24 November 2005 CRIN Children and Armed Conflict 92
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- SECURITY COUNCIL: First Meeting of the Working Group on Children and Armed Conflict [news]
- COTE D'IVOIRE: Children's Rights not Respected in the Ongoing Military and Political Crisis [news]
- MYANMAR: UN Expert Says Human Rights Abuses are not Being Addressed [news]
- CHILD SOLDIERS: Strategies to Avoid Recruitment in West Africa [publication]
- CHILDREN AND ARMED FORCES: Military Training for Officers on Children in Armed Conflict [website]
- NEPAL: Armed Conflict Increases Migration of Nepalese Children to India [publication]
- LANDMINES AND EXPLOSIVE REMNANTS OF WAR: States' Compliance with International Law [publications]
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SECURITY COUNCIL: First Meeting of the Working Group on Children and Armed Conflict [news]
[NEW YORK, 17 November 2005] - A newly-formed Security Council Working Group, composed of all its members and chaired by France, met for the first time on Wednesday 16 November, 2005.
Ambassador Jean-Marc de la Sabliere, Permanent Representative of France and Chairman of the Working Group stated, "The establishment of this Working Group demonstrates the Security Council's concrete commitment to combat children's rights violations in armed conflict, which are unacceptable and must not go unpunished."
The Working Group was established pursuant to Security Council resolution 1612, adopted on 26 July 2005, with the task of reviewing monitoring reports and progress on the implementation of Security Council mandated action plans to promote the protection of children affected by armed conflict.
The role of the Working Group will be to supervise the implementation of the monitoring and reporting mechanism that will track the situation of children in armed conflict around the globe, securing the Council's timely review of progress achieved and measures to be taken against repeat offenders.
This new reporting mechanism, mandated by Security Council resolution 1612, will be implemented in phases in conflict-affected countries to monitor the conduct of parties to conflict. These reports will be distributed to key bodies that constitute 'destinations for action' responsible for taking concrete measures in response to grave violations against children by offending parties. The Security Council is one of these key destinations for action.
The mechanism will monitor grave violations by all parties to armed conflict, both governments and insurgents, focusing particularly on: killing or maiming of children; recruiting or using child soldiers; attacks against schools or hospitals; rape or other sexual violence against children; denial of humanitarian access for children; abduction of children.
The Office of the Special Representative believes this meeting is a turning point, which signals the end of an era marked by silent witness and the beginning of an era of application of international norms for the protection of all children exposed to armed conflict.
The Special Representative serves as international advocate for children affected by armed conflict by promoting standards and measures for their protection in times of war as well as their healing and social reintegration in the aftermath of conflict.
Read the press release
More information on the new reporting mechanism
Read Security Council Resolution 1612
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COTE D'IVOIRE: Children's Rights not Respected in the Ongoing Military and Political Crisis [news]
[ABIDJAN, 21 November 2005] - As the world celebrates the anniversary of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, UNICEF is calling attention to the plight of the children in Cote D'Ivoire and the continued widespread violation of their rights as a result of the ongoing three-year-long conflict.
The breakdown of family and social structures and the pervading military influence has resulted in children being denied access to education and health care and has left them vulnerable to violence, abuse and recruitment by armed groups.
Because of the conflict and division of the country, the education system has been disrupted with an estimated 700,000 children out of school. In addition 60,000 children remain trapped in a state of "educational limbo" due to the suspension of national exams in the north. Similarly health care facilities have also been impacted, especially in the northern region, putting the lives of countless children at risk.
The conflict and the resulting breakdown of family structures have also forced many children to fend for themselves, exposing them to violence and abuse. Girls in particularly remain vulnerable to sexual abuse due to lawlessness and general economic decline with many turning to prostitution as a means of survival.
In addition hundreds of children continue to be associated with armed groups and there are reports of continued recruitment and training of child soldiers in the western region of the country.
Another area of great concern is the situation in which hundreds of thousands of children have been denied the right to birth registration because of the division of the country.
