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7414 Security Council meeting on children and armed conflict - part 1
7414th Meeting (AM)
Citing ‘New and Grave’ Threats, Speakers Spotlight Strategies to Tackle Abuse, Chart Progress of Protection Campaigns
Being a child soldier was like being ripped from childhood and thrown into an adult world, the Security Council heard today from Junior Nzita Nsuami, who described his forcible recruitment at age 12 into a decade of war and violence in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, as the 15-member body held an open debate on children and armed conflict.
“The lives of innocents were decimated and I continue to regret that,” he said, sharing memories of seeing many of his young companions killed amid escalating violence. Among the most painful moments included watching other children playing and wishing that he could join them in their childhood pastimes, he said, underscoring the importance of programmes aimed at supporting released children. Without help from the international community, Governments, the United Nations and its agencies and civil society, “we would be what our recruiters wanted us to be,” he said, hoping today’s debate would be an opportunity to take up strategies to save the thousands of children still awaiting the world’s help.
During the day-long debate, 80 speakers shared innovative strategies and concrete proposals on how to prevent and respond to violations committed by non-State armed groups against children. In the spotlight were ways to tackle abuses and grave violations, including mass abductions, rape and sexual slavery, committed by armed groups, including Boko Haram and the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant/Sham (ISIL/ISIS), also known by the Arabic acronym Da’esh.
Opening the discussion, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon painted a sombre landscape of 230 million children living in countries and areas where armed groups were fighting, with up to 15 million directly affected by violence that was increasingly diverse and brutal. Tactics by armed groups made little distinction between civilians and combatants, often targeting girls and boys. In the last year, hundreds of thousands more children had endured “new and grave” threats posed by armed groups, which, sadly, included some of the worst human rights violations a child could experience: death, injury, torture, sexual abuse, forced recruitment and abduction, he said, and rarely did anyone hear their protests or advocate for their rights.
Lauding the Children, Not Soldiers campaign launched a year ago by his Special Representative and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) to end the recruitment and use of children by Government forces by 2016, he said the progress to date was encouraging when only a few years ago it would have been “unthinkable”. “The children of the world should be students, not soldiers,” he said. “These are fundamental rights of all children — not aspirations.”
Leila Zerrougui, the Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict, said significant progress had been made through the Children, Not Soldiers campaign. The majority of the 23 action plans signed to date to agree to end child recruitment were by armed groups, she said. However, recent conflicts in South Sudan and Yemen were reminders that gains could be reversed. Indeed, armed groups represented 51 of the 59 parties listed in the annexes to the Secretary-General’s report on children and armed conflict, claiming extremist ideologies, controlling huge swaths of land, redrawing borders and using modern technologies to recruit and expose their brutal activities.
Children were often targeted for recruitment or for mass abductions, which were fast being used as weapons to subjugate and humiliate entire communities, she said, urging the Council to use all tools at its disposal to protect children affected by armed conflict.
“Last year was the worst year in which to be a child,” said Yoka Brandt, Deputy Executive Director of UNICEF, who highlighted that armed groups in Iraq, Syria, South Sudan, Nigeria, Mali and the Central African Republic were still recruiting children. “Our outrage is not enough” and must be matched by action to end and prevent all grave violations of children’s rights while sending a strong message: that their lives mattered. “We cannot give up on them. We can rebuild shattered lives and shattered societies. As we heal these children, we also heal divided societies by erasing the stigma that released children face and building peace and, most importantly, hope.”
Julie Bodin, a Child Protection Adviser of Save the Children in the Central African Republic, called on the United Nations to redouble efforts to engage with armed groups to agree to and implement action plans. Elaborating on examples of children released from armed forces in countries including the Democratic Republic of the Congo, she said her organization had supported community-based protection networks to report to the United Nations system any violations against their rights. In that vein, she called on the United Nations to strengthen cooperation with non-governmental organizations to develop coordinated strategies and reminded the Council of the importance of developing gender-specific approaches.
When the floor opened, speakers raised a number of issues, from broadening existing guidelines to ramping up efforts to stop child recruitment. Many addressed the increasingly menacing threat of armed groups. Delegates from conflict-affected countries described their efforts to stop the practice and provided insight into possible ways to tackle extremism that was targeting children. “We are winning the war against terrorists,” said Nigeria’s speaker, who highlighted the urgent steps his Government was taking nationally and regionally to topple Boko Haram.
Some speakers pointed to national achievements. Angola’s speaker said his country’s demobilization process was among the most extensive in the history of the United Nations — perhaps the first time the issue of child soldiers had been included as a provision in a peace process.
Speakers also offered proposals for action. Some delegates urged States to sign the Additional Protocols to the Geneva Conventions and the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child, as well as adhere to the 2007 Paris Principles, which provided guidelines on children associated with armed forces or armed groups. As the Council was poised to mark in June the tenth anniversary of resolution 1612 (2005), which established a working group on children and armed conflict, some speakers called for the text’s expansion to include abducted children.
Daunting tasks remained, some speakers said, including the difficult job of negotiating with armed groups. Jordan’s delegate said combatting impunity ranked high on the list of important challenges. “There’s not a magic wand to wave,” she said, but preventive approaches were needed, even to forestall conflicts from their outset.
Also delivering statements were representatives of France, Malaysia, New Zealand, China, Lithuania, Chad, United Kingdom, Russian Federation, United States, Chile, Venezuela, Spain, Brazil, Sweden, India, Iraq, Germany, Egypt, Israel, Guatemala, Pakistan, Colombia, Indonesia, Estonia, Hungary, Belgium, Thailand, Australia, Kazakhstan, Albania, Switzerland, Italy, Luxembourg, Mali, Slovenia, Canada, Austria (on behalf of the Human Security Network), Liechtenstein, Slovakia, Philippines, Burundi, Argentina, Algeria, Croatia, Qatar, Portugal, Myanmar, Poland, South Africa, Japan, Netherlands, Republic of Korea, Syria, Morocco, Turkey, Uruguay, Viet Nam (speaking on behalf of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations), Sri Lanka, Ukraine, Cambodia, Sudan, Afghanistan, Montenegro, Azerbaijan, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Benin and Gabon, as well as the European Union Delegation and the Holy See, State of Palestine and the African Union.
The representative of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) also delivered a statement.
The meeting began at 10:08 a.m. and ended at 7:30 p.m.
