28 April 2006 - CRIN Children and Armed Conflict 96
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- DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO: Struggling to Survive [publication]
- HIGH COMMISSIONER FOR REFUGEES: 2006 Report [publication]
- UGANDA: Counting the Cost of War [publication]
- CAUCACUS: War and Peace: 100 Selected Articles [publication]
- ORPHANS AND VULNERABLE CHILDREN: Strengthening Community Structures [event]
- UNITED STATES: Implications of Children in Armed Conflict for U.S. Clinical Practice [conference]
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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.
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DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO: Struggling to Survive [publication]
[KINSHASA/NEW YORK, 26 April 2006] – Children in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) continue to endure some of the most inhumane treatment found anywhere in the world, despite outward signs of progress, according to a new report by the Watchlist on Children and Armed Conflict. The report, Struggling to Survive: Children in Armed Conflict in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, documents dozens of continued, pervasive and egregious violations against children by all armed forces and groups operating in DRC and urges that immediate actions be taken to protect Congolese children and to hold the perpetrators of crimes against children accountable.
“Despite the presence of the United Nations’ largest peacekeeping operation, the promise of upcoming elections and billions of dollars granted by donors for post-conflict reconstruction in DRC, most Congolese children are not faring any better than they were three years ago – and for some children, health, safety and well-being have drastically deteriorated,” said Julia Freedson, Director of Watchlist, a global network of non-governmental organisations based in New York.
Struggling to Survive details heinous violations against children’s security and rights in each of the six major categories identified by the UN Security Council. These categories include killing and maiming of children, rape and other forms of sexual violence against children, abduction of children, denial of humanitarian assistance for children, attacks on schools and hospitals and recruitment and use of children into armed forces and groups. In addition, the report documents a multitude of other abuses, including forced displacement of children, coercion of children into the illegal exploitation of natural resources and arbitrary detention of children.
Violations against children are committed against a backdrop of outward progress towards reconstruction in DRC, such as the demobilisation of thousands of children from armed forces and groups, the significant decrease in the number of displaced people in some areas, serious efforts to confront sexual violence and exploitation and the integration of combatants from armed groups into a unified national army. Another recent positive step taken was the International Criminal Court’s arrest of Thomas Lubanga Dyilo of the Union des Patriotes Congolais on charges of enlisting, conscripting and using children in hostilities in DRC.
“Outward signs of progress should not lull the international community into a false sense that children in DRC now live in safety,” warned Kathleen Hunt, CARE International’s UN Representative and Chairperson of the Watchlist. “To the contrary, stark evidence of the ongoing rape and mutilation of girls, recruitment and use of children by armed groups and other despicable abuses against children continues to be well-documented. In addition, it’s widely known that thousands of Congolese children are dying of preventable diseases every day and others are missing out on educational opportunities and other possibilities for advancing their lives.”
“The Congolese governing authorities, the UN team and others have yet to implement an effective structure of child protection in DRC. A wide gap remains between commitments to protect children in theory and actual practices on the ground. The widespread trafficking of small arms, difficulties in the disarmament and demobilisation process, and the persistence of general insecurity in the eastern DRC will continue to contribute in the weak structure for protection of children for the foreseeable future,” said Beck - Bukeni T. Waruzi, Director of Ajedi-Ka /Child Soldiers Project, a local child protection agency operating in eastern DRC.
“Immediate and sustained actions must be taken immediately by the governing authorities of DRC, all armed groups operating in DRC, the UN Security Council, the United Nations Organisation Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUC), the humanitarian community in DRC, donors and the International Criminal Court to protect Congolese children from further violations and to find remedies for those who have already endured imponderable suffering,” Hunt added.
