PROMOTION AND PROTECTION OF THE RIGHTS OF CHILDREN
Wednesday, 13 October 2010
Mr. President,
Yesterday, my office screened a film entitled the Children of War as part of our Zero under Eighteen campaign for universal ratification of the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the Involvement of Children in Armed Conflict. The moving film illustrates the reasons why no child should ever be used in armed hostilities and no child under eighteen should be conscripted into armed forces or armed groups.
Despite the fact that thousands of children continue to be exploited as soldiers around the world, last year we achieved some notable successes in our attempt to save children from this horrible practice. The United Nations, working as one, facilitated the release and discharge of almost 3,000 children from Maoist cantonments in Nepal and stands ready to assist with their reintegration. The Sudan People's Liberation Army, which entered into an action plan with the United Nations in November last year, has promised to release around nine hundred children by the end of this year, once programmes for their rehabilitation are put in place. The Justice and Equality Movement in Sudan signed a memorandum of understanding with UNICEF granting child protection monitors access to its camps to assist in the release of children. In the Philippines, the MILF entered into an action plan with the United Nations and partners are now in the process of putting together programmes for children's rehabilitation and reintegration. In Burundi, all children associated with the FNL have been released and reunified with their families. These successes only underscore the need to continue with our efforts to ensure that all other groups listed in the Secretary-General's annexes for recruiting and using children enter into action plans with the United Nations for the release of children.
Mr. President,
This year also marked the first time that parties committing sexual violence against children or who kill and maim children have been listed in the annexes of the Secretary-General's report. With regard to sexual violence, the Country Task Forces on the ground are in the process of establishing modalities to improve the collection and verification of information on sexual violence, as well as to ensure a more systematic exchange and sharing of information that would inform advocacy and response against this grave violation. My Office is also in discussions with UNICEF and the new Special Representative on Sexual Violence in Conflict to issue guidance notes to the field helping them to capture the true nature and scale of the violations being committed. Over the course of the year, my Office has attempted to galvanise attention and support around the dilemmas faced by internally displaced children.My report to the General Assembly last year contained an annex outlining the Rights and Guarantees that should be accorded to this vulnerable group of children. The Assembly endorsed these guarantees in its resolution on internally displaced persons. Since then, in consultation with partners, my Office has produced a working paper as a tool to provide guidance to governments and protection partners to ensure that children who are displaced are treated with care and dignity. Recently, I was in Kabul and visited an IDP camp where I met a five year old named Fatima. Thanks to UNICEF she was able to go school for the first time in her life, and she was obviously delighted. However, her brother Mohammed was far more sullen. As a young adult male he felt singled out and complained about the caves they had as makeshift shelters and the lack of secondary education as well as vocational training. He noted that international visitors come and go but nothing ever changes in the camps. His words were a reminder of the fact that disgruntled children in such camps are always susceptible to being recruited by armed groups, unless there is a targeted policy aimed at meeting their needs.
Mr. President,
Despite some of the accomplishments we have had over the last year, a great many challenges remain. The recent events in the Democratic Republic of Congo highlight the fact that sexual violence against women and children is a brutal reality in many conflicts. We welcome the arrest of one of the perpetrators by MONUSCO and concur with Special Representative Wallström that fighting impunity and bringing all perpetrators to justice is an important step forward that will create the necessary deterrence against future violations. However, any action, if it is to be sustainable, must have national ownership and effective national institutions for accountability. We look forward to working with the Government of the Democratic Republic of Congo and other governments in supporting strategies for the prevention of sexual violence, that hold perpetrators accountable and that respond to the needs of survivors.
Many of these violations against children are committed by non-state actors who often recruit children and whose cadres also commit other crimes against children in the areas under their control. Many are listed in the Secretary-General's report and the only way for these parties to be de-listed is to enter into an action plan with the United Nations. It is important that governments facilitate this process by allowing the UN to access these vulnerable groups for humanitarian needs such as the protection of children so that the United Nations is in a position to have children released. All such action, of course, would be in full consultation with the State concerned. The cause of children has always transcended politics at the United Nations and we hope this too will not be an exception.
Despite all our efforts, there are still persistent violators who have been listed yearly in the Secretary-General's report. It is now important that we move toward targeted measures against some of these recalcitrant parties. I am pleased to inform this august body that in May this year the Sanctions Committee for the Democratic Republic of Congo heard submissions from my Office and that the charges of recruitment and use of children were added as grounds for sanctioning certain individuals. We need to move forward in the other relevant Sanctions Committees and set up mechanisms for parties and groups that are not subject to existing committees.
