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Policy Statements:

NGO STATEMENT ON CHILDREN AND ARMED CONFLICT

November 16, 2001

NGOs call for Informed, Consistent Action on Children and Armed Conflict Resolutions

Based on a shared commitment to peaceable change and greater protection for the security and rights of children, within the framework of the United Nations Charter and international law, several organizations (NGOs) who work with children also participate in an international Children and Armed Conflict network. We appreciate the Security Council's attention to matters related to the security of children, and, in support of these initiatives, we offer the following analysis and suggestions for consideration during the upcoming debate on children and armed conflict.

I. The Security Council needs full information to exercise its responsibilities

Progress has been made in increased awareness of the situation of children caught in conflict zones, in adopting the optional protocol to prevent the use of child soldiers, and through a number of initiatives taken by United Nations agencies during the past year. These are described in the Secretary-General's report on Children and Armed Conflict, and are much appreciated by the many organizations that work with children.

There is also strong support for the attention given to the role of corporate actors and HIV/AIDS in this year's report. Our collective experience confirms the significant role that exploitation of natural resources plays in fuelling armed conflicts that entrap children, and we hope the Security Council will show leadership in acting on this component of the report. Greater attention to HIV/AIDS in assessments and through mainstreaming appropriate strategies in all programs by all actors, as suggested in the report, also has strong support.

While the report highlights progress made in implementing resolutions 1261 and 1314, it fails to provide all relevant information for consideration by members of the Security Council. It is selective in the information it presents to the Council, especially in regard to specific situations. We think the Security Council needs all relevant information, not just the good news, in order to make appropriate decisions.

Following are just a few examples of the gaps in reporting on the progress of implementing resolutions 1261 and 1314:

• The OHCHR report on abducted children from Northern Uganda, who are held captive, tortured, and abused by the Lord's Resistance Army in Sudan, is listed in the report as an achievement. The fact is that the report is still not released more than six months after the investigation. It is important for the young people who participated in this process in good faith to see a response in order to maintain their confidence in the institutions established to protect their rights. The facts in this case have been repeatedly documented and NGOs have advocated for action for ten years now. What is missing is the political will at all levels to put protection for the rights of these children ahead of national political interests. The continuing mismanagement of this case by all parties concerned is an embarrassment for the international community and needs Security Council attention.
• Colombia is cited as a success because the government adopted age 18 for the use of child soldiers. Little mention is made of the other, equally serious violations of the rights of children, including the continuing lack of adequate assistance for internally displaced children, the continued recruitment of children by guerrilla and government-linked paramilitaries, and the role of natural resource exploitation in fuelling the conflict.
• The report cites improvements in access in Sudan. The experience of aid agencies working there has been the opposite. Bombing of civilian centers, including schools and health clinics, has significantly increased in the last year, and unhindered access to the Nuba Mountains has never been provided. World Food Program delivery sites, for example, have been bombed twice, forcing closure of operations.

  The situation of children in Sudan is particularly relevant, given the report's focus on corporate complicity in the abuses of children. During this year an independent Human Rights mission documented the experience of children under the age of 18 being forcibly recruited to guard the oil fields and participate in attacks on their own people. It also documented that frequent bombing raids on civilian centers are launched from an airstrip owned by the oil companies in business with the Government of Sudan. (The full report is available upon request.) The UN Rapporteur on Sudan has reported similar abuses of the security and rights of civilians, associated with the role of oil development in the conflict.

  Protecting the security of children in Sudan warrants more detailed consideration by the Security Council, given the cross-border movement of children involved, in order to develop an effective, coordinated strategy to implement resolutions 1261 and 1314 in that situation.

  
   
• Information on the Congo refers only to progress made in dealing with child soldiers. It does not report on progress in dealing with the other children impacted by the war, including millions displaced from their homes, large numbers of girls raped by parties to the conflict, and children whose schools have been closed due to fear of recruitment. The impact of armed conflict is not limited to child soldiers; this was recognized in resolution 1355. It is important that reporting on situations include all aspects of the situation.
• The report refers to 59 agreements reached by the Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict, but comments on only a few with positive results. No information is given on the implementation of the commitments made in the other cases, nor efforts to follow-up on these commitments with strategies to achieve compliance. Greater transparency is a first step to accountability and an end to impunity; it should start with full information in regular reports to the Security Council.
• The report boasts about the progress on the matter of regulating the diamond trade. The truth is that, after frequent meetings, there is little progress, because of a lack of political will by the state parties involved to do what has been shown to be necessary.

II. The Security Council needs to be consistent in implementing resolutions 1261 and 1314.

We appreciate that the situation of children is being considered in more reports on specific conflicts, but there are also many situations where children are in serious risk and there is no mention of it in the Security Council's consideration or in the Secretary-General's reports to the Council. In other cases where the security of children is seriously threatened, the Security Council has not considered the matter at all. In many cases the national interests of Security Council members continue to be given priority over the security of children.

To effectively fulfill its commitment to protect the security of children, the Security Council should require that the situation of children be included in reports on every conflict situation, and the Council itself could show political leadership through more consistent implementation of its own statements about the importance of protecting the security of children.

