[child-rights] Bellamy urges UN Security Council to consider children in all its deliberations

UNICEF
Press Release

"We must recognize that when it comes to the suffering of children in 
conflict, all of us are accountable"

NEW YORK, Wednesday 14 January - UNICEF Executive Director Carol Bellamy 
today urged the United Nations Security Council to establish a "culture of 
accountability" by holding those who use children in armed conflicts 
responsible for their actions.

Ms. Bellamy spoke today before a special session of the Security Council 
addressing the issue of children and armed conflict. The session follows a 
written report by the Secretary-General that "names and shames" those State 
Parties to conflict that recruit and use child soldiers.

"Can there be a more persuasive reason to act than the anguish of these 
children?" Bellamy asked the Council. "If so, it is hard to imagine." She 
added: "It is children who represent the succeeding generations that the UN 
was founded to save - and it is we who have the power to halt the suffering 
that is endured by so many children in so many countries."

Bellamy urged Council Members to refer to the Secretary-General's list in 
all their deliberations, as well as to update it regularly, expanding its 
scope to include armed conflicts not now on the Council's agenda.

Bellamy said UNICEF would use the list to intensify its own advocacy 
efforts at the global and national levels. She said the demobilization of 
child soldiers is a top priority for UNICEF and its partners, noting that 
reintegrating children back into their communities is a challenging process 
but one which is essential to breaking the cycle of recruitment. She added 
that peace agreements must always include specific commitments to disarm, 
demobilize and reintegrate children used in hostilities.

At any given time, an estimated 300,000 children across the globe are 
serving as child soldiers, Bellamy said. "They are living proof of the 
world's systemic failure to protect children. And they explain why UNICEF's 
work is focused on building a 'protective environment' for children, one 
that safeguards them from exploitation and abuse before it happens."

Bellamy said a "protective environment" for demobilized child soldiers must 
include effective strategies to prevent their re-recruitment, including 
long-term investment in education, vocational training, and support for 
families and communities. She added that reintegration programs must take 
into account the specific needs of girls, who are rarely used as combatants 
but nonetheless suffer from extraordinary violence as sex slaves, porters, 
and servants.

Bellamy thanked the Council members for their important work, but said that 
"much more is required if we are to make the protection of children an 
explicit priority in our efforts to build peace and resolve conflict."

"Over the years, responsible adults the world over have made good-faith 
promises to children. Promises to ease suffering and end exploitation - and 
to protect children from the loss of childhood, from rape and mutilation 
and recruitment as child soldiers," Bellamy said. "Yet time and time again 
- in such places as Rwanda, Sierra Leone, Sudan, Afghanistan, Kosovo, 
Colombia and East Timor - cruelty and indifference has prevailed. We need 
to do more about accountability and impunity. We must find effective ways 
to promote peace building and conflict prevention. And we must recognize 
that when it comes to the suffering of children in conflict, all of us
are accountable."

Background

UNICEF works in some 25 countries affected by war. The organization focuses on
strengthening the protective environment for children by restarting 
schools, supplying immunizations, reuniting children with their families, 
operating clinics and hospitals, supporting traumatized children, 
campaigning against child recruitment and promoting demobilization and 
disarmament.

In the Great Lakes area of central Africa, UNICEF is taking a regional 
approach, working in partnership with the World Bank, other UN agencies, 
donor governments and regional officials to develop a Multi-Country 
Demobilisation and Reintegration Programme (MDRP).

In Angola, there is an urgent need to provide support to an estimated 8,000 
children who were recruited during the civil war and have been released 
without a formal demobilisation exercise. In response, UNICEF is working to 
build support for these children's reintegration into communities, and to 
provide health care and schooling.
Ms. Bellamy will visit Sri Lanka at the end of January. UNICEF continues to 
be very active in efforts to end the use of child soldiers in that 
country's conflict and will focus on demobilization during her three-day stay.

* * *

For further information, please contact:
Jehane Sedky-Lavandero, UNICEF Media, New York,
(212) 326-7269 jsedky@unicef.org