UGANDA DE-LISTED FOR RECRUITMENT OF CHILD SOLDIERS

UNCLAS KAMPALA 000489

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: KTIP PHUM PGOV KWMN UG
SUBJECT: UGANDA DE-LISTED FOR RECRUITMENT OF CHILD SOLDIERS


1. Summary: The United Nations has removed Uganda from its list of
countries that actively recruit children into armed forces. The
Ugandan Government initially brushed off the UN listing as
politically-motivated, but recently allowed a formal verification
team to inspect all of its military facilities and recruitment
exercises. The team, which had been working closely with the
government on child rights and protection issues since 2006, found
no child soldiers within the military and noted its sustained
performance on child protection issues. End Summary.

2. On April 29, UN Special Representative for Children and Armed
Conflict Radhika Coomaraswamy announced that Uganda had been removed
from the "list of shame" which named countries accused of recruiting
child soldiers. Coomaraswamy said Uganda's de-listing was the
result of its successful execution of an action plan for the
demobilization of children and their reintegration into society. In
previous UN reports, Uganda had been accused of using children in
local defense units, primarily in northern Uganda, and in the
Ugandan Peoples Defense Forces (UPDF). The Government largely
ignored the listing because at the time, it viewed the allegations
as politically-motivated because they came from former UN Special
Representative for Children in Armed Conflict, Olara Otunnu, who is
a Ugandan exile and an avowed political foe of President Museveni.

3. Last November, Uganda's former UN Deputy Permanent
Representative Adonia Ayebare persuaded Museveni that the listing
was hurting Uganda's image unnecessarily. He argued that Uganda had
nothing to hide and that the UPDF should immediately sign off on an
action plan that had been agreed to at the working level. He also
argued that as a member of the UN Security Council, Uganda needed to
follow through on its international obligations. Museveni agreed,
and in January, the verification team began its work.

4. The Ugandan Government's delays in signing the action plan
frustrated the national task force, which viewed the government's
reluctance to cooperate as irrational, according to UNICEF's
Protection Officer, Cornelius Williams. The task force, consisting
of UNICEF, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, the UN Office of
the High Commissioner for Human Rights, and Save the Children
Uganda, the Uganda Human Rights Commission, and the Uganda
Children's Rights Network, had been monitoring and reporting
quarterly on Uganda's compliance with UN Resolution 1612 on Children
and Armed Conflict since 2006 and had only found one case of a
17-year old that forged documents to join the UPDF. He was
dismissed.

5. Over the past five years, UNICEF and Save the Children have
forged a close working relationship with the UPDF. The UPDF
receives regular training from UNICEF, Save the Children, the
International Committee of the Red Cross, and the Ugandan Child
Rights Network, among others. The UPDF has developed a code of
conduct for soldiers dealing with children and a memorandum of
understanding between UNICEF and Save the Children and the UPDF's
Child Protection Units (CPU). There is regular interaction between
the UPDF's human rights desk, the CPUs, and the international
organizations. UNICEF has been particularly complimentary of the
UPDF's openness and willingness to cooperate on issues involving
children.

6. Comment: The UPDF and the task force are pleased with the
recognition of its efforts, even if it believed it had been unfairly
singled out in the first place. The international organizations
agree that Uganda's de-listing was appropriate and they hope that
the UPDF's progress on children's issues can be emulated in
neighboring countries.
HOOVER