PRESS BRIEFING BY SPECIAL REPRESENTATIVE FOR CHILDREN AND ARMED CONFLICT

The adoption by the Security Council today of a series of measures, including the establishment of a comprehensive monitoring and reporting mechanism, to ensure the protection of children in armed conflict, was of great consequence and the first of its kind within the United Nations, Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict Olara Otunnu said today at a Headquarters press briefing.

Briefing correspondents on what he called “a truly historical development at the UN”, Mr. Otunnu was accompanied by author and journalist Anna Cataldi, a United Nations Messenger for Peace.

Mr. Otunnu said that, in adopting resolution 1612, the Council endorsed the package of measures presented to it in February in order to institute a formal, structured, detailed compliance regime.  He highlighted five key features of that regime.  First, the regime entailed the establishment of a formal, structured monitoring and reporting mechanism, starting from the ground up within countries to a task force at Headquarters, and then reports that would go to the Council and other decision-making bodies.

Second, he continued, the Council had endorsed the idea of publicly identifying and naming offending parties which continued to commit grave violations against children.  In the latest report to the Council on the subject, 54 such parties had been listed, drawn from 11 conflict situations.  Third, the Council had ordered the offending parties listed to immediately prepare action plans for ending the violations for which they had been cited.  The Council had authorized United Nations teams to enter into immediate dialogue with those parties to implement such plans.

Fourth, for offending parties that might not deliver on the action plans and failed to end violations, he said, the Council would consider targeted measures, including travel bans, bans on the issuance of visas, bans on military assistance and arms embargoes.  Fifth, in a signal of its own determination to pursue the issue and follow up on the regime, the Council would constitute its own working group to oversee and follow up on implementation of the measures outlined.

For first time, he said, the Council was saying that it was not enough to condemn.  It was necessary to move and ensure accountability.  It was not enough to have rules and resolutions, but it was necessary to set up a system that could deliver on compliance.  “In short, today we have entered the long-awaited era of application.” 

With the adoption of the resolution, he added, two things would come into play.  First, there would be movement towards actually establishing monitoring and reporting mechanisms within countries.  That would be done in phases, covering all situations of concern.  Second, beyond the corridors of the United Nations, it would be important to engage in public campaigns to include parliamentarians, women’s groups and children, among others, build a movement to reverse “this trend of abomination”.  Now, the norms, institutions and means to make that possible were in place.

Ms. Cataldi added that children constituted more than 50 per cent of the population in war-torn countries.  Among the consequences of last December’s tsunami was that many children were orphaned, making them vulnerable.  Children continued to be recruited from refugee camps.  There was now, finally, something in place that could provide hope in addressing the problem.

Asked how optimistic he was that the mechanisms adopted today would work in practice, given that many of the offenders were non-State actors, Mr. Otunnu said that, with few exceptions, all parties in conflict had become highly political actors with sophisticated networks of connections around the globe.  Those connections provided important “levers of influence”.  In today’s increasingly interdependent world, it was not possible for groups to realize their projects without cooperation from the outside world.

The first line of action had to be within officialdom, he said.  The information gathering must serve as a trigger for action by the Council and other decision-making bodies.  Beyond the United Nations, it was necessary to include other opinion-makers in order to have a critical mass of pressure.  That was why it was necessary to have a public campaign.  When the 54 parties were identified on the “list of shame”, he recalled, the first group to get in touch with him was the Tamil Tigers of Sri Lanka, who indicated their concern about being placed on the list and wanted to engage in dialogue to address the issue.

Groups such as the Lord’s Resistance Army in Uganda, he continued, were among the exceptions to those who depended on outside support.  Very few groups were outside the reach of international pressure.  The Council had been specific and concrete.  Offending parties had to come up with specific action plans, with time frames for ending violations; agree to release children within their ranks; allow access to camps; and allow for monitoring with time-bound benchmarks.  If a party failed to address the violations, the Council was clear in saying it would consider more targeted measures.  In moving to compose a working group, the Council had signalled its determination to follow up on the compliance regime.

On whether military action would be an option considered by the Council, he said that intervention by means of force was not anticipated in this context, but the measures being considered were serious, including travel bans and arms embargoes.  “There is no one silver bullet that would create the magic impact.”  There was now in place a whole system to address the issue.  For the first time, the United Nations was moving from developing standards and adopting resolutions to actually having a structured, formal arrangement in place to ensure compliance with the standards set.

Asked about efforts to reintegrate the released children, he said there was a good body of experience on the ground on handling that, led by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and involving many non-governmental organizations.  However, the capacity of the United Nations combined with that of the non-governmental organizations was not enough to deal with the magnitude of the problem.  There was also the issue of sufficient resources to translate plans into concrete programmes.  He was trying to appeal to donors and the international community to make the rehabilitation of those children a real priority and to invest in those children.

Those children, he added, were embittered and alienated.  If they were not recuperated, they became a roving group that could be exploited by criminal or terrorist groups.  It was critical to invest in them both during conflict and in post-conflict situations.

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