SECRETARY-GENERAL URGES ACTION BY SECURITY COUNCIL TO ‘STRIKE A BLOW’ AGAINST IMPUNITY FOR VICTIMIZATION OF CHILDREN IN CONFLICT

Following is the text of UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s remarks to the Security Council meeting on Children and Armed Conflict in New York, today, 29 April:

Madame President, Foreign Minister Patricia Espinosa of Mexico.  Thank you for your participation and organizing today’s important debate.  You have shown great commitment to this issue, including as Chair of the Working Group on Children and Armed Conflict.

Madame President, before I go further into my remarks, I am very much relieved and encouraged by what you have just said concerning the swine flu spread.  Swine flu has spread to many parts of the world, including the United States.  This has become again a global challenge which requires global coordination and support. 

As Secretary-General of the United Nations, I am telling you that all United Nations agencies are now mobilizing their resources and leadership, led by Margaret Chan of WHO [World Health Organization], and I have also expressed my position as Secretary-General.  We are now meeting at the core group meetings, led by the Deputy Secretary-General [Asha-Rose Migiro] in close coordination with the World Health Organization. 

You have our full support and full commitment.  I sincerely hope that, with global participation and support, we will be able to overcome, suppress and combat swine flu, this very important challenge now for us.  In addition to the global financial crisis, climate change, the energy crisis, the food crisis; now on top of this, we are experiencing this very serious pandemic.  This really requires the whole international community’s cooperation, and I count on the leadership and commitment of not only the Council member States, but the whole international community.

Let me go back to this topic.

They say that truth is the first casualty of war.  When it comes to the youngest victims, what they lose first is childhood.  Fighting shatters more than infrastructure; it destroys the precious principles enshrined in the Convention on the Rights of the Child.  As bombs devastate schools, hospitals and families, children lose their rights to education, health care and love.  Far too many lose even their right to life.

I have witnessed these scenes of unbearable suffering.  Never have I been so outraged as when I recently spoke with girls who had been sexually victimized during the conflict in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Painful as it is to describe these atrocities, silence serves only to shield the perpetrators and perpetuate their crimes.  The testimony of the victims –- their dignity even after such appalling violation –- made me more determined than ever to raise my voice to decry their suffering and demand action.

Today’s meeting affirms again that the plight of children caught in conflict zones is a threat to international peace and security.  Since 1998, this Council has adopted six resolutions aimed at stopping the recruitment of child soldiers; the killing, maiming and rape of children; abductions, attacks on schools and hospitals; and obstacles to humanitarian access.

You have done more than adopt resolutions.  You have established a dedicated working group, as well as a monitoring mechanism that reports to that group on grave violations against children in situations of concern.  For my part, I have asked my Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict to take these efforts even further.

Later in this meeting, you will hear from Grace Akallo, a former child soldier.  If, after all she has endured, she can come before this Council as an advocate for peace, you must respond to her courage and resilience with action.

With that in mind, I want to focus the rest of my remarks on what I believe this Council should do next.  My appeal is also directed at parties to conflicts and the broader international community.

My latest report on the question of children and armed conflict is now before you.  Its annexes name 56 parties, including States and non-State actors, which recruit child soldiers and commit other grave violations.  Of these, 19 are persistent violators who have been listed for more than four years.

I urge the Council to consider action to strike a blow against this impunity, and stop these violators from continuing to victimize children.  The protection framework needs to be strengthened.  I recommend that the Council, at a minimum, expand the criteria for the annexes of my report to include parties that commit rape and other grave sexual violence against children in armed conflict.

Last year, the Council adopted a milestone resolution -– 1820 –- focused specifically on sexual and gender-based violence.  That was a crucial step.  But it will have true meaning only when its provisions are translated into action.  I urge the Council to expand the trigger of the monitoring and reporting mechanism to include sexual violence and, if possible, intentional killing and maiming of children.  That is a crucial first step towards accountability for these terrible crimes.

We must also do everything possible to ensure that no matter how severely conflicts may rage, schools are always protected.  We must support the efforts of our humanitarian partners to keep schools running in times of crisis, and to safeguard the right to education.  I call on all parties to conflicts to keep schools as safe zones for both boys and girls.

All countries and all groups must put the protection of children in situations of armed conflict above politics.  I urge Member States to allow contact between the United Nations and non-State parties aimed at ensuring the protection of vulnerable children.  We need to work with such parties in order to prepare action plans to halt the recruitment and use of children.  We need to engage them so that they undertake specific commitments to address all grave violations committed against children.

I also urge all States that have not ratified the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child to do so without delay.  We have an impressive 193 parties to the Convention, but only 127 of them have ratified the Protocol.  This instrument should be universal.

Donors have a special role to play.  The “ Paris Principles on children associated with armed forces and groups” advocate a comprehensive approach to reintegrating children into their communities.  Donor contributions can make this happen.

I appeal strongly to parties to conflict to comply with international humanitarian law for the protection of children and all civilians.  And finally, I stress the role of this Council in holding violators accountable.  We must send a strong signal to the world that those committing appalling crimes against children in conflict situations will be brought to justice.

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