Public Statement by Chair of Working Group on Children and Armed Conflict

The Security Council Working Group on Children and Armed Conflict, in connection with the examination of the sixth report of the Secretary-General on children and armed conflict in Afghanistan (document S/2023/893), agreed to address the following messages through a public statement by the Chair of the Working Group:

To all parties in Afghanistan mentioned in the report of the Secretary-General covering the period from 1 January 2021 to 31 December 2022, in particular the Taliban forces, including the Haqqani network; as well as the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant-Khorasan (ISIL-KP), and Hizb-i Islami of Gulbuddin:

• Strongly condemning all violations and abuses against children by all parties in Afghanistan, particularly the high level of killing and maiming of children; and urging all parties to immediately end and prevent all violations of international law involving the recruitment and use of children, killing and maiming, rape and other forms of sexual violence, abduction, attacks on schools and hospitals and denial of humanitarian access, and to comply with their obligations under international law;
• Calling upon all parties to implement the previous conclusions on children and armed conflict in Afghanistan of the Working Group (documents S/AC.51/2016/1, S/AC.51/2011/3, S/AC.51/2009/1 and S/AC.51/2020/2); 
• Expressing concern about monitoring and verification constraints, which impacted the Monitoring and Reporting Mechanism, in particular after the Taliban takeover on 15 August 2021, and that as noted in the report of the Secretary-General the information contained therein does not reflect the full impact of armed conflict on children in Afghanistan during the reporting period, and in this regard urging parties to the conflict to ensure United Nations personnel safe, unhindered, timely access to territories under their control, including for advocacy and monitoring and reporting purposes;
• Stressing the importance of accountability for all violations and abuses against children in armed conflict and stressing that all those responsible must be brought to justice and held accountable, in accordance with international law, including through timely, systematic, impartial and independent investigations, and as appropriate, prosecution and conviction;
• Expressing deep concern at the high number of children killed and maimed, including by explosive ordnance, such as landmines, improvised explosive devices and explosive remnants of war, ground engagement, air strikes, targeted killings and suicide attacks; urging all parties to immediately take all preventive and mitigating actions necessary to avoid and minimize harm and better protect children, including from the risks and effects of explosive ordnance; and urging parties to refrain from the indiscriminate use of explosive weapons that cause death or injury to children.  Calling upon State parties to abide by Protocol V of the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons (1980), to which Afghanistan is a State party, which includes measures to ensure the protection of civilians, explosive ordnance clearance, explosive ordnance risk education and encouraging parties to continue to follow up on reports of the killing and maiming of children, to improve operational practice and ensure accountability, as well as to ensure adequate and effective reparations; 
• Condemning the recruitment and use of children by all parties to the armed conflict to fulfil various roles including combat and support roles such as in suicide attacks and making and transporting explosive devices; noting that the Taliban was responsible for the majority of recruitment and use during the reporting period; noting that the dire economic and humanitarian situation, absence of birth registration coverage and falsification of national identity documents put children at risk of recruitment and use and strongly urging all parties, to immediately and without conditions release all children associated with them and to end and prevent the further recruitment and use of children under 18 years of age and to respect Afghanistan’s obligations under international law, including the Optional Protocol to the Convention of the Rights of the Child on the involvement of children in armed conflict and the declaration made by Afghanistan upon accession thereto in 2003;
• Noting the adoption by the Taliban of a decree and a code of practice prohibiting and preventing the recruitment and use of boys without signs of puberty within security ranks, and welcoming the demobilization of 635 children during the reporting period.  Calling upon all relevant Afghan political actors and stakeholders, including relevant authorities as needed, to define a child as every human being below the age of 18 years, develop standardized age assessment guidelines, establish Child Protection Units at recruitment centres and respect the Convention on Rights of the Child and the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the involvement of children in armed conflict to which Afghanistan is a State party;
• Expressing concern at the deprivation of liberty of children for their actual or alleged association with opposing parties and urging all parties to release all those children and support their full reintegration through specialized child protection programmes that are age appropriate and gender-sensitive and inclusive for children with disabilities, including equal access to health care, psychosocial support and education programmes, to provide access to the United Nations to all detention centres for monitoring and protection purposes and to humanitarian partners for the delivery of basic services; urging that children associated or allegedly associated with parties to conflict must be treated primarily as victims of recruitment and use and that detention should be considered only as a measure of last resort and for the shortest appropriate period of time, in line with the best interests of the child and guided by the Principles and Guidelines on Children Associated with Armed Forces or Armed Groups (the Paris Principles), which were endorsed by Afghanistan; and urging all relevant Afghan political actors and stakeholders, including relevant authorities as needed, to re-establish the specialized juvenile justice system to ensure children’s fair trial guarantees and their access to justice, as well as the development of a standardized age assessment guideline; 
• Expressing concern at the lack of sufficient programmes for reintegration and support for children formerly associated with parties and children released from detention facilities and underlining that long-term, sustainable and timely rehabilitation and reintegration programmes and opportunities for children affected by armed conflict that are age appropriate and gender-sensitive and inclusive for children with disabilities, including equal access to health care, psychosocial support and education programmes, as well as to raise awareness and work with communities to avoid stigmatization of these children, is essential to facilitate their return and minimize the risk of re-recruitment; 
