16 September 2009 - CRIN Children and Armed Conflict 132
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**NEWS IN BRIEF**
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COLOMBIA: Report of the Secretary-General on children and armed conflict [publication]
[8 September 2009] – Despite significant Government efforts, children in Colombia continue to be killed, maimed, tortured, raped, recruited and abducted in the long-running conflict, mainly by illegal armed groups, a new United Nations report warns, calling on all parties to abide by their international obligations.
“I am deeply concerned at the continued rape and other forms of sexual violence, in particular against girls, that is perpetrated mainly by illegal armed groups,” Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon writes in his latest report to the Security Council on children and armed conflict in Colombia, noting that child recruitment by these groups is widespread.
Girl members are required to have sexual relations with adults at an early age and forced to abort if they become pregnant, he adds.
He commends Government efforts to tackle such recruitment, but also calls on the authorities to ensure that the national army fully prohibits the use of children for military intelligence as well as the interrogation of those who have been separated from the illegal groups and involvement of children in civil-military activities that could put them at risk of retaliation by these groups.
Voicing “grave concern” at the extrajudicial execution of children, he urges the Government “as a matter of priority” to take measures to eliminate the practice.
The Government is also urged to enhance efforts “to combat impunity for grave violations committed against children.”
Estimates of the number of children participating in illegal armed groups range from 8,000 in Government figures to 11,000 estimated by non-government sources, according to the report, which covers 2008.
Enumerating reported killings of children by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia-People’s Army (FARC-EP), which has been fighting national governments for more than 45 years, Mr. Ban cites the case of a 14-year-old girl murdered in Antioquia department allegedly because of her association with a member of the national armed forces.
“The girl was brutally tortured, with one of her hands cut off and one of her eyes gouged out before she was killed,” he writes.
Children have also been killed for refusing to join the groups. “In January 2008, FARC-EP attempted to recruit two brothers, aged 13 and 15, in the department of Putumayo,” Mr. Ban notes. “Upon their refusal to join the group, the guerrillas killed one boy by dousing him with gasoline and shooting him. The second boy was recruited against his will.”
Turning to extrajudicial killings, he cites figures from the Attorney-General’s office showing 51 child victims as of November 2008, and also mentions the case of 11 people, including a child who disappeared near Bogotá, the capital, and whose bodies were later displayed by the national army as members of illegal groups killed in combat in Norte de Santander department.
Mr. Ban notes that Colombia has the second largest population of internally displaced persons (IDPs) in the world, with nearly three million being displaced between 1997 and the end of 2008, and more than 1 million of them children.
“Recognising that the protection of children is best served by peace, all parties are called upon to strive for a peaceful resolution of the conflict,” he concludes, urging the international donor community to provide additional aid to programmes enhancing child protection.
[Source: UN Security Council]
Further information
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YEMEN: Renewed clashes in north [news]
A surge in fighting in northern Yemen has left some 150,000 people displaced, mainly in Saada province. Some 75,000 children have been directly affected, according to UNICEF.
Clashes between Abdul-Malik al-Houthi's Shi'ite rebels and the government have been intermittent since 2004. Journalists and diplomats are barred from the area and aid agency operations have been impeded by security concerns.
The rebels, who have denounced Yemen's close relationship with the US, are part of a tribal minority who follow the Zaydi branch of Shi'ite Islam in a predominantly Sunni Muslim country. They say they are protecting their villages from government oppression.
North Yemen united with the secular and Marxist South in 1990, where a secessionist movement has also been operating since 2007.
Read more on the background to the conflict on AlertNet: http://www.alertnet.org/db/crisisprofiles/YE_CLA.htm
Read more on the situation of children on IRIN: http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=86039
Further information
Visit: http://www.crin.org/resources/infoDetail.asp?ID=20896&flag=news
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HUMAN RIGHTS COUNCIL: Annual report of the Special Representative on Children and Armed Conflict [publication]
[GENEVA, 15 September 2009] - Radhika Coomaraswamy, the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict highlighted the plight of children affected by war as she reported to the Human Rights Council in Geneva this week.
"It has been a terrible year for children living in situations of armed conflict around the world. Ferocious conflicts in Gaza, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Iraq and Afghanistan have led to high casualty rates and the displacement of a large number of people, especially children," stated Radhika Coomaraswamy.
The Special Representative said that in order to halt grave violations against children, addressing impunity and holding perpetrators accountable must remain a priority of the international community. She underscored progress made in some situations of concern where child soldiers were freed and commended the passing of resolution 1882 that was voted unanimously by the Security Council on 4 August, 2009. She said that the landmark resolution further advances the child protection agenda not only on recruitment and use of children, but also on killing and maiming as well as rape and other grave sexual violence against children.
