PRESS CONFERENCE ON PROTECTING CHILDREN IN ARMED CONFLICT

In the lead up to the Security Council’s open debate on children and armed conflict on 20 January and the anticipated new resolution on that topic, a paper entitled “Protecting Children in Armed Conflict:  Blueprints for Compliance” was launched this morning at a Headquarters press conference by the Watchlist on Children and Armed Conflict, a broad network of international, national, regional and local non-governmental organizations.

The press conference, sponsored by the Permanent Mission of Canada to the United Nations, featured Julia Freedson, Watchlist on Children and Armed Conflict; Andrew Johnson, Save the Children Alliance; and Kathleen Hunt, CARE International.

The paper, announced Ms. Freedson, was a call to action urging the Security Council, the United Nations system, regional bodies, civil society and national governments to respond with the resources and remedies proportionate to the grave state of affairs for children in armed conflicts around the globe.

While welcoming the Council’s four resolutions on children and armed conflict over the past few years, particularly resolution 1460 of January 2003, the Watchlist had been disappointed by the limited actions taken by the various parts of the United Nations system in 2003 to act on the provisions outlined in resolution 1460 and previous resolutions –- 1379, 1314 and 1261.

Ms. Freedson said the Blueprints presented today covered three action areas where progress must be made to begin to close the gap between international commitments to protect children and the harsh and gross violations of children’s security and rights, with impunity.  The action areas covered monitoring and reporting, the Secretary-General’s child soldiers list, and graduated measures for ensuring compliance with international norms.

The paper also contained five related annexes, including on the coverage of child protection issues in the Security Council’s country-specific resolutions and the Secretary-General’s country reports during the past year, she continued.  That research showed significant gaps with only nine of the Council’s 54 country-specific resolutions and 16 of the Secretary-General’s 44 country reports including substantive information on child protection.

Last year, she recalled, the Secretary-General published, in his report to the Council on children and armed conflict, a groundbreaking list of parties to armed conflict that recruited or used child soldiers in violation of international obligations applicable to them.  While that list was a major step forward in identifying and naming some of the offenders, the list was limited to conflict areas on the Council’s agenda.

Therefore, she went on, it only included parties in Afghanistan, Burundi, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Liberia and Somalia, despite the fact that thousands of boys and girls were recruited and used on frontlines in many other parts of the world.

Turning to the first action area, she said it was no secret that the current system in the United Nations for monitoring and reporting on violations against children in armed conflicts was “woefully inadequate”.  In fact, the fourth report of the Secretary-General on children and armed conflict recognized that gap as a high priority for immediate action.  Monitoring and reporting was essential because experience showed that abuses against children would only end when the first step of gathering information was followed by a clear plan on where to deposit the information, how to verify it and what possible enforcement actions could lead to compliance.

The major shortcoming, she stated, was that no rigorous and effective system existed to coordinate those activities and direct them through the necessary steps to achieve the goal of compliance.  For example, she was particularly distressed that even in situations where information about basic violations against children’s security and rights were well known by United Nations agencies, neither the Council nor its designates had taken action, even to incorporate those issues into a resolution on a specific country, such as in the case of the recent Council resolution on Liberia.

The Blueprints suggested that the Council appoint, with a strong and practical six-month mandate, a small independent and representative group of experts, drawn from United Nations agencies and qualified non-governmental organizations, to outline the mandates and coordination needed within the United Nations system to achieve a comprehensive and effective monitoring and reporting structure.  Among the other recommendations were for the Council to identify one Member State to serve as its focal point for the protection of children in armed conflicts and the establishment by the Council of a child protection “inspection” initiative.

Speaking about the Secretary-General’s list on child soldiers, Mr. Johnson said the list could be significantly improved in two ways.  First, the list could be expanded to include those parties not on the Security Council’s agenda.  The rationale for that was that resolutions already recognized the fact that the use of child soldiers was a threat to international peace and security and, therefore, well within the mandate of the Security Council.

The second expansion, he said, was to look at the spectrum of violations.  The violations against children in war did not stop with the use of child soldiers, but included killing and maiming, sexual exploitation and abuse, abduction, and denial of humanitarian access, among others.  More children died due to the denial of humanitarian access and basic services, he noted, than from bullets and war.  It was vital that the Council and the international community looked at the wider scope of violations perpetrated against children.

The Watchlist proposed a gradual approach, he noted, with, first, an expanded child soldier list -- one single list which included warring parties that recruited or used child soldiers in violation of international obligations.  Second, there would be the spectrum of violations list, which would examine other violations, including those already mentioned.  At the end of the day, he would like to see a list of all parties that violated the security and rights of all children in all conflict situations.

On the third action area, graduated measures to achieve compliance, Ms. Hunt said that fundamental to the issue of compliance was appointing people and bodies responsible for following through on the process.  Also important was setting time-bound plans.  It was necessary for those parties appearing on the list to be notified and to begin taking action to develop their own plans for immediately stopping the recruitment and use of child soldiers and other violations.  If they were failing to make progress, then additional measures needed to be taken by the Council.  The parties needed to know that if they did not make progress in a specified period of time, there would be negative consequences.

The Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers, she said, had issued its own “next steps” list, which it had submitted to the Council for its consideration.  Among those steps were continuing and expanding the Secretary-General’s list, entering into dialogue with the parties on the list, giving all parties a six-to-nine-month period to set up time-bound plans of action to end violations, restricting the flow of arms and military materiel, and taking additional measures.

The aim, she said, was to try to fill the gaps, tighten a system which had a lot of strong pieces in place, make the resolutions function on the ground, and have mechanisms for the Council to receive information on what was happening and to determine what more it needed to do.  It was also recommended that the Secretary-General establish a task force on compliance and follow-up.

Currently, there was no framework for punishing violators, she said in answer to a question.  There had been measures, such as travel bans and the urging of all governments to cut off military assistance, which could be significant for warring parties.  However, there was no formal framework set up and it was an issue the Council was being urged to work on.

Concluding, Ms. Freedson added that on 19 January, the Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers would be releasing their new report detailing the use of child soldiers in specific conflicts during 2003.

Also, the Watchlist would be holding an “Arias formula” meeting with the Security Council, hosted by France, on 13 January at Headquarters.  A relatively new initiative of non-governmental organizations to improve monitoring, reporting and follow-up action on the spectrum of abuses on children in armed conflicts, the Watchlist would also be releasing their report on children in Colombia next month.

* *** *