• Identify a Security Council Member as a focal point for the protection of children in armed conflict. (Details on p. 5)
• Appoint a small independent and representative group of experts, drawn from UN agencies and qualified NGOs, to outline concretely the mandates and coordination needed within the UN system to achieve a comprehensive and effective monitoring and reporting structure. (Details on p. 5)
• Establish a child protection inspection initiative, such that the Council is quickly and efficiently able to verify reports of egregious violations when warranted by reports. (Details on p. 5)
• Call on the full membership of the United Nations to support monitoring and reporting initiatives to build capacity on the local level and solidify the building blocks of a comprehensive system. (Details on p. 5)

• Request the Secretary-General to prepare a regular annual list of all parties to armed conflict that recruit or use child soldiers in violation of international obligations applicable to them and to expand this list to include all situations, as recommended by the Secretary-General (Fourth Report of the Secretary-General on Children and Armed Conflict A/58/546-S/2003/1053 para. 105(h)). (Details on p. 7)
• Request the Secretary-General to present a new list including parties in all situations involved in especially egregious violations. (Details on p. 7)
• State intention to merge these two interim lists into one consolidated list by 2006. (Details on p. 7)

• Strengthen, with specific time-bound actions, the steps already established in resolution 1460 to address the recruitment and use of child soldiers by parties listed in the annexes to the Secretary-General's report, and ensure they are carried out on a systematic basis. (Details on p. 9)
• Adapt the graduated measures for addressing the recruitment and use of child soldiers to ensure their applicability to other egregious violations against children. (Details on p. 10)

This paper also contains 5 related annexes related to:

ANNEX I: Attention to children in Security Council resolutions

ANNEX II: Attention to children in Secretary-General's country reports

ANNEX III: Excerpts of country-specific documentation of violations against children

ANNEX IV: Legal standards for Secretary-General's list to include egregious violations

ANNEX V: Further Resources related to positive incentives for achieving compliance

See www.watchlist.org for Watchlist reports on individual countries and Security Council reports

Child Soldiers Coalition News Release and Report on Use of Child Soldiers

REPORT SHOWS CHILD SOLDIER USE CONTINUES UNABATED

London, 16 January 2004 Children continued to be used as soldiers, sexual slaves, labourers, porters and spies throughout 2003 in both newly-erupting and longstanding conflicts, according to a report released in the run-up to the United Nations Security Council fourth open debate on children and armed conflict.

The report, released today by the Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers, details evidence of governments and armed groups recruiting and using child soldiers in numerous conflicts worldwide. The Coalition calls for action by the UN Security Council to insist upon and enforce an end to child recruitment.

This press release and the new report are available to download at http://www.child-soldiers.org/cs/childsoldiers.nsf/37f914dcf6a462ec802569bb0 0677467/f2feb5995c9ac4c480256e1c004b0cd6?OpenDocument

The Secretary-General has publicly named governments and armed groups using children in war. The test for the Security Council is to hold these governments and groups accountable for their actions, said Casey Kelso, Coalition Coordinator.

The 50-page report, Child Soldier Use 2003, is intended to help the Security Council formulate concrete solutions during its annual debate on children and armed conflict, scheduled for Tuesday 20 January. The Coalition report identifies 18 different countries and situations in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Middle East where child soldier issues remain part of the gross abuse of human rights in armed conflict or its aftermath.

The Coalitions report provides evidence that in many conflicts, such as in the Cote d'Ivoire, parts of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Liberia, a massive increase in recruitment occurred during 2003. Horrifying reports emerged from the DRC of children being raped and tortured, as well as forced to commit atrocities against civilians. Abductions of children in northern Uganda by the Lords Resistance Army are at the highest point of the conflicts 17-year history. Thousands of children in northern Uganda continue to flee their homes at night to avoid being abducted into brutal combat and servitude.

In Myanmar there was little if any progress in ending child soldiering, with an estimated 70,000 children in the government armed forces. Exiled children told of being abducted by government forces and taken to military camps where they were subjected to beatings, forced labour and combat. Recent reports from Colombia reveal that the number of children used by armed groups may have increased to around 11,000 in recent years, with children as young as 12 trained and deployed to use explosives and weapons. In Sri Lanka the forced conscription of children by the armed opposition Tamil Tigers of Eelam (LTTE) continues, despite LTTE pledges to demobilize children from their ranks.

The Coalition recommends that Security Council members should:

• Make sure there is an annual updated list of all parties to armed conflict that recruit or use child soldiers;
• Follow up on this list by asking those using child soldiers to provide within 90 days information on steps they are taking to end recruitment and use of child soldiers;
• Designate a UN representative to start talks with those using child soldiers, and to assist them in developing action plans with them to end such practices;
• Verify whether armed groups and forces are implementing such action plans;
• End weapons flows, particularly small arms, to those recruiting and using children; and
• Use other means to enforce an international ban on child soldiering, such as travel restrictions on leaders using children in their armies, banning them from attending international events and organisations, ending military assistance to their governments or groups, and restricting the flow of financial resources to the parties concerned.