"Action at the international level must however also be underpinned by accountability at the national level. That includes rigorous investigation and prosecution of those responsible for grave violations against children as well as reforms of national legislation for the protection of children in order to ensure compliance with international norms and standards," urged Radhika Coomaraswamy.
The Special Representative further stressed the need to address protection concerns for children displaced as a result of conflict, who count among the most vulnerable categories of children. She advocated for the "rights and guarantees" which should be accorded to them including the right to education, the liberty of movement, the right to protection against sexual and gender based violence and the right to basic services.
"The nature of conflict is changing and civilians are increasingly on the frontline. The toll on children is more brutal than ever. All parties to conflict should make every effort to better protect children and to make protection of civilians an integral part of military planning," concluded Radika Coomarswamy.
For more information, contact:
The Office of the Special Representative of the Secretary General for Children and Armed Conflict
United Nations, Room S-3161 H, New York, NY 10017, USA
Website: www.un.org/children/conflict
Further information
Visit: http://www.crin.org/resources/infoDetail.asp?ID=20884&flag=report
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GREAT LAKES REGION: New human rights observatory [news]
Member States of the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region, a grouping of 11 African nations, have taken an historic step forward with the establishment of a Regional Center which aims to strengthen good governance, democracy and human rights.
The Regional Center for Democracy, Good Governance, Human Rights and Civic Education is based in Zambia’s capital, Lusaka. It is the first project to be financed by the signatories (Angola, Burundi, the Central African Republic, Congo, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kenya, Rwanda, Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia) to the Pact on Security, Stability and Development in the Great Lakes Region.
The Pact signed in 2004 committed those nations to finding lasting peace and security in the Great Lakes Region through shared growth and development and common strategies.
Describing the Center as an “African symbol for justice, good governance and moral authority”, Ambassador Liberata Mulamula, the Executive Secretary of the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region, said, “The Center will be vital for transforming the governance structures in the region in the long-term to base them on the rule of law and the realization of human rights for all.”
Without inclusive democracy and an efficient justice system there could not be long-term investment and development. Ambassador Mulamula said resolutions to the conflicts in the region must be accompanied by a justice process. “Our next generations,” she said, “have a right to the truth… the basis for building our future together.”
The Center will fulfil its mandate through research, training, monitoring and reporting and the facilitation of dialogue and consultation. Ambassador Mulamula noted also that the Center through its regional and international relationships will develop an Early Warning System which allows the possibility of linking technical reports to political intervention at the highest level through Foreign Ministers and Heads of States.
Speaking at the opening of the Center, Bacre Waly Ndiaye, Director of the Human Rights Council and Treaties Division of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights said, “The Center demonstrates the strong commitment of the region to promote and protect human rights and good governance.”
The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) has contributed to the project from its inception through the support and advice of a Regional Human Rights Adviser. The Adviser has mobilised technical and financial assistance for the setting up of the Human Rights Observatory, a critical part of the Center. The Observatory will monitor and analyse the situation on the ground, share information with other institutions in the region and feed assistance and advice into a system aimed at solving existing conflicts and mobilising rapid joint action at the highest level. The Adviser will also play a part in forging links with OHCHR’s Regional Center for Democracy and Human Rights in Yaoundé, central Africa.
[UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights]
Further information
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OPT: UN condemns war crimes in Gaza [publication]
The UN Fact-Finding Mission led by Justice Richard Goldstone on Tuesday released its long-awaited report on the Gaza conflict, in which it concluded there is evidence indicating serious violations of international human rights and humanitarian law were committed by Israel during the Gaza conflict, and that Israel committed actions amounting to war crimes, and possibly crimes against humanity.
The report also concludes there is also evidence that Palestinian armed groups committed war crimes, as well as possibly crimes against humanity, in their repeated launching of rockets and mortars into Southern Israel.
[Source: Human Rights Tribune]
Read the report here
Read all background documents on the Mission here.
Further information
Visit: http://www.crin.org/resources/infodetail.asp?id=20879
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CANADA: Top court to review detainee repatriation order [news]
[OTTAWA, 5 September 2009] - Canada's high court on Friday agreed to a government request to review a lower court order to repatriate a young Canadian held at the US military prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
The government's application for leave to appeal the Federal Court of Appeal's order to repatriate Omar Khadr and to stay the order until an expedited appeal is heard "are granted," Canada's Supreme Court said.
