Submitted by crinadmin on
The present report has been prepared in accordance with the provisions of Security Council resolutions 1612 (2005) and 1882 (2009). It is the third report on the situation of children and armed conflict in Somalia submitted to the Council and its Working Group on Children and Armed Conflict, covering the nearly two-year period from 31 May 2008 to 31 March 2010. Some significant recent developments that occurred from May to July 2010 have also been reflected. The report documents a period of complex changes in Somalia and follows my second report (S/2008/352) and the subsequent conclusions and recommendations of the Working Group on Children and Armed Conflict (S/AC.51/2008/14). The report stresses that the level and scale of grave violations against children in Somalia have been increasing over the past two years, particularly with regard to the recruitment and use of children in armed conflict; the killing and maiming of children; and the denial of humanitarian access to children. In Mogadishu, tens of thousands of children are suffering under the direct impact of one of the most intense and indiscriminate conflicts in the world, while the broader implications of displacement, livelihood collapse and lack of statutory protection services have affected children across the entire country and further increased their vulnerability to all forms of violence, exploitation and abuse. The report cites a number of parties to the conflict responsible for recruiting and using children and committing other grave violations against children, such as the administration of the Transitional Federal Government, the government-allied Alhu Sunnah Wal Jama'a, the Hizbul Islam group and Al-Shabaab group. The precarious and unpredictable security situation in Somalia presents a challenge to the provision of a definitive account of violations and perpetrators. This has been compounded by attacks on humanitarian personnel and the remote location of the United Nations country team in Nairobi. The analysis presented in this report is based to a great extent on individual cases of grave child rights violations as documented by a network of United Nations and child protection partners on the ground. Total figures provided by those monitors on each violation are not representative of the scale and scope of violations committed against Somali children. Individual cases documented in this report can therefore only be indicative of the gravity of protection issues faced by Somali children. The report contains a series of recommendations with a view to securing strengthened action for the protection of children in Somalia.