Read the press releaseÂ
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MYANMAR: UN Expert Says Human Rights Abuses are not Being Addressed [news]
[28 October 2005] - Widespread and systematic human rights violations, grave abuses against ethnic communities, and lack of freedom of assembly and association are still the norm in Myanmar, but the international community has not responded with the appropriate creative diplomacy, and the outlook for change is grim, a United Nations expert said today in New York.
"I don't think isolation will contribute much to move Myanmar ahead," the Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights in Myanmar, Paulo Sérgio Pinheiro said, expressing extreme frustration with the international community for its use of "megaphone diplomacy," its lack of inter-state co-operation, and its erratic approach in dealing with Myanmar.
Addressing the General Assembly's Social, Humanitarian and Cultural Committee on Thursday, he noted that despite receiving numerous reports on rights violations in Myanmar, neither he nor the Secretary-General's Special Envoy have been invited to visit the country since November 2003, and that he had become frustrated with his task.
Based on the information he was able to cull, he recited a litany of serious human rights abuses and violations in his report, including the lack of freedom of assembly and of the press, the jailing of more than 1,100 people including poets, journalists, monks, students and teachers, the well known case of Nobel Prize Laureate Daw Aung San Suu Kyi's prolonged house detention, and numerous other detentions of opposition politicians for years at a time.
He also said the Government's plan for democracy "has no time frame and no scale" while deploring abuses against ethnic groups, the prevalence of forced labour of men, women, children and elderly, and forced relocations of entire villages.
From the end of 2002 to October 2004 he estimated that 157,000 people were displaced by armed conflict, and 240 villages destroyed or relocated. Between 700,000 and a million people have fled Myanmar to nearby Thailand, and others have fled to India, Bangladesh, Malaysia and other countries to escape human rights violations, he added.
"[There are] widespread and systematic violations of human rights in Myanmar and the consistent failure of the Government to protect the citizens prevails in the country," he said. Law, order and justice has been "employed as an implement of repression and to silence dissent," he said, instead of upholding the rights of the citizens.
But the international community's use of sanctions against Myanmar without establishing an effective dialogue is "regrettable," and "wrong" he told the press conference. The decision of the Global Fund on AIDS, TB and Malaria to leave the country and other sanctions have the effect of depriving support to those who need it, but have had no effect whatsoever on the Government, he added.
[Source: United Nations News Service]
Read the press releaseÂ
Read the Interim report presented by Mr. Paulo Sergio Pinheiro to the Commission on Human Rights on the situation of human rights in Myanmar
Read the Statement by Mr. Paulo Sergio Pinheiro to the General Assembly, on Thursday 27 October 2005 Â
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CHILD SOLDIERS: Strategies to Avoid Recruitment in West Africa [publication]
[LONDON, 11 November 2005] - Save the Children has published a report that looks at the reasons why children join armed groups and recommends ways of tackling the recruitment process. Tens of thousands of children from at least 60 countries were recruited into armies, militia and rebel factions between 2001 and 2004, constituting a gross abuse of children's rights.
Fighting Back: Child and community-led strategies to avoid children's recruitment into armed forces and groups in West Africa is based on interviews with 300 children and 200 parents and carers in conflict situations in the Ivory Coast, Sierra Leone and Liberia, found that while some children are forced to join armed groups against their will, many others join voluntarily for a wide range of reasons, including:
- a lack of alternatives: many children cited a lack of access to education and vocational training as a major reason for joining an armed group
- inadequate care: a third of the ex-child soldiers interviewed said they had been recruited after becoming separated from their parents or carers.
- poverty and hunger: having sufficient food to eat, or being able to provide for parents and siblings, was consistently described as one of the only benefits of joining the fighters.
- protection: some joined to safeguard themselves and/or their families and their possessions.
- power: some ex-child soldiers said they joined to gain power and material wealth and be able to do things they wouldn't normally be able to do, with boys accused of joining to "get" (rape) girls.
