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STORY: UN / CHILDREN IN ARMED CONFLICT WRAP
TRT: 4.21
SOURCE: UNTV / UNICEF / MONUC / JENSE PRODUCTIONS
(BROADCASTERS CAN USE THE JENSE FOOTAGE ONLY IF THEY USE THE COMPLETE UNICEF PACKAGE)
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NEPALI / SPANISH / NATS
DATELINE: 16 JUNE 2010, NEW YORK CITY
RECENT 2010, NEW YORK CITY
1. Wide shot, exterior United Nations headquarters
16 JUNE 2010, NEW YORK CITY
1. Wide shot, Security Council meeting
2. Cutaway, delegates
3. SOUNDBITE (English) Radhika Coomaraswamy, Special Representative of the Secretary-General, United Nations:
“The collective voice of the Council, guided by the common moral compunction of humanity to protect its children, must be used to make outcasts of those who commit unspeakable acts against children in war.”
FILE - UNTV - JULY 2006, OTASH CAMP, DARFUR, SUDAN
4. Wide shot, women carrying firewood in Otash Camp
5. Med shot, guards escorting women carrying firewood
FILE – MONUC - 21 FEBRUARY 2007, BUKAVU, SOUTH KIVU PROVINCE, DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO
6. Various shots, female patients victims of rape at Panzi Hospital
16 JUNE 2010, NEW YORK CITY
7. SOUNDBITE (English) Radhika Coomaraswamy, Special Representative of the Secretary-General, United Nations:
“I met with a girl named Agnes who had just escaped from the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA). She fled with a baby born of rape fearing for her life and that of her infant child. She could hardly express herself. Years of abuse had completely broken her spirit. We cannot ignore Agnes or those like her and the Council’s decision to make sexual violence and killing and maiming of children grounds for listing by the Secretary-General is the first step in the right direction.”
FILE - UNICEF - JULY 2007, LOWGAR PROVINCE, AFGHANISTAN
8. Med shot, students exiting school watched by armed guards
9. Med shot, armed guard outside girls' school
10. Close up, machine gun outside girls' school
16 JUNE 2010, NEW YORK CITY
11. SOUNDBITE (English) Hilde Frafjord Johnson, Deputy Executive Director, UNICEF:
“We cannot claim ignorance when it comes to the situation of children. The extent of grave violations perpetrated against children is known. Never have we been so well informed. Silence is not an option. We have a collective duty to act. We all are accountable to the children whose stories we hear.”
FILE – UNICEF - 7 JANUARY 2010, SINDHULI, NEPAL
12. Wide shot, former child soldiers walking through dirt field
13. Wide shot, tents set-up in dirt field
14. Pan right, former child soldiers walking towards tents
16 JUNE 2010, NEW YORK CITY
15. SOUNDBITE (Nepali) Manju Gurung, former Maoist child soldier:
“They trained me to use .303 rifles, INSAS, SLR, AK-47. They also taught us how to make and detonate bombs. We had to wear shorts and short sleeve shirts and do leopard crawls during trainings and my skin had cuts, scabs and bruises. I was still a little girl of only 14 years and my body was hardly fit for such an intense training.”
FILE – JENSE PRODUCTIONS - FILE FOOTAGE, 2007, N'DJAMENA, CHAD
16. Various shots, child soldiers part of a captured rebel group
17. Wide shot, Chadian National Army soldiers in front of a bus
18. Wide shot, child soldiers being loaded onto the bus
19. Med shot, Chadian national army soldier organizing child soldiers on the bus
16 JUNE 2010, NEW YORK CITY
20. SOUNDBITE (Spanish) Patricia Espinosa Cantellano, Secretary of Foreign Affairs, Mexico:
“Crimes against children cannot be stopped if perpetrators remain unpunished. Grave violations of fundamental norms and principles of international humanitarian law constitute war crimes and it is Member states that must have the primary obligation to investigate and try those responsible for these violations.”
FILE - UNMIS - 27 - 28 MAY 2010, WAU/ KWACJOK, SUDAN
21. Med shot, women at a clinic
22. Med shot, mother and child
23. Med shot, John Holmes talking to group of women
16 JUNE 2010, NEW YORK CITY
24. SOUNDBITE (English) Hilde Frafjord Johnson, Deputy Executive Director, UNICEF:
“To make action happen on the ground, the fact that you do have a naming and shaming quote-on-quote mechanism in the Security Council is extremely important; I can say that from personal experience, I’ve been meeting rebel leaders, guerrilla leaders in different countries and if you tell them that ‘you are actually on the Security Council’s list’ it actually makes an impact.”
