31 January 2007 - CRIN Children and Armed Conflict 104
___________________________________________________________
- INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL COURT: Case against Thomas Lubanga for recruiting and using children in armed conflict to proceed to trial [news]
- UN: Report of the Secretary-General on children and armed conflict in Sri Lanka and Nepal [publications]
- SUDAN: Special Representative on Children and Armed Conflict visits Darfur to address violations [news]
- COLOMBIA: Paramilitary children left out of peace deal [news]
- IRAN: Schools feed pupils war curriculum [news]
- EMPLOYMENT: Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers [job posting]
*NEWS IN BRIEF*
___________________________________________________________
Your submissions are welcome if you are working in the area of child rights. To contribute, email us at [email protected]. Adobe Acrobat is required for viewing some of the documents, and if required can be downloaded from http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep.html If you do not receive this email in html format, you will not be able to see some hyperlinks in the text. At the end of each item we have therefore provided a full URL linking to a web page where further information is available.
___________________________________________________________
INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL COURT: Case against Thomas Lubanga for recruiting and using children in armed conflict to proceed to trial [news]
[NEW YORK/GENEVA, 29 January 2007] - On Tuesday, the International Criminal Court (ICC) confirmed the charges against Thomas Lubanga, former commander-in-chief of the Union of Congolese Patriots' military wing, for recruiting children into his militia during the war in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The case can now proceed to trial. UNICEF supports the continuing ICC process in this case.
The UN estimates that between three and five million people have died since 1998 as a result of the conflict in DRC. As many as 30,000 Congolese children are thought to have been fighting or living with armed forces or militia. Many children have been displaced, brutally raped, mutilated and killed.
The recruitment of children is not unique to the Democratic Republic of Congo. At any given time, it is estimated that up to 250,000 children are being used in armed groups and forces around the world in a variety of roles – including as combatants, cooks, porters, messengers, spies and for sexual purposes. As primary victims of armed conflict, children are both its targets and, increasingly, its instruments.
In the Democratic Republic of Congo and in other conflict-affected countries, UNICEF helps support the release of children from armed groups and forces, and their return to their families and communities. To facilitate reintegration, UNICEF works with governments, NGOs and communities to provide children with vocational training, education, psychological and peer-to-peer support, along with legal assistance and health care.
On 5 and 6 February, in Paris, the Government of France and UNICEF will co-host a conference of Government Ministers to “Free Children from War”. Countries from all regions of the world, international organizations and NGOs will discuss comprehensive strategies for the prevention of child recruitment and the reintegration of former child soldiers.
Visit: http://www.crin.org/resources/infoDetail.asp?ID=12390&flag=news
Further information
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
UN: Report of the Secretary-General on children and armed conflict in Sri Lanka and Nepal [publications]
[16 January 2007] – Sri Lankan children are being abducted to fight as soldiers in the bloody island conflict by separatist Tamil Tiger rebels and a breakaway group known as the Karuna faction, the Secretary-General has warned in his latest report to the Security Council, calling for an immediate end to the practice and recommending “targeted measures” in response.
Commenting on the report, which was issued today along with another report dealing with the problem in Nepal, the Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict Radhika Coomaraswamy, said both documents show the ongoing attempt by the world body to end the global scourge of recruiting children as soldiers, along with other violations of children in times of conflict.
The 20-page report covers the period from 1st November 2005 to 31st October 2006, and notes that over these 12 months, UNICEF received reports of hundreds of children being recruited by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), and also Sri Lankan army involvement in recruitment of children by the Karuna faction.
“Despite previous commitments by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, that group continues to use and recruit children. In addition, a particularly disconcerting development during the reporting period was the increase in abductions and recruitment of children in the east by the Karuna faction, a breakaway group of Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam,” it states.
“Reports have also been received in Batticaloa District that on 14 and 26 June, Sri Lankan Army personnel carrying weapons, accompanied Karuna faction members who forcibly abducted and recruited nine children aged 14 (two children), 15 (one child) and 17 years (six children),” the document adds, referring to the eastern part of the island.
In outlining his recommendations, the Secretary-General reiterates his call for an immediate end to the conflict, which has already caused the deaths of more than 65,000 people in over 20 years, while stressing that any peace settlement must include provisions that “ensure the protection of children.”
“Although limited progress has been made in the release of some children from LTTE over the last three years, the refusal of LTTE to completely cease recruitment and use of children, release all children remaining on the UNICEF database and engage in transparent procedures for release and verification of demobilisation warrants the undertaking of targeted measures against LTTE political and military leadership,” he writes.
He also calls for the Government to investigate immediately allegations that certain elements of the Sri Lanka security forces are involved in aiding the recruitment and/or abduction of children by the Karuna faction in the East, and invites UNICEF and other relevant agencies to help address the matter.
The Secretary-General also calls on all sides in the conflict to ensure open and safe access by humanitarian actors in Sri Lanka to affected areas, while maintaining the neutrality and security of schools, hospitals and religious institutions as “safe zones.”