- revenge: some joined to avenge abusive or humiliating behaviour or the death of a family member by another armed group.
- excitement: others were lured by a desire to have fun and/or adventures, make friends or find a partner.
But the report found that life with an armed group was far from "exciting". As well as risking death or injury on a daily basis, the vast majority of children who had been formerly associated with fighters spoke of extreme hardship and suffering physically, psychologically and sexually abuse. And those who had chosen to join were often deeply disillusioned.
For more information, contact:
Save the Children UK
1 St John's Lane, London, EC1M 4AR, UK
Tel: + 44 20 7012 6400; Fax: + 44 20 7012 6963
Email: supporter.care@savethechildren.org.uk
Website: http://www.savethechildren.org.uk
Read the report
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CHILDREN AND ARMED FORCES: Military Training for Officers on Children in Armed Conflict [website]
A new microsite on "Military Training for Officers on Children in Armed Conflict" has been developed on the website of the Crisis States Programme. This website summarises the key rules for the protection of children in situations of armed conflict which should guide the actions of officers of national armed forces and the soldiers under their command.
Officers should know these rules, or at least know where to look them up. They should also make sure that their soldiers know the main rules, as appropriate in the particular circumstances. Ideally, non-governmental forces should also be guided by these rules.
The purpose of this website is to provide an accessible and simple summary of the relevant rules. However, for the convenience of those who want more detailed information, as well as references to other relevant publications, a link is given to the book on which this website is largely based: "Military Training and Children in Armed Conflict: Law, Policy and Practice", by Jenny Kuper.
For more information, contact:
Jenny Kuper: J.Kuper@lse.ac.uk
More information about the book
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NEPAL: UN Rights Official Urges Government to Repeal Code for Social Groups [news]
[10 November 2005] - In the latest United Nations expression of concern over events in Nepal, a senior human rights official called on the Government to withdraw a draft code of conduct for all national and international 'social organisations,' declaring it would violate the Himalayan kingdom's international obligations.
Provisions exerting governmental control over access by NGOs working to address human rights concerns to funding from international donors, are among some of the those that are of particular concern, Secretary-General Kofi Annan's Special Representative on human rights defenders, Hina Jilani, said in a statement this month.
"The Special Representative is deeply concerned that the adoption of many of the provisions would lead to violations of the Declaration on the Right and Responsibility of Individuals, Groups and Organs of Society to Promote and Protect Universally Recognised Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms - otherwise known as the Declaration on human rights defenders - as well as other international human rights standards," the statement added.
Other provisions "of particular concern" included the issuance of directives to NGOs or the exercise of supervision over NGOs by the Social Welfare Council, asserting controls over the locations in which NGOs can work, imposing collective responsibility of officials and staff for activities conducted by an NGO, and stipulating that NGOs should not endanger social harmony.
"The Special Representative calls on the Nepalese Government to reconsider introducing this code of conduct which, if adopted and implemented would violate Nepal's international human rights obligations," the statement concluded.
Last month, the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) deplored new restrictions on press freedom and freedom of expression, and a UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) report said Nepal was experiencing a "grave human rights crisis" marked by killings of civilians, disappearances, torture and crimes against children.
The report documented how human rights abuses go largely unpunished in the country, where Maoist rebels have been waging war since 1996 and King Gyanendra has been exercising all executive authority since dismissing the Government in February.
In September the UN Commission on Human Rights Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment, Manfred Nowak, found that both the Nepalese police and military and the rebels practised torture.
[Source: UN News Centre]
Read the article in full
A report on migration of Nepalese children to India, prepared by the Central Child Welfare Board and the International Save the Children Alliance, has recently been published.
A study on trafficked Nepalese girls and women in India has recently been published by Terres des Hommes Nepal.