A hearing was scheduled to be held on November 13.
Khadr was detained in Afghanistan in July 2002 when he was 15 years old for allegedly throwing a grenade that killed a US soldier, a charge he has denied.
He is the last westerner being held at the US "war on terror" prison camp, where he has been held since October 2002 and is awaiting trial on charges of murder, conspiracy and support of terrorism.
Last month, Canadian federal Judge James O'Reilly agreed with Khadr's lawyers that the government's steadfast refusal to request from the United States his repatriation infringed on Khadr's constitutional rights and "a principle of fundamental justice."
The government sought to overturn the decision, arguing the court was meddling in Canadian foreign policy.
Born in Toronto to a family with strong ties to Al-Qaeda, Khadr is to celebrate his 23rd birthday on September 19 in his cell at the US naval base in Cuba, awaiting trial.
His Egyptian-born father was a suspected Al-Qaeda financier before being killed in a shootout in 2003 with Pakistani forces, and his siblings, who claimed to have met Osama bin Laden, were investigated for alleged ties to Al-Qaeda.
Yet despite his family history, "Omar identifies himself strongly with Canada," his former US military lawyer Lieutenant-Commander Bill Kuebler said last year.
Khadr was taken to Pakistan with his parents in 1990 when he was a child to help with reconstruction along the Pakistan-Afghan border following the withdrawal of Russian troops, according to an online family biography.
After the September 11, 2001 attacks in the United States, he found himself in Afghanistan.
A year later, he was captured by US soldiers in Khost, in the east of the country.
The US government alleges that Khadr was the lone survivor of a four-hour US bombardment of an Al-Qaeda compound in Afghanistan in 2002, who rose from the rubble and killed a US sergeant with a grenade.
Kuebler described him as a "frightened, wounded, 15-year-old boy, a boy like other children wrongfully involved in armed conflict who had no business being there, who sat slumped against a bush while a battle raged around him."
He is a "good kid" and "salvageable," according to his captors, cited in Canadian government files published last year.
But in a heavily redacted affidavit, Khadr claimed he was treated brutally after his capture when he was taken, severely wounded, to a military camp in Bagram, Afghanistan, and later to Guantanamo.
Judge O'Reilly said Ottawa has a "duty to protect persons in Mr Khadr's circumstances by taking steps to ensure that their fundamental rights, recognized in widely-accepted international instruments, such as the Convention on the Rights of the Child, are respected.
"To mitigate the effect of that violation, Canada must present a request to the United States for Mr Khadr's repatriation to Canada as soon as practicable," he added.
In his ruling, the judge considered that Khadr was not granted special status as a minor by US authorities, was isolated at the prison in Cuba and subjected to sleep deprivation.
Ottawa has so far also rejected pressure from opposition MPs, rights groups and others to bring Khadr home, saying repeatedly it would wait for the US proceedings to play out.
[Source: AFP - Agence France Presse]
Further information
Visit: http://www.crin.org/resources/infoDetail.asp?ID=20820
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PROTRACTED DISPLACEMENT: Forced Migration Review 33 [publication]
Increasingly, growing numbers of displaced people remain displaced for years, even decades. This latest issue of Forced Migration Review includes 29 articles by academic, international and local actors which assess the impact of such situations on people’s lives and our societies and explore the ‘solutions’ – political, humanitarian and personal.
The issue also includes a spotlight on the ‘internment camps’ in Sri Lanka and a mini-feature on collective centres, plus a selection of articles on other aspects of forced migration such as rights and responsibilities in Darfur, smuggling in South Africa, IDP health needs in Colombia, climate change agreement talks, peace mediation, and community resilience in East Timor.
For more information, contact:
Forced Migration Review
Refugee Studies Centre
Department of International Development (QEH)
University of Oxford, Mansfield Road, Oxford OX1 3TB, United Kingdom
Website: www.fmreview.org
Further information
Visit: http://www.crin.org/resources/infoDetail.asp?ID=20868&flag=report
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**NEWS IN BRIEF**
Child Soldiers: Do No Harm: Challenges in Organizing Psychosocial Support to Displaced People in Emergency Settings (paper by Mike Wessells)
http://www.child-soldiers.org/psycho-social/Wessells-_Do_No_Harm-2008.pdf
El Salvador: Probe for missing children (Inside Costa Rica)
http://www.crin.org/resources/infoDetail.asp?ID=20814&flag=news
Somalia: WFP to shut food centres (BBC)
http://www.crin.org/resources/infoDetail.asp?ID=20873&flag=news
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