The office of the Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict said the report will now be examined by the Security Council Working Group on Children and Armed Conflict at its meeting next month, while Ms. Coomaraswamy told the UN News Service that the world body seeks a commitment from all sides to end violations against children.
Visit: http://www.crin.org/resources/infoDetail.asp?ID=12245
Note: On 9 February 2007, a UN Security Council working group on children and armed conflict is scheduled to consider reported violations against children by all parties to Sri Lanka’s armed conflict. The working group will make recommendations for Security Council action.
Further information
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
SUDAN: Special Representative on Children and Armed Conflict visits Darfur to address violations [news]
[25 January 2007] – The top United Nations envoy on children and armed conflict travelled to Sudan on Friday for a week-long visit that includes trips to the strife-torn Darfur region where she is discussing greater protection for the youngest victims of the violence, which has claimed the lives of more than 200,000 people since 2003 and forced at least two million others to flee their homes.
UN Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict Radhika Coomaraswamy is visiting the country from 26 January to 1 February at the Sudanese Government’s invitation, and she is accompanied by the UN Children’s Fund’s (UNICEF) Deputy Executive Director, Rima Salah.
“The objective of this field mission is to ascertain first hand the situation with a view to collaborating with all the stakeholders to ensure greater protection for children affected by the conflict,” her office said in a press release. “Ms Coomaraswamy will engage in a constructive dialogue with the Government of Sudan on these important issues.”
She is also meeting with “non-State parties to the conflict in the effort to address grave violations against children,” undertaking visits in Southern Sudan and in Northern and Western Darfur.
Ms Coomaraswamy, a lawyer by training, was appointed as Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict last April. She serves as an independent advocate to build awareness and give prominence to the rights and protection of boys and girls affected by armed conflict.
With deadly violence continuing in Darfur, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon last week told the Sudanese Government he was deeply concerned about its recent wave of aerial bombardments in the region. He also said he expects a swift inquiry into an incident last Friday in which 20 people, including five UN staff, taking part in a social gathering in the war-torn region were arrested and assaulted.
Visit: http://www.crin.org/resources/infoDetail.asp?ID=12368&flag=news
Further information
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
COLOMBIA: Paramilitary children left out of peace deal [news]
[MEDELLIN, Colombia, 24 January 2007] - Children who helped right-wing Colombian militias in their conflict against Marxist rebels say they are being forgotten as their former commanders collect benefits under a peace deal.
Human rights groups estimate that at least 10 per cent of paramilitary fighters were under the age of 18. But of the 31,671 who turned in their guns over the last three years, only 429 were children, about 1.3 per cent, the government says. So where are the thousands of youths trained in extortion, violence and drug smuggling by the paramilitary bosses, who for two decades held sway over parts of this Andean country?
One interviewed by Reuters said he worked as a lookout for a paramilitary gang that once ran this poor hillside neighbourhood of northeast Medellin, home of Pablo Escobar's infamously violent cocaine cartel in the 1980s and 1990s.
"I collected information to give to the chiefs. But they never considered helping me get the demobilisation benefits that they are getting," said the thin 17-year-old, who asked that his name not be printed. "They have us here adrift," he added, cigarette in his left hand, where the nail on his little finger has grown long enough to spoon cocaine into his nose, a daily habit.
A 16-year-old whose job was to hide guns for the paramilitaries after battles or assassinations, agreed: "It's bad that the State is helping some people and not others."
Neither go to school or have jobs. Crime is a constant temptation for them even though the 17-year-old says he longs to do something important with his life, "something that does not involve killing or damaging the community."
Paramilitary chiefs are coming to trial for crimes ranging from massacre to torture but they face no more than eight years in jail under the deal they negotiated with the government. Adults who fought with them are getting monthly stipends, counselling and job training.
The paramilitaries were formed in the 1980s to help fight leftist rebels who are still waging war against the State. Both groups are tied to Colombia's multibillion-dollar cocaine trade and human rights groups say many paramilitaries continue lives of crime even as they receive demobilisation benefits.
Televised demobilisation ceremonies were meant to close a painful chapter in Colombia's 42-year-old guerrilla war. But there was something missing from those scenes of fighters kissing and then tearfully handing in their guns.
"To avoid the embarrassment of children participating in the ceremonies, which would have confirmed the paramilitaries were breaking international law by using child combatants, their leaders just sent most of them home," said Mauricio Romero, a member of the National Commission for Reparation and Reconciliation, which is overseeing the peace process. "They are not being offered re-adaptation programmes, so many are joining the new generation crime gangs that are replacing the 'paras'," he added.
This defect in the demobilisation process is likely to come back to haunt Colombia, said Amalia Eraso, spokeswoman for Fundacion Dos Mundos, a non-governmental organisation. "These boys and girls were immersed in a world where values were determined by the logic of violence," Eraso said. "Without serious intervention their future is at risk, and so is the future of the communities where they live."
Colombia's child welfare agency says the government has offered services to more than 3,000 former child combatants since 1999, most from the country's biggest rebel group, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC.