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LANDMINES AND EXPLOSIVE REMNANTS OF WAR: States' Compliance with International Law [publications]
Landmine Monitor Report 2005
Global use of antipersonnel mines and the number of reported mine casualties have fallen, according to the "Landmine Monitor Report 2005" - the seventh annual report by the International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL), providing information on landmine use, production, trade, stockpiling, demining, casualties and victim assistance in 112 countries and areas.
The report also shows that international funding for mine action increased to $399 million in 2004, and 135 square kilometers of mine-affected land were cleared. But immense challenges remain. Over 200,000 square kilometers of the world are likely contaminated by mines and unexploded ordnance (UXO), and an estimated 15,000-20,000 people are maimed or killed by mines and UXO each year. The number of landmine survivors needing assistance continues to increase.
Since the last report, four countries joined the 1997 Mine Ban Treaty, including Ethiopia, which is heavily mine-affected, as well as Bhutan, Latvia and Vanuatu. There are 147 States Parties to the treaty, and an additional seven countries have signed but not yet ratified. Forty countries remain outside the treaty, including China, Russia and the United States. The Mine Ban Treaty comprehensively prohibits use, production, and trade of antipersonnel mines, requires destruction of stockpiled antipersonnel mines within four years, and requires clearance of mined areas within 10 years.
Use of antipersonnel mines around the world has continued to decrease. "Myanmar, Nepal and Russia deserve strong condemnation as the only governments to lay antipersonnel mines in 2005," said Stephen Goose of Human Rights Watch, Landmine Monitor's Ban Policy Co-ordinator. In 2004, those same three countries used antipersonnel mines and there was also strong evidence of use by Georgian forces, though the government denies it.
Non-state armed groups are now the primary users of antipersonnel mines. This year's Landmine Monitor Report cites use of antipersonnel mines by such groups in 13 countries, compared to 16 in last year's report. Rebel use was especially widespread in Colombia, Myanmar (Burma) and Nepal. In a positive development, the Polisario Front in Western Sahara agreed to ban antipersonnel mines on 3 November 2005.
Landmine Monitor identifies 13 countries as producing or retaining the right to produce antipersonnel mines, a dramatic drop from over 50 mine-producing countries in the past. Egypt and Iraq were removed from the list of antipersonnel mine producers in this reporting period, due to new statements and information provided by those governments. The virtual cessation of global trade in antipersonnel mines has been maintained, as Landmine Monitor found no confirmed instances of antipersonnel mine transfers in the last year.
The Landmine Monitor initiative is co-ordinated by an Editorial Board of four organisations: Mines Action Canada (the lead agency), Handicap International, Human Rights Watch and Norwegian People's Aid. A total of 77 Landmine Monitor researchers in 72 countries contributed to the report.
Memorandum on States' Responses to "International Humanitarian Law and Explosive Remnants of War" Questionnaire
In March 2005, members of the Convention on Conventional Weapons (CCW) Working Group on Explosive Remnants of War (ERW) issued a questionnaire to states parties regarding ERW and International Humanitarian Law. Explosive Remnants of War are particularly harmful to children, as they are often colourful and shiny, and come in shapes that are attractive to children.
The questionnaire is designed to gather information on which principles of International Humanitarian Law are considered applicable to the use of munitions that may become ERW, in particular submunitions, and how states implement these principles. This information is to be the basis for an examination of the adequacy of national implementation mechanisms as required by International Humanitarian Law, and help states determine whether any future measures are required.
Human Rights Watch published a memorandum analysing the responses provided by states parties to the questionnaire. The responses to date lead to the conclusion that national implementation measures, especially with regard to cluster munitions and the submunitions they dispense, are not adequate, and that additional measures are required to ensure adequate protections for civilian populations.
Under the new mandate, it would be useful for states to develop another questionnaire that is specific to the International Humanitarian Law issues raised by use of cluster munitions and their submunitions. While the original questionnaire referred to "use of munitions, including submunitions, that may become ERW," too few states provided information specific to submunitions. A list of suggested questions for a new questionnaire is included at the end of this memorandum.
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