Children and Armed Conflict
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The impact of recent conflicts on children has been horrific around the globe. More than two million children have been killed in war zones over the past two decades. Another six million have been maimed or permanently disabled, and more than a quarter of a million youths have been exploited as child soldiers in at least 30 countries. Many of today’s soldiers were recruited as children, without schooling or knowledge of the society around them. Thousands of girls are subject to sexual exploitation, including rape, violence, abductions and prostitution. No region of the world is immune. Over the last decade, the issue of children and armed conflict has been raised with increasing frequency in the Security Council. In 2005, the Security Council adopted resolution 1612, which authorised the establishment of a monitoring and reporting mechanism at the field level. It also created a Council Working Group on Children and Armed Conflict. Since then, the issue has been firmly on the Council’s agenda. The issue of children and armed conflict is now taken up in the Council on a systematic basis as a thematic issue. Moreover, the Council has developed tools capable of potentially influencing the country-specific work of the Council. The challenge is ensuring that the thematic work is actually reflected in practice, in a cross-cutting way, in the work of the Council. This report attempts to gauge whether children and armed conflict has become such a cross-cutting issue by examining the degree to which the issue has been incorporated into the Council’s work on country-specific issues.
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The Council is expected to discuss the Secretary-General’s report on children and armed conflict in an open debate on 12 February. The Foreign Minister of Panama is expected to preside and the Foreign Minister of France seems likely to attend.
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The Council will consider the issue of children and armed conflict in a range of meetings in the remainder of the month. The Council is scheduled to meet on 23 July to consider the Annual Report of the Working Group on Children and Armed Conflict set up under resolution 1612.
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The Council is expected to receive recommendations from its Working Group on Children and Armed Conflict regarding children affected by conflict in Sri Lanka and Nepal. The chairman of the Working Group is expected to convey the Working Group's recommendations, including suggestions for possible Council action, and to brief the Council in informal consultations.
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The Council is expected to discuss the report of the Secretary-General on Children and Armed Conflict as well as the results of an independent review of the monitoring and reporting mechanism. Although children and armed conflict has traditionally been discussed in open debates with active participation by non-Council members, there is a move this year to discuss the reports in a different format. Some sensitivity about the future use of the monitoring and reporting mechanism is expected.
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The Council will consider this month the recommendations of its Working Group on Children and Armed Conflict regarding children affected by armed conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). It is expected to refer specific cases to the Sanctions Committee on the DRC for consideration of targeted sanctions.
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In July the Council is expected to have an open debate on children and armed conflict, chaired by the French foreign minister. It will consider a report from the chair of the Working Group on Children and Armed Conflict and be briefed by the Secretary-General's Special Representative on the issue and a representative from UNICEF.
