PRESS BRIEFING ON CHILDREN IN ARMED CONFLICT

 

The battle to ensure the well-being of children exposed to armed conflict had now reached a “turning point”, said to the United Nations Special envoy on the issue today, as he launched a planned monitoring and reporting mechanism to track violations of children's rights, identify offending parties and weigh accountability.

“This is a particularly big day for children in armed conflict”, Under-Secretary-General Olara Otunnu told reporters at Headquarters today.  “With the launch of this international compliance regime, which records chapter and verse the conduct of parties to conflict relative to the protection of children, we are getting serious about ensuring compliance with agreed standards on the ground.”

Ahead of the release of the Secretary-General’s fifth report on the situation of children in armed conflict, and with the Security Council set to debate the issue on 23 February, Mr. Otunnu said that, while efforts deployed over the past several years had yielded significant advances and had greatly increased global awareness of and advocacy for child protection, the situation remained grave and unacceptable.  “Millions of children are still being brutalized in situations of conflict.”

The international community now faced a cruel dichotomy:  on one side of the issue, clear and strong protection standards for conflict-affected children had been developed, particularly at the international level; but on the other side, atrocities against children and impunity for violators continued largely unabated.

The key to overcoming that gulf was to institute a global compliance regime, which would be detailed in the Secretary-General’s upcoming report along with an action plan proposing a comprehensive, on-the-ground monitoring and reporting system that would provide front-line actors with specific, objective and reliable information -- “the whom, where and what” -- on grave violations committed against children in conflict situations.

That could lead to a concerted and effective response to ensure compliance with international and local child protection norms, said Mr. Otunnu, recalling that, since 2002, the reports had been naming parties in annexed lists, regardless of whether they were government forces or armed rebel groups, identifying them as carrying out grave violations of children’s rights during wartime, particularly those known to recruit child soldiers.  “But it is time for the international community to redirect its energies from condemnation and resolutions towards concrete action on the ground”, he said. 

The proposed plan identifies six of the “most grave” violations that should be monitored particularly closely, including killing or maiming of children; recruiting or using child soldiers; attacks against schools and hospitals; rape or other grave sexual violence against children; abduction of children, and denial of humanitarian access to and for children.  It sets out international instruments and standards that constitute the basis for monitoring -- the yardstick for judging the conduct of conflicting parties and sets out the entities that should gather and compile the information.

Much of the analysis and flow of information would be handled by a Secretariat-level Task Force on Children and Armed Conflict, working with a similar monitoring and reporting body in the field, as well as with the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), United Nations country teams and relevant peacekeeping officials and civic groups.  Mr. Otunnu stressed that the plan would also identify key bodies that might take action on the findings, within their respective mandates, including the Security Council, the General Assembly, the Commission on Human Rights, the International Criminal Court, as well as regional organizations or governments.  “The information compiled and transmitted is only useful if it serves as a trigger for action”, he said.

To this end, Mr. Otunnu told reporters that the report will recommend that the Security Council take targeted and concrete measures where insufficient or no progress had been made by parties named in annexed lists, including the imposition of travel restrictions on leaders and their exclusion from any governance structures and amnesty provisions, the imposition of arms embargoes, a ban on military assistance, and restrictions on the flow of financial resources to the parties concerned.

When asked how the plan could disrupt the flow of conflict-party resources, Mr. Otunnu said that most such parties had tentacles that extended beyond theatres of war into neighbouring countries or the wider international community.  They also rapaciously exploited natural resources and depended on lobbies and friends in key capitals -- “They look for your good copy on them in the press”, he added.

But there were ways of targeting bank accounts and flows of resources and, since this was not the first time such an exercise had been attempted, there was a body of experience out there.  Still, such an option could not be effective without broad cooperation between national and international organizations.

Asked about the current plight of war-affected children, he said that within the last two years, the numbers had slightly decreased from some 350,000 to some 300,000.  That was chiefly due to either political transition or lessening of tensions in Angola, Sierra Leone, and southern Sudan, among others.  He hoped that the fragile accords in those regions could be transformed into a definitive and lasting peace with no relapse. 

Mr. Otunnu saw the proposed monitoring system as a way to compel warring parties to observe their obligations with regard to children and armed conflict, particularly in such cases as Sri Lanka, where there was currently no fighting, but no peace either, and it had been reported that the separatist “Tamil Tigers” continued to recruit children.  He said that his Office was also closely monitoring the current situation in Nepal, which was having a grave impact on the children there.  The Maoist rebel group operating in the west of that country had been listed in the new report for child recruitment and attacks on schools.

He reiterated that abuses, by both factions and governments, would be monitored and reported.  For instance, the Sudanese Janjaweed militia, accused of widespread atrocities against local African tribes in Darfur, had not been on the list last year, but had been added to the annex of the new report.  And while he would leave the issue of whether or not that faction was backed by the Sudanese Government to his colleagues in political affairs, he could affirm that the rebels had been identified in the killing and maiming of children, as well as in attacks on schools.

Finally, he said that the report would also express grave concern about one of the most “disturbing and grave” incidents of abuse and exploitation of women and children:  the allegations of sexual misconduct by United Nations peacekeepers in the mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.  That such activities could be occurring “in our own house” was most alarming and required immediate action.  The United Nations was welcomed into war-torn communities as an end to impunity, and the idea that personnel would use that entrée to take advantage of local women and children was particularly troubling.

* *** *