an extremely important step in sustaining the current mobilization and the collaborative work of Member States and civil society, so there was not in fact a compartmentalization the issues. She was aware of the costs involved, but a small focal point was envisaged along the lines of the Special Rapporteur on internally displaced persons. It need not have a heavy structure. A focal point was needed to coordinate national plans of action for implementing the report's recommendations and to develop an institutional culture so that everyone was responsible for implementation. Once all that was in place a special representative would no longer be needed.

Promotion and Protection of Rights of Children

CAROL BELLAMY, Executive Director of UNICEF, said 50 years ago next month, UNICEF was founded to aid children who had been victimized by the Second World War. The issue of children and war continued, regrettably, to demand the attention not only of UNICEF but of the entire international community. However, even in times of peace, children faced major threats to

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their survival, protection and development, including preventable disease, malnutrition, lack of access to clean water, illiteracy, poor education, exploitative labour, prostitution, violence and sexual abuse. A majority of UNICEF's work was directed at improving the lives of children throughout the world, not just in countries affected by armed conflict.

Since 1990, there had been impressive national and regional achievements for children, especially with regard to preventing childhood disease and mortality, she said. Special efforts would be needed to attain the goals for the reduction of infant and maternal mortality, reduction of child malnutrition, universal basic education and sanitation. As exemplified by Ms. Machel's report, and the recent World Congress on the Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children, protecting children in especially difficult circumstances and tackling the root causes of such situations had taken on a special urgency.

Meeting those challenges would require increased financial resources and political will, she said. The increasing political will in favour of children was demonstrated by the fact that the Convention on the Rights of the Child was almost universally ratified and was being used by governments to provide a framework for national programmes of action for children and to shape new legislation.

Mr. FALL said there had been many statements which dealt with the rights of the child, even though the report mainly dealt with children in armed conflict. Since its last session, the Committee for Human Rights had dealt with a number of key areas including the implementation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child and action to get its universal ratification. The Convention was now almost universally accepted, which was why the Committee sought to adopt a plan to strengthen it. Another key area of work was the production of the national study. There had been two working groups -- one on the optional protocol to the Convention regarding the sale and prostitution of children and pornography and another working group which dealt with the establishment of eighteen as the minimum age for recruitment into armies. A third area of the Committee's work dealt with the work of the Special Rapporteur for Human Rights on the sale, pornography and prostitution of children.

For many years, he said, the United Nations had given a great deal of attention to the sexual exploitation of children and had been instrumental in the World Congress against the Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children which was held in August in Stockholm. The Committee would also be considering the work done by the High Commissioner of Human Rights regarding the rights of the child and his initiatives to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary in 1998 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The discussion was a flagrant demonstration of the work that needed to be done.

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