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Watchlist Applauds UN Security Council Resolution on Protecting Children in Armed Conflicts
Calls for Effective Implementation

July 26, 2005, New York – The Watchlist on Children and Armed Conflict applauds the adoption of the Security Council’s new resolution on protecting children in armed conflicts (S/2005/1612). This resolution sets the stage for the UN to take the long awaited step of systematically monitoring the recruitment and use of child soldiers, as well as other violations against children, such as rape and abduction. Most importantly, it calls for the information discovered through this monitoring system to be reported back to the most powerful body in the UN – the Security Council.

“Security Council’s work does not end with the adoption of this resolution – rather it begins here,” said Julia Freedson, Director of the Watchlist on Children and Armed Conflict, a network of non-governmental organizations working for the protection of children’s security and rights in situations of armed conflict.

“For the hundreds of thousands of children and their families devastated by armed conflicts raging around the globe, the UN must now ensure that this system does not become a rhetorical exercise in information collection. Rather, the driving force behind this effort to collect information must be the pursuit of justice for crimes committed against children and preventing future atrocities against them,” Freedson said.

To ensure that the resolution’s new child protection systems are effectively and efficiently implemented, the Watchlist makes the following recommendations:

• The Security Council must ensure that the political interests of parties to conflict do not interfere with the Council’s review of data submitted them and the action they decide to take. They must quickly establish a Working Group that is able to muster the political will needed to respond to the most egregious violations against children that will be reported to them.

• The Security Council must make good on its promises to take “measures” against parties that continue to recruit and use children as soldiers by imposing targeted sanctions against these groups, such as weapon embargoes and travel bans on their leaders.

• The UN agencies that will be collecting information in conflict areas must ensure that they are well organized and coordinated. They must respect and engage local civil society organizations and community leaders as equal partners in this task.

• Donor countries must be forthcoming with the support needed to ensure that the UN finally establishes an effective and efficient system for protecting the security and rights of children.

The Watchlist on Children and Armed Conflict is a global network of non-governmental organizations dedicated to monitoring and reporting on violations against children in armed conflict. The Watchlist is managed by a Steering Committee of 6 international NGOs that are leaders in child protection.