• Expressing deep concern at the cases of rape and other forms of sexual violence against children, including forced marriage, and including cases of sexual violence against boys involving bacha bazi, and at the lack of measures to end and prevent sexual violence against children,; strongly urging all parties to take immediate and specific measures to put an end to and prevent the perpetration of rape and other forms of sexual violence against children; noting with concern that the scale of rape and other forms of sexual violence is believed to be underreported owing to fear of stigmatization and reprisals, weak rule of law and impunity, lack of accountability, absence of adequate support services for victims and survivors and security concerns, and stressing the importance of accountability for those responsible for sexual and gender-based violence against children and of providing victims and survivors of such acts with adequate protection, appropriate assistance and reliable recourse to justice;
• Strongly condemning attacks on, and threats of attacks against, schools and hospitals in violation of international law as well as protected persons in relation to schools and/or hospitals as such; calling upon all parties to comply with international law and to respect the civilian character of schools and hospitals as such, including their personnel, and to end and prevent disproportionate or indiscriminate attacks or threats of attacks against those institutions and their personnel, as well as the military use of schools and hospitals in violation of international law, in line with the Safe Schools Declaration, which was signed by Afghanistan in May 2015, stressing in this regard the importance of implementing resolution 2601 (2021) and further calling on all parties to safeguard, protect, respect and promote the right to education; expressing concern at the significant increase in the military use of schools and hospitals during the reporting period and stressing the importance of accountability for attacks in violation of international law against those institutions; 
• Strongly condemning the abduction of children, with the majority of cases attributed to the Taliban in 2021, and calling upon all concerned parties to cease the abduction of children and immediately release all abducted children to the relevant civilian child protection actors; 
• Strongly condemning the sharp increase of incidents of denial of humanitarian access, the majority of which are attributed to the Taliban during the reporting period, including interference in the implementation of humanitarian activities, restriction of movements, threat and violence against humanitarian assets and personnel, including assault, detention and killing of humanitarian personnel, and calling upon all relevant Afghan political actors and stakeholders, including relevant authorities as needed, and all parties to allow and facilitate safe, timely and unhindered humanitarian access to children, consistent with the humanitarian principles of humanity, neutrality, impartiality and independence, as well as the United Nations guiding principles of humanitarian assistance, to respect the exclusively humanitarian nature and impartiality of humanitarian aid and respect the work of all United Nations agencies and their humanitarian partners, without adverse distinction, as well as recognizing the need for strengthened efforts to provide humanitarian assistance and other activities that support basic human needs in Afghanistan; 
• Expressing grave concern at the restrictions on Afghan women working with the United Nations and humanitarian organizations, among others, which negatively affect the provision of life-saving assistance to the population, including children and girls in particular, and calling on all relevant Afghan political actors and stakeholders, including relevant authorities as needed to reverse these restrictions;
• Calling on all relevant Afghan political actors and stakeholders, including relevant authorities as needed, to lift the suspension on girls’ secondary and tertiary education and ensure that all children, boys and girls, can access all levels of quality education that is free from violence, threats, closures, and attacks in line with Security Council resolution 2601 (2021); 
• Demanding that parties continue to facilitate safe and unhindered access for United Nations monitoring and reporting personnel for monitoring and reporting purposes;
• Urging all relevant Afghan political actors and stakeholders, including relevant authorities as needed, to engage with the United Nations, pursuant to Security Council resolution 1460 (2003) and subsequent resolutions, to adopt concrete measures to end and prevent the six grave violations against children;
• Calling upon all parties to the conflict to enter into a dialogue with the United Nations for the purpose of developing and implementing an action plan with the United Nations to end and prevent the six grave violations against children affected by armed conflict;
• Calling upon all relevant Afghan political actors and stakeholders, including relevant authorities as needed, Member States, United Nations entities and other concerned parties to ensure that the protection, rights, well-being and empowerment of children affected by armed conflict are fully incorporated into and prioritized in all post-conflict recovery and reconstruction planning, programmes and strategies, as well as in efforts on peacebuilding and sustaining peace, and encourage and facilitate consideration of the views of children in these processes.

To community and religious leaders:

• Emphasizing the important role of community and religious leaders in strengthening the protection of children affected by armed conflict; 
• Urging them to strengthen community-level protection and to publicly condemn and continue to advocate ending and preventing violations and abuses against children, notably those involving the recruitment and use of children, killing and maiming, rape and other forms of sexual violence, attacks and threats of attacks on schools and hospitals, abductions and denial of humanitarian access, and to engage with   all relevant Afghan political actors and stakeholders, including relevant authorities as needed, the United Nations, and other relevant stakeholders to support the disarmament, demobilization and rehabilitation and reintegration of children affected by armed conflict in their communities, including by raising awareness to prevent the stigmatization of those children.