Statement on behalf of the Group of Friends of Children and Armed Conflict and at the Security Council Open Debate on Children and Armed Conflict

July 19, 2022 – UN Security Council

Madam/Mister President,

I have the honour of delivering this statement on behalf of the Group of Friends of Children and Armed Conflict^{Footnote 1}. We welcome today’s Open Debate convened by Brazil and thank the briefers for their statements. We would like to acknowledge and thank Patrick Kumi in particular for sharing his experiences and recommendations.

We encourage the Security Council to regularly include children and youth briefers in its deliberations and briefings, and call for the safe and meaningful inclusion and participation of children and youth in all matters of peace and security, including political and peace processes, protection and humanitarian responses, and reintegration programming, among others.

Madam/Mister President,

The Group of Friends is deeply concerned by the figures and trends presented in the Secretary-General’s annual report. Reading this report together with recent analysis conducted by UNICEF, which highlights that grave violations have increased year-over-year for the past 16 years, we are presented with a dire picture of the plight facing conflict-affected children.

Persistently-high levels of killing and maiming of children, recruitment and use of children, and the denial of humanitarian assistance by parties to armed conflict are extremely troubling.

The dramatic increase in abductions is cause for serious concern, as abduction often leads to other grave violations against children. Significant increases in verified incidents of sexual violence against children are also alarming and must be reversed. This grave violation disproportionately affects girls, while also impacting boys, and is already prone to severe under-reporting and a lack of data.

We are dismayed by the widespread attacks against schools and hospitals as presented in the report, particularly amidst the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, which is causing the largest disruption to children’s education in history.

Furthermore, we are alarmed by the soaring numbers of children displaced as a result of conflict and violence around the world – now more than 36.5 million children, according to the UN. This figure does not include the more than 4.5 million children who have been displaced by Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine.

Displaced children face heightened risks, including vulnerability to trafficking, forced deportations, exploitation, recruitment and use, and other abuses, particularly for children with disabilities and those who are unaccompanied or separated from their caregivers.

Against this troubling backdrop, the Group of Friends would like to make the following recommendations, which we commit to follow up on through our own collective engagement:

First, we urge all parties to armed conflict fully comply with their obligations under international humanitarian law, human rights law, and refugee law, and to act to prevent and end grave violations against children. To this end, we strongly encourage all parties to armed conflict to sign and implement action plans and other concrete and time-bound measures to enhance the protection of children in armed conflict.

Second, we call for full accountability for grave violations through national and international justice mechanisms, such as the International Criminal Court. True justice also involves reparations and access to gender- and age-sensitive comprehensive specialized services, including medical, mental health and psychosocial support, and sexual and reproductive health-care services, as well as legal and livelihood support to survivors of grave violations.

Third, a growing number of Member States have acceded to or endorsed key instruments aimed at strengthening the protection of children in armed conflict. We encourage all UN Member States to accede to the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the Involvement of Children in Armed Conflict, and to consider endorsing and implementing practical child protection instruments, such as the Safe Schools Declaration, the Paris Principles and Commitments, and the Vancouver Principles on Peacekeeping and the Prevention of the Recruitment and Use of Child Soldiers.

Fourth, we call for adequate resourcing for child protection specialists and activities, including within UN peace operations, UN Country Task Forces on Monitoring and Reporting, and in international fact-finding and investigative mechanisms, as well as international judicial bodies.

Fifth and finally, we urge the Security Council, Member States, the UN Secretariat, and host countries to support the full implementation of child protection mandates by UN peace operations, including in contexts where the UN may be transitioning. We also recall the importance of the Peacebuilding Commission and Fund, which can play key roles in mobilising attention and resources to address the needs of children in conflict and post-conflict settings, including for the reintegration of children formerly associated with armed forces and armed groups.

Madam/Mister President,

As we mark the 25th anniversary of the Children and Armed Conflict mandate, we express our sincere appreciation for the work of the Special Representative to the Secretary-General, UNICEF, and all child protection actors from the UN and civil society.

Over the past 25 years, we have worked together to build a robust set of tools in support of this unique and important mandate, from the Monitoring and Reporting Mechanism, to the Security Council Working Group, among many others. These tools must be defended and strengthened.

In this regard, the Group of Friends reiterates the importance that we attach to the independence, impartiality, and credibility of the Monitoring and Reporting Mechanism (MRM) and the listing mechanism as contained in the Secretary-General’s annual reports on Children and Armed Conflict. Together, these two tools remain particularly important in our efforts to protect children and promote accountability for grave violations.

We note that Ethiopia, Mozambique, Ukraine, and the Central Sahel region have been designated in the report as situations of concern with immediate effect. We also note the listing decisions in the annexes, as well as the criteria for these decisions.

We reiterate our long-standing call for the information presented in the Secretary-General’s annual reports, as collected and verified by the MRM, to be reflected in the annexes of the report in an accurate and timely manner

And we recall the importance of the Secretary-General utilizing clear criteria and procedures for listing and de-listing parties to armed conflict deemed responsible for committing grave violations across all situations contained in the report.

Thank you, Madam/Mister President.