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Summary: The Children in Armed Conflict
Caucus presents its edits to the
Third Revised Draft Outcome during
the Third PrepCom (11-15 June
2001).
'A World Fit for Children' - Edits Prepared by the Caucus on
Children in Armed Conflict, 12 June 2001
Revision of the section on Protection from armed conflict under
Paragraph 39 (changed text is underlined):
Protection from armed conflict and its impacts
• Strengthen the protection of children affected by armed
conflict and foreign occupation, including through the systematic
documentation of and reporting on violations of their rights,
consideration of the reports by the Security Council and
establishing a right of petition procedure.
• Ensure that issues pertaining to the rights and
protection of children are fully reflected in the agendas of peace
processes and in ensuing peace agreements, and are
incorporated into United Nations peace operations, and establish
a United Nations InterAgency Working Group to evaluate the
lessons learned and determine how to best move forward on
these issues.
• End the use of child soldiers, ensure that children and
adolescents do not take part in hostilities, and develop and
provide adequate resources for appropriate demobilization,
reintegration and rehabilitation programmes.
• Exclude war crimes against children from amnesty
provisions and legislation, and ensure that whenever post-
conflict truth and justice seeking mechanisms are established,
serious abuses of and by children are addressed.
• Provide appropriate training and education in child
rights and protection to all civilian, military and police personnel
involved in peacekeeping operations.
• Curb the illicit flow of small arms, eliminate threats
posed by landmines, unexploded ordnance and other war
material that victimize children, and engage with the private
sector to ensure that funds and facilities are not used by armed
groups that target children.
• Protect the rights of and assist refugee children and
adolescents, including those who are seeking asylum and the
internally displaced; and provide support for survival, voluntary
repatriation, right of return, local integration and resettlement.
• Recognize and respond to the specific protection needs
of girls, with emphasis on prevention and treatment for victims of
sexual and gender-based violence.
• Ensure safe and unhindered access and respect
children’s right to humanitarian assistance, including education,
reunification and support for families, community-based
psychological and social assistance, and assistance for disabled
children.
• Ensure targeted attention to the rights and capacities
of adolescents, including appropriate protection, education,
health services, HIV/AIDS prevention and care, alternatives for
livelihood and opportunities for constructive participation in peace-
building.
• Implement practical and comprehensive conflict
prevention measures, including child protection networks, early
warning and rapid response systems, alternatives for
adolescents at risk and the promotion of conflict resolution skills.
• Assess and monitor the impact of sanctions on children,
and ensure humanitarian exemptions that are child-focused and
formulated with clear guidelines for their application, in order to
address possible adverse effects of the sanctions.
Revisions to conflict related statements in the draft outcome
document (underlined words/statements are additions to the
existing text):
I. Declaration
Paragraph 6:
• Protect children from war. Children must be protected
from the horrors of armed conflict and receive assistance to deal
with its impact.
Paragraph 10:
Yet much more needs to be done. The resources that were
promised at the Summit at both the national and international
levels have yet to fully materialize. Critical challenges remain;
more than 10 million children die each year although most of
those deaths could be prevented; 100 million children are still out
of school, 60 per cent of them girls; 150 million children suffer
from malnutrition; 300,000 are being used as child soldiers, and
HIV/AIDS is spreading with catastrophic speed. There is
persistent poverty, exclusion and discrimination, and inadequate
investment in social services. The childhood of millions continues
to be devastated by hazardous and exploitative labour; the sale
and trafficking of children and women; the impact of armed
conflict; and other forms of abuse, exploitation and violence.
III. Plan of Action
A. Creating a world fit for children
Paragraph 18b:
We commit to the peaceful resolution of conflict so that armed
conflicts become obsolete. Only then will children be spared the
ravages of war. We rededicate ourselves to fulfil the pledge of
the United Nations Charter that ‘We, the peoples of the United
Nations determined to save succeeding generations from the
scourge of war…'.
Paragraph 21:
The achievement of goals for children, particularly for girls, will be
advanced if women fully enjoy all human rights and fundamental
freedoms, are empowered to participate fully and equally in all
spheres of society and are protected from all forms of violence,
abuse and discrimination. We recognize the inextricable link
between the human rights of children and the human rights of
women, and will work for the full implementation of the human
rights of women as the foundation for realizing children's human
rights. We are determined to provide special attention to the
needs of the girl child in order to promote and protect her right to
be free from coercion and from harmful practices and sexual
exploitation. We will promote full gender equality and equal
access to services, such as education, nutrition, health care,
including sexual and reproductive health care, and will
mainstream a gender perspective in all development policies and
programmes.
Partnerships and participation
Paragraph 29:
• People who work directly with children have great
responsibilities. It is important to enhance their status, morale
and professionalism and provide them with training and support.
B. Goals, strategies and actions
1. Promoting healthy lives
Paragraph 33:
• Eliminate gender discrimination in quality and delivery
of all health services.
• Ensure appropriate and adequate mental health and
psychosocial services for children and adolescents who are
affected by violence, displacement and war.
• Strengthen health and education systems and expand
the social security systems to increase access to integrated and
effective health, nutrition and childcare in families, communities,
schools and primary health-care facilities, without interruption
during armed conflict.
2. Providing quality education
Paragraph 36:
• Provide age-appropriate education and training opportunities to
adolescents to help them acquire sustainable livelihoods,
especially those in crisis.
• Make education the fourth pillar of humanitarian
response and end targeting of schools in conflict situations.
3. Protecting against abuse, exploitation and violence
Paragraph 37:
Social and economic pressures, armed conflict and forced
displacement are undermining the crucial role of parents, families,
caregivers and communities in ensuring that children grow up in a
safe, stable and nurturing environment. During the 1990s, more
than two million children died as a result of armed conflict; more
than three times that number were permanently disabled or
seriously injured; and at the end of the decade, some 20 million
children were internally displaced or driven from their countries as
refugees. More than 100 million children are trapped in the worst
forms of child labour. Millions of children are victims of trafficking
and sexual exploitation. Domestic violence against women and
children is a serious problem in all parts of the world.
Paragraph 38:
(b) Protect children from the impact of armed conflict and
forced displacement by ensuring compliance with international
humanitarian and human rights law;
Paragraph 39: Under General protection:
• Develop systems to ensure the registration of every
child at or shortly after birth, and fulfil his or her right to acquire
and maintain a name and nationality.
• Strengthen national and international institutions to
investigate and trace missing persons for the purpose of
reuniting separated families, with a special focus on children.
pdf: www.crin.org/docs/resources/publications/Outcome_Doc_CAC.pdf