Further information
For more information, contact:
Watchlist on Children and Armed Conflict
c/o Womens' Commission for
Refugee Women and Children
122 E. 42nd Street, 12th floor, New York, NY 10168
Tel: + 1 212 551 3111; Fax: + 1 212 551 3180
Email: [email protected]
Website: http://www.watchlist.org
Visit: http://www.crin.org/resources/infoDetail.asp?ID=8096
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HIGH COMMISSIONER FOR REFUGEES: 2006 Report [publication]
[LONDON, 19 April 2006] – The number of refugees in the world has fallen to the lowest level in 25 years but new challenges have left the international system for dealing with human displacement at a pivotal point, according to a report released last week by the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). The State of the World's Refugees: Human Displacement in the New Millennium, was launched in London by High Commissioner for Refugees António Guterres and UK Secretary of State for International Development Hilary Benn.
The book examines the changing dynamics of displacement over the past half decade. While the number of refugees – 9.2 million – is now the lowest in a quarter century, it says the international system for handling human displacement has reached a critical point in an increasingly globalised world. The challenges include the plight of tens of millions of internally displaced people; widespread confusion over migrants and refugees; tightened asylum policies and growing intolerance.
In his foreword to the book, Guterres notes that inter-state conflict is less prevalent today than internal strife and civil war, resulting in fewer refugees crossing international borders but more displaced within their own countries. Although the world's estimated 25 million internally displaced people do not fall under the 1951 Refugee Convention, they are in urgent need of help.
"People who would otherwise seek safety in neighbouring States are more frequently compelled to remain within the borders of their own country, most often in similar conditions as refugees," writes Guterres, who says internal displacement is the international community's "biggest failure" in humanitarian action. "Two long-running conflicts in Africa – the Democratic Republic of Congo and Sudan – alone accounted for an estimated 7.5 million internally displaced people in 2005."
The book notes, however, that the United Nations is beginning to make discernible progress toward helping the internally displaced, including a UN decision last year assigning sectoral responsibilities to specific agencies.
"UNHCR's role in the new division of labour is pivotal because it is focused on protection, the biggest gap in the system," the book says. "UNHCR is at a critical juncture in its 55-year history, having agreed to substantially expand its role to encompass the internally displaced. For the first time since the end of World War II, a comprehensive regime is being designed to address the needs of the forcibly displaced on both sides of the border."
Millions of refugees and asylum seekers have over the past five years benefited from international protection and from repatriation, integration in first-asylum States, or resettlement to third countries. More than 4 million have gone home to Afghanistan and hundreds of thousands more to Angola, Sierra Leone, Burundi and Liberia. South Sudan, struggling to emerge from two decades of civil war, could see more than 4 million internally displaced and refugees return in the next few years.
But ensuring that the uprooted can go home and stay home requires sustained international attention, from the return phase to reconstruction and long-term development. Bridging gaps in that process is crucial in preventing States from sliding back into another cycle of violence and displacement. Development plays a key role in ensuring that peace and economic recovery can take root.
Visit: http://www.crin.org/resources/infoDetail.asp?ID=8002
Further information
For more information, contact:
United Nations High Commission for Refugees
Case Postale 2500, CH-1211 Geneva 2 Dépôt, Switzerland
Tel: +41 22 739 8111
Website: http://www.unhcr.org
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UGANDA: Counting the Cost of War [publication]
This document provides an overall assessment of the conflict in northern Uganda and outlines recommendations for various actors. The authors highlight how after 20 years the war shows no real signs of abating, and every day it goes on it exacts a greater toll from the women, men, and children affected by the crisis.
The authors argue that the time has come for all parties involved to act decisively. The Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), the Government of Uganda (GoU), and the international community must acknowledge the true scale and horror of the situation and act resolutely and without delay, both to guarantee the effective protection of civilians in the region and to secure a just and lasting peace.