Mr. President,
One of the main challenges facing our partners on the ground is that once children are released to us by concerned parties, we are often left with a resource gap and remain unable to provide the necessary services for the children. Best practices in this area require a sustained engagement with the affected children over at least a two year period with child protection partners in a position to interact with family and the community in addition to the child. Without the necessary follow up, children may easily be re-recruited or end up in street gangs or as street children. For this reason, it is important that donors, both national and international, follow through with reintegration and respond effectively to the call for increased reliable and long term funding for these programmes. At the moment, we are facing resource gaps in all situations of concern, including the Philippines, Sudan and the Central African Republic. We hope that over the course of this year, there will be response to our appeal so that all affected children will have the benefit of effective and sustainable reintegration and rehabilitation programmes.
I was in Gulu, Northern Uganda in June this year and interacted with some former child soldiers who had undergone a period of rehabilitation. One girl, who had become skilled in sewing, displayed some of her beautiful handicrafts. Though she had a terrible childhood as a sex slave and bearing the burden of a bullet wound in her leg, she looked forward to the future. Most reintegration plans attempt to reintegrate children back with their families and into the village community. However, some former child soldiers told us that they had become accustomed to life in the IDP settlements that had a city-like atmosphere. They preferred to live in the city. These developments have posed new challenges to child protection partners working in the field. For youth and returning young mothers, finding sustainable and viable employment strategies remains a significant challenge.
Mr. President,
We are also facing new dilemmas in an increasingly changing world. One such development is the increases in the attacks on schools, teachers and students in some parts of the world. This despicable practice is accentuated by the fact that during war, schools are no longer sacrosanct and they are often bombarded or used as barracks by troops. School is the only space for normalcy for children in conflict areas. It is important that they be recognized as zones of peace by all parties to conflict. The attacks on girls going to school are particularly disturbing. It is important that we work with local communities so that they take action to defend the schools and children are kept safe.
As the nature of warfare changes, our office, along with our partners, has recently been encouraging peacekeeping contingents and national armies on finalizing rules of engagement for the protection of children during military operations. We urge them to conduct joint military-civil assessments of the security risk for populations; to refrain from using heavy artillery in densely populated areas; to protect schools and hospitals; and to develop procedures for the reception, treatment and rapid handover of children to UN child protection partners. In addition, all proper precautions should be taken before every aerial assault in populated areas to prevent any civilian casualties. We strongly hope that all governments conducting military operations will abide by these simple rules, so that more children are protected.
Another area of concern is the problem of justice and children affected by armed conflict. My report to the General Assembly contains principles that should be applied in situations where there are transitional justice provisions. In such justice processes, children are often the victims who need access to the system for redress. Their participation in justice processes should be carefully managed so that they are not in put in danger or re-traumatized by the proceedings.
In addition to being victims, as former child soldiers, girls and boys often come before the justice system as perpetrators. Again there is a need to agree on a set of principles. The International Criminal Court and international criminal practice has made it clear that children should not be tried for war crimes or crimes against humanity. With regard to any lesser charge, the process must satisfy the Beijing Principles on Juvenile Justice. We expect all countries, especially those who have been in the forefront of the struggle for the rights of children, to respect these principles so that children who are used by adults in wars not of their own seeking are not given grave punishments. We agree that children should face the moral implications of their action. We urge rehabilitation and a process that focuses on restorative justice.
When we talk about justice, we cannot forget children in detention who are kept in jail because of minor charges of either throwing stones or more complex concerns such as being associated with armed groups or recruited by unscrupulous adults. Again we urge that we move away from punitive measures toward rehabilitation and education. Children should not be brought before military or administrative tribunals. They must be taken care of by juvenile justice processes that protect and respect their rights while taking note of their age and capacity for judgment.
Finally, another emerging challenge is one that squarely fits in with the priorities of this Assembly. It would be apparent to most people that the MDG indicators for children are among the worst in armed conflict zones. About a third of the total number of children not having a primary education are living in conflict zones. This pattern is also true for other MDGs affecting children. My office hopes to work with Mr. Anthony Lake's "Equity Campaign" for UNICEF by identifying children in conflict zones as one of the most vulnerable groups of children requiring priority funding by the international community.
Mr. President,
To re-iterate, my Office along with UNICEF and the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights are aiming for the universal ratification of the two Optional Protocols to the Convention of the Rights of the Child. The Optional Protocol with regard to the Involvement of Children in Armed Conflict is the one that is directly within my mandate and my Office is implementing a Zero under Eighteen campaign to ensure that every country has signed to make child soldiers a phenomenon of the past. With universal ratification, we will be able to argue persuasively that there is an international moral consensus against this practice and that those who engage in this practice are outlaws in the true sense of the word. The film we showed yesterday captures the human cost of this practice and shows the difficulties faced by former child soldiers of the LRA. You watch as children grapple with the moral implications of their actions, and struggle between their instincts to forgive and their instincts for justice. A child in pain is everyone's child and what we are fighting for today is for the world's children.
Thank you Mr. President