FILE – UNICEF - MAY 2009, TORKHAM, AFGHANISTAN
25. Wide shot, Torkham border crossing
26. Med shot, child pushing heavy cart across border
FILE / MAY 2009, TORKHAM, AFGHANISTAN
27. Med shot, girls singing at border drop-in centre
16 JUNE 2010, NEW YORK CITY
28. SOUNDBITE (English) Radhika Coomaraswamy, Special Representative of the Secretary-General, United Nations:
“He was very open and had a long session with us and outlined for us various new steps that were taken to protect civilians, including command orders and particular things that he has implemented. But also I think refreshing response to those as well in the sense that there would be immediate inquiry, there would be immediate investigation, there would be an apology, and there would be remedial action. At least that’s what he promised. So we found that positive, but of course children continue to get killed and that remains something of concern to us and we hope that these policies will really have an end result where they will be less children being killed.”
29. Wide shot, press conference
The United Nations (UN) Security Council today (16 June) held an open debate on children and armed conflict and released a statement expressing its readiness to impose targeted measures against persistent violators.
Those measures included imposing asset freezing, arms embargoes and travel restrictions against individuals who violate international law by recruiting, sexually abusing, or maiming and killing children in war, no matter when or where these crimes are committed.
Since the last report of the UN Secretary-General on the issue, the Security Council had passed resolution 1882 which makes sexual violence against children and the killing and maiming of children contrary to international law grounds for listing in the annexes of the Secretary-General’s report. The naming and shaming exercise, along with the possibility of sanctions against persistent violators had persuaded parties to cease with the violent acts.
Radhika Coomaraswamy, the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict, who recently returned from Gulu, Uganda where she met with survivors of the Lord’s Resistant Army (LRA), welcomed these deterrents. She said that the collective voice of the Council “must be used to make outcasts of those who commit unspeakable acts against children in war.”
Speaking of her recent experiences in the field, Coomaraswamy also recalled meeting a young girl named Agnes who had just escaped from the LRA. She told Council members how Agnes fled with a baby born of rape fearing for her life and that of her infant child. Coomaraswamy emphasized that “we cannot ignore Agnes or those like her and the Council’s decision to make sexual violence and killing and maiming of children grounds for listing by the Secretary-General is the first step in the right direction.”
The Security Council, deeply concerned with the increasing number of attacks on schools and teachers, called for an immediate end to these violence.
Every year, the Council hosts an open debate on children and armed conflict following the Secretary-General’s annual reports on the issue.
Also speaking at the debate, Hilde Johnson, UNICEF’s Deputy Executive Director told Council members that without monitoring and reporting in countries listed by the Council and other situations of concern, the extent of grave violations perpetrated against children would remain unknown. She added that “never have we been so well informed. Silence is not an option. We have a collective duty to act. We all are accountable to the children whose stories we hear.”
The Secretary-General’s recent report praised the progress made through the signing of several action plans to end the recruitment and the use of child soldiers, including pacts with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front in the Philippines, the Sudan People’s Liberation Army and the Unified Communist Party of Nepal-Maoist, which has released almost 3,000 people who were originally recruited as minors.
Bearing witness to the atrocities committed against children was a Nepalese girl, Manju Gurung, formerly associated with the Unified Communist Party of Nepal- Maoist. Abducted as a child soldier at the age of thirteen, she told her story.
Gurung remembers how she was trained to use of 303 rifles, INSAS, SLR, AK-47. She said that they also taught her and the rest of the child soldiers how to make and detonate bombs. “I was still a little girl of only 14 years and my body was hardly fit for such an intense training,” she said.
The Department of Peacekeeping Operations has been investing heavily in providing training on child protection and child rights for all its peacekeepers as required by the Security Council. Last week in Chad, governments from the region, including Chad, Liberia, and the Democratic Republic of Congo, signed the “N’Djamena Declaration”, committing themselves to ending the recruitment and use of children by armed forces.
Also present at the debate Patricia Espinosa, Mexico’s Minister of Foreign Affairs of Mexico, who chaired the meeting, said that crimes against children could not be stopped if perpetrators remained unpunished. She noted that grave violations of the fundamental norms and principles of international humanitarian law constituted war crimes “and it is Member States that must have the primary obligation to investigate and try those responsible for these violations.”
At a press conference later in the day, Hilde Johnson stressed that the naming and shaming “quote-on-quote mechanism in the Security Council” was extremely important. While talking about her own experience in the field, she added that, “I’ve been meeting rebel leaders, guerrilla leaders in different countries and if you tell them that ‘you are actually on the Security Council’s list’ it actually makes an impact.”
Also briefing reporters and commenting on her latest encounter in Afghanistan, Special Representative Radhika Coomaraswamy emphasized that the changing nature of warfare called for more discussion with non-State actors.
She also said that in a meeting, Afghanistan’s US Commander Stanley McChrystal had outlined various new steps that were taken to protect civilians, including command orders that he had implemented.
Coomaraswamy said McChrystal promised that there would be would be an immediate inquiry into the killing of children. She added that “we hope that these policies will really have an end result where they will be less children being killed.”