Visit: http://www.crin.org/resources/infoDetail.asp?ID=12353&flag=news
Further information
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
IRAN: Schools feed pupils war curriculum [news]
[BRUSSELS, 30 January 2007] - Iran's schools are nurturing a siege mentality in children with textbooks showing preparations for war and depicting Israel and the West as the enemy, an Israel-based think tank said on Tuesday.
One textbook gave 13-year-olds a basic overview of light arms while one early reader book depicted the murder of a Palestinian toddler by an Israeli soldier, a survey by the Center for Monitoring the Impact of Peace (CMIP) found.
"Iran's war curriculum is a danger to the world's peace and security. This is the way the books develop a siege mentality in the minds of the students," CMIP director of research Arnon Groiss told a news conference in Brussels.
CMIP has produced surveys of school material in Pakistan and the Palestinian Authority and said its survey of 115 textbooks published in Iran in 2004 was the first of its kind.
Groiss said all the textbooks were underpinned by the belief that Iran was a world power preparing for global "jihad", or holy struggle, with the aim of world dominance of Islam.
"This has been a structural component of the Iranian regime since (the Islamic Revolution in) 1979. It is not a product of (Mahmoud) Ahmadinejad," he said of Iran's firebrand president who has called for the destruction of Israel.
Stories and poems aimed at primary school-age children hailed martyrs killed in defence of their country and faith, such as those who died in the 1980 to 1988 war with Iraq, with one illustrated with a rainbow dripping with martyr's blood.
Akbar Nabavi, an Iranian war veteran and now documentary maker, said the report was intended to misrepresent Iran.
"The American nation respects its soldiers and their cause though they are being killed in a foreign land (Iraq), thousands of miles from home," he said. "Why shouldn't we commemorate the sacrifice of our martyrs killed defending their country and their faith?"
Groiss highlighted one passage in a reading book for eight-year-olds:
"At that time the Israeli officer pounded (three-year-old) Mohammed's head with his rifle stock and his warm blood was sprinkled upon his (six-year-old) brother Khaled's hands."
Another picture book for 10-year-olds showed veiled girls carrying rifles while material for 13-year-olds provided a basic acquaintance with weaponry, explosives and military tactics.
Israel was consistently referred to as "the regime that occupies Jerusalem" and marked out on maps as "Occupied Palestine". The United States was the "Great Satan", the "World Devourer" or the "Arrogant One".
Despite official opposition to the US government, many Iranians remain sympathetic to the American people and held spontaneous vigils to show support for them after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks.
Groiss acknowledged he had no recent information on the influence the textbooks were having on Iranian children.
While the concept of martyrdom is central to the Shi'ite Islam which is predominant in Iran, no Iranians are thought to have directly executed suicide bombings in recent years.
However, one Iranian group, which insists it has no government affiliation, says it has signed up thousands of would-be martyrs to target US or British interests if Iran was attacked over its nuclear programme.
Visit: http://www.crin.org/resources/infodetail.asp?id=12396
Further information
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
- EMPLOYMENT: Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers [job posting]
Advocacy and Capacity Building Specialist - West Africa
The Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers, which brings together leading NGOs working on this issue internationally, is seeking a candidate for a 12-month fixed term consultancy for an advocacy and capacity building project in West Africa.
The successful applicant will be required to act as advocacy specialist for West Africa for the Coalition contributing to its regional and international advocacy work and increasing the capacities for advocacy of the Coalition's partners in the sub-region. The post will be based in Dakar, Senegal, at the office of Save the Children Sweden.
Application deadline: 15 February 2007
For more information, visit: http://www.child-soldiers.org/contact/work
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
*NEWS IN BRIEF*
COMMITTEE ON THE RIGHTS OF THE CHILD: The UN Committee on the Rights of the Child has examined reports from Costa Rica and Kyrgyzstan on the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on Children and Armed Conflict during its current session. Keep checking the CRC news page - which has been set up on the CRIN website in partnership with the NGO Group for the Convention on the Rights of the Child - for more information.
CHAD: Are We Citizens of this Country? Civilians in unprotected from Janjawid attacks (January 2007)
http://www.crin.org/resources/infoDetail.asp?ID=12391&flag=report
IRAN: School feeds pupils "war curriculum" (30 January 2007)
http://www.crin.org/resources/infodetail.asp?id=12396
UNICEF INNOCENTI RESEARCH CENTRE: Transitional Justice and Children (January 2007)
http://www.crin.org/resources/infoDetail.asp?ID=12311&flag=report
HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH: Killings in Eastern Rwanda (January 2007)
http://www.crin.org/resources/infoDetail.asp?ID=12309&flag=report
___________________________________________________________
The CRINMAIL is an electronic mailing list of the Child Rights Information Network (CRIN). CRIN does not accredit, validate or substantiate any information posted by members to the CRINMAIL. The validity and accuracy of any information is the responsibility of the originator.
To subscribe, unsubscribe or view list archives, visit http://www.crin.org/email.
___________________________________________________________
