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New York, 20 January 2004
The battle to uphold the rights and well-being
of children exposed to armed conflict "has reached a watershed moment," the
Secretary-General's Special Representative on the issue told the Security
Council today.
During the annual Council debate on children and armed conflict,
Under-Secretary-General Olara Otunnu said that while there has been
significant progress on many fronts for children, too many parties go
unpunished despite continuing to violate their rights.
"The general situation for children remains grave and unacceptable," Mr.
Otunnu said, citing the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), the
Indonesian province of Aceh, Iraq, Liberia, the occupied Palestinian
territories and Uganda as areas where children have particularly suffered
over the past year.
Mr. Otunnu's recommendations to redress the situation include setting up a
monitoring and reporting mechanism to track violations of children's rights
during conflicts. But he said there has been some progress in recent years,
including greater advocacy for children, the development of international
norms for their treatment, and the increasing integration of child
protection into UN peacekeeping operations.
Carol Bellamy, Executive Director of the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF), told
the Council debate that many children suffer more because humanitarian
access is often restricted or banned outright during wars.
Ms. Bellamy said child soldiers were not the only victims of wars, adding
that girls were especially vulnerable to sexual violence and exploitation.
"Another devastating consequence of today's wars is that they create and
exacerbate conditions that lead to HIV/AIDS," she said. "The impoverishment
that accompanies conflict often leaves women and girls so destitute that
trading sex for survival becomes the only option for many."
A number of the more than 40 delegates who spoke at the meeting said the
most effective way to help children affected by armed conflict was to strike
at the root of the problem by preventing war from breaking out in the first
place.
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