In the fourteen months since the adoption of Security Council resolution 1314, only five Security Council country resolutions have included provisions directly related to children: two resolutions on Sierra Leone (1346 and 1370) and three on the Democratic Republic of Congo (1332,1341, and 1355). No other country resolutions - including those on countries in which children are at serious risk, such as Angola, Afghanistan, Ethiopia and Eritrea, and Burundi – have even mentioned children in the resolution.

Following are several specific examples of the omission of consideration of the security of children:

III. The Security Council should adopt a problem-solving approach to its mandate to protect children and take appropriate action early.

We note that during the last year the Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict made one trip to a conflict zone, while a number of situations require on-going attention. The NGO Watchlist Group has identified 14 such situations.

Children caught in armed conflicts need actors/advocates who will actively intervene on their behalf, identify the possible points of influence to get improvements in their situation, and persist in raising their situation in decision-making arenas until there is improvement. The Security Council should mandate a problem-solving approach to resolve those situations where existing international laws for the protection of the security of children are violated without consequence.

It is time for specific strategies and deliberate engagements on behalf of children. Last year NGOs advocated the use of multi-disciplinary teams to undertake a strategic analysis of specific situations, develop a coordinated strategy, and pursue it until there are results. We still believe this is essential and should be mandated for implementation by the Security Council with regular reporting and follow-up action by Council members.

The experience of the last year has shown that the inclusion of child protection advisors in peacekeeping operations significantly raises the profile of children's issues in Security Council deliberations. This has been clearly demonstrated through the attention given to children in both Security Council resolutions and reports from the Secretary-General on Sierra Leone and the Democratic Republic of Congo, the only countries where child protection advisors are currently based. While the Security Council reaffirmed in Resolution 1314 "its readiness to continue to include, where appropriate, child protection advisors in future peacekeeping operations," this has been the exception rather than the rule.

IV. Specific Recommendations

As the Security Council continues its efforts to strengthen protection for children, we urge implementation of the recommendations made by the Secretary-General in his reports on children and armed conflict. In light of lessons learned from measures already taken, and the particular concerns of NGOs, we wish to highlight the following recommendations:

1. We urge the Security Council to explicitly request that every report on specific conflict situations prepared for consideration by the Council include specific information on the situation of children, including particular risks to girls, and compliance by all parties with international standards for the protection of children.
2. We again urge the Security Council to encourage Member States to ratify and implement the Optional Protocol on the Involvement of Children in Armed Conflict, ILO Convention 182, the Rome Statute on the International Criminal Court and the Ottawa Convention on Landmines. In particular, we urge members of the Security Council to show leadership by ratifying these instruments as soon as possible.
3. We urge the Security Council to act on the Secretary-General's analysis of the role of corporate actors by recommending that member states take strong action to deter companies under their jurisdiction from entering into business with parties to armed conflict who systematically violate international norms for the protection of children.
4. We urge Security Council members to take a leadership role in implementing the call in earlier resolutions to restrict the flow of arms, including small arms, to parties in conflict who violate international norms for the protection of children, and request inclusion of detailed information on this matter in future reports from the Secretary-General.
5. We urge the Security Council to include explicit child protection elements in the mandates of all peacekeeping operations, and expand the use of child protection advisors in all such operations.
6. We strongly support the Secretary-General's recommendation that mandates of peace operations explicitly include provisions for the monitoring of the rights of children and the recommendation that accurate and current information about the protection of child rights in situations of conflict from a wide variety of sources, including UN peace operations, country teams, special rapporteurs and NGOs, should be made available to the Security Council and Member States. As proposed last year, we also urge the Security Council to ask the Secretary-General to compile a watch list of countries where there is a pattern of violations against children, place these countries on notice, and ensure systematic monitoring and follow-up.
7. We urge the Security Council to request that the Secretary-General, in his next report on Children and Armed Conflict, inter alia, specifically address measures to prevent violations against children in situations of armed conflict, including the potential use of early-warning systems to identify risks to children, such tracking the price and availability of small arms in conflict-prone situations, the lack of systematic military recruitment procedures and safeguards, and break-downs in services for youth, such as schools and community programs.
8. As recommended last year, we again urge the Council to mandate the use of multi-disciplinary teams to undertake a strategic analysis of specific situations, develop a coordinated strategy, and pursue it until there are results. Such measures should include regular reporting and follow-up action by Council members.
9. We urge the Security Council to add to its agenda urgent situations of armed conflict that affect children, in particular, the situation of children abducted by the Lord's Resistance Army in Northern Uganda, and violations against children in Chechnya.

Conclusion

As an expression of our willingness to cooperate in achieving effective implementation of all Security Council resolutions on Children and Armed Conflict, we are proposing that a roundtable on implementation be held soon after the conclusion of the upcoming debate, rather than waiting until a report is prepared a year from now. A roundtable, including participation by young people and representatives from various sectors, could focus on specific strategies, practical measures, and coordinated action between the various players. It could be followed with regular progress reports to improve public accountability for compliance with international norms for the protection of children.

We look forward to hearing the outcomes of the Security Council debate and we pledge to continue our own efforts to promote and implement effective protection of the security and rights of children.

This statement is a project of the Watchlist on Children and Armed Conflict, coordinated by the Women's Refugee Commission and World Vision. To date it has been endorsed by:

Women's Refugee Commission
The Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers
International Save the Children Alliance
International Rescue Committee
NGO Committee on UNICEF Sub-Working on Children and Armed Conflict
International Federation of Women Lawyers
The Temple of Understanding