Recommendations include:
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the LRA must show a clear commitment to resolving the conflict peacefully via negotiation
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the GoU must make the protection of civilians its first priority and take immediate, concrete action to guarantee the protection of its citizens
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the UN Security Council should immediately adopt a resolution specifically addressing the conflict in northern Uganda. This resolution should express deep concern for the humanitarian emergency in the region
For more information, contact:
Civil Society Organisations for Peace in Northern Uganda
c/o CARE, 17 Mackinnon Road, Nakasero, Kampala, Uganda
Tel: +256 41 258568/9, +256 77 221103; Fax: +256 41 344295
Email: [email protected]
Visit: http://www.crin.org/resources/infoDetail.asp?ID=8084
Further information
Vist CRIN's page on child rights in Uganda
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CAUCACUS: War and Peace: 100 Selected Articles [publication]
This collection, compiled by the Institute for War and Peace Reporting, summarises in 100 articles the basic events that have taken place in the Caucasus from 1999-2005 - a period during which not only saw the beginning of a new millennium, but of new developments in the region. Every week during these six years, the Caucasus Reporting Service (CRS) of the Institute for War and Peace Reporting provided readers around the world a view on these events. This unique resource published investigations by local journalists conducted according to international standards, joint cross-border reports, and analysis of developments taking place in the furthest reaches of the region.
This job perhaps looks very simple: merely to lay out the reasons and details of the events in an objective manner. But in fact it proved to be difficult work to be an unbiased journalist in a region where, in the last 10-15 years, four major wars took place - Chechnya, Karabakh, South Ossetia and Abkhazia. In addition, Ossetians and Ingush clashed in the Prigorodny region of North Ossetia, and an "anti-terrorist" operation between Russian federal forces and Chechen rebels continues in Chechnya to this day.
For more information, contact:
Institute for War & Peace Reporting
48 Grays Inn Road, London WC1X 8LT, UK
Tel: +44 (0)20 7831 1030 Fax: +44 (0)20 7831 1050
Website: http://www.iwpr.net
Visit: http://www.crin.org/resources/infoDetail.asp?ID=7930&flag=report
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ORPHANS AND VULNERABLE CHILDREN: Strengthening Community Structures [event]
Date: 20-22 June 2006
Location: Kisumu, Kenya
The Christian Children’s Fund - Kenya is hosting a National conference on Strengthening Existing Community Structures on OVC (orphans and vulnerable children) Care and Support, to be held in June 2006. The conference subthemes are:
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Best Practices in OVC Care and Support Programmes
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Enhancing Child Participation on OVC Care and Support
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Promoting Policy that provide Support Environment to OVC Care Organisers are calling for abstracts on all the major areas of OVC care and support management and policy influence. All selected papers will be published in the conference proceedings and best papers presented will be eligible for inclusion in Official Christian Children’s Fund publications.
Submission deadline: 19 May 2006
Registration deadline: 10 June 2006
Visit: http://www.crin.org/resources/infoDetail.asp?ID=8115&flag=event
For more information, contact:
OVC Secretariat
Christian Children’s Fund - Kenya
PO Box 14083 00800, Nairobi, Kenya
Tel: +254 20 4444890/3; Fax: +254 20 4444426
Email: [email protected]
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UNITED STATES: Implications of Children in Armed Conflict for U.S. Clinical Practice [conference]
Date: 9 June 2006
Location: Maryland, United States of America
The conference will examine the global nature of children's involvement in armed conflicts, current theory and practice related to the treatment of affected children, and the impact on their communities and cultures.
This conference will provide an opportunity to reflect on a growing population utilising mental health and social services – refugee and immigrant children and families from war-affected areas. The content will enhance the clinical knowledge and skills of social service practitioners working with refugee and immigrant children and families that have experienced extreme violence and disempowerment. Practitioners at all levels must be knowledgeable about the nature of children’s involvement in armed conflicts, current trauma and resettlement theory, contributions of culture, and related practice issues in order to provide culturally and contextually informed services. The major focus will be on armed conflicts in Africa.
Content areas will strengthen understanding of issues such as trauma, recovery / healing, spirituality, and assessment of individual and societal strengths and vulnerabilities.
For more information, contact:
Laura Wyman
Smith College, School for Social Work, Lilly Hall 218, Northampton, MA 01063, United States of America
Tel: +1 (413) 585 7974
Email: [email protected]
Website: http://www.smith.edu/ssw/index.php
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