CHILDREN AND ARMED CONFLICT - GUIDANCE ON PRST

UNCLAS STATE 043262

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: UNSC GG PHUM PREL
SUBJECT: CHILDREN AND ARMED CONFLICT - GUIDANCE ON PRST


1. (U) This is an action request. The Department instructs
USUN to join consensus on the following PRST on Children and
Armed Conflict scheduled to be adopted by the Security
Council on April 29, 2009.


2. (U) Begin text:


1. At the 6114th meeting of the Security Council, held on 29
April 2009, in connection with the Council,s consideration
of the item entitled &Children and armed conflict8, the
President of the Security Council made the following
statement on behalf of the Council:


2. The Security Council takes note with appreciation of the
8th report of the Secretary-General (S/2009/158) on children
and armed conflict and of the positive developments referred
to in the report, and notes the continuing challenges in the
implementation of its resolution 1612 (2005) reflected
therein.


3. The Security Council reaffirms its commitment to address
the widespread impact of armed conflict on children, and its
determination to ensure respect for, and the implementation
of, its resolution 1612 (2005) and all its previous
resolutions on children and armed conflict, as well as
respect for other applicable international law related to the
protection of children affected by armed conflict.


4. The Security Council stresses, in this regard, the
importance of adopting a broad strategy of conflict
prevention, which addresses the root causes of armed conflict
in a comprehensive manner in order to enhance the protection
of children on a long-term basis, including by promoting
sustainable development, poverty eradication, national
reconciliation, good governance, democracy, the rule of law
and respect for and protection of human rights.


5. The Security Council acknowledges that the implementation
of its resolution 1612 (2005) in situations listed in the
annexes to the Secretary-General,s report (S/2009/158) has
generated progress and invites the Secretary General, where
applicable, to strengthen the efforts to bring the monitoring
and reporting mechanism to its full capacity in order to
allow for prompt advocacy and effective response to all
violations and abuses committed against children. In this
regard, the Council reiterates its request to the
Secretary-General to provide additional administrative
support to its Working Group on Children and Armed Conflict.


6. The Security Council reiterates its equally strong
condemnation of the continuing recruitment and use of
children in armed conflict in violation of applicable
international law, killing and maiming of children, rape and
other sexual violence, abductions, denial of humanitarian
access to children and attacks against schools and hospitals
by parties to armed conflict. The Council condemns all other
violations of international law, including international
humanitarian law, human rights law and refugee law, committed
against children in situations of armed conflict. The Council
demands that all relevant parties immediately put an end to
such practices and take special measures to protect children.


7. The Security Council expresses deep concern that
civilians, in particular children, continue to account for a
considerable number of casualties resulting from killing and
maiming in armed conflicts, including as a result of
deliberate targeting, indiscriminate and excessive use of
force, indiscriminate use of landmines and cluster munitions
and use of children as human shields.


8. The Security Council further expresses deep concern with
the high incidence and appalling levels of brutality of rape
and other forms of sexual violence against children, girls
and boys, committed in the context of and associated with
armed conflict, including the use or commission of rape and
other forms of sexual violence in some situations as a tactic
of war.


9. The Security Council recognises the importance of
including in the annexes to the Secretary-General,s reports
on Children and armed conflict those parties to armed
conflict that commit acts of killing and maiming of children
that are prohibited under applicable international law or
acts of rape and other sexual violence against children that
are prohibited under applicable international law, in
situations of armed conflict, and expresses its intention to
continue its consideration of this issue, in order to take
action within three months of this date.


10. The Security Council reiterates its call on parties to
armed conflict listed in the annexes of the Secretary
General,s report (S/2009/158) that have not already done so
to prepare and implement, without further delay, concrete
time-bound action plans to halt recruitment and use of
children in violation of applicable international law, and to
address all other violations and abuses committed against
children and undertake specific commitments and measures in
this regard, in close cooperation with the Special
Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and
Armed Conflict and the United Nations country-level task
forces on monitoring and reporting.


11. The Security Council expresses its concern with
situations where insufficient or no progress has been made by
parties listed in the annexes to the Secretary-General,s
reports in halting recruitment and use of children in
violation of applicable international law, including through
the preparation and implementation of concrete time-bound
action plans, and reiterates its determination to ensure
respect for its resolutions on children and armed conflict,
making use of all the tools provided in its resolution 1612
(2005),including action as appropriate in accordance with
paragraph 9 of its resolution 1612 (2005).


12. The Security Council strongly emphasizes the need for
concerned Member States to take decisive and immediate action
against persistent perpetrators of violations against
children, and to bring to justice those responsible for the
recruitment and use of children in violation of applicable
international law and other violations against children
through national justice systems and, where applicable,
international justice mechanisms and mixed criminal courts
and tribunals, with a view to ending impunity for those
committing crimes against children.


13. &The Security Council reiterates the primary
responsibility of States in providing effective protection
and relief to all children affected by armed conflicts, and
calls upon them to comply with their obligations under
applicable international law, including the Convention on the
Rights of the Child and the Optional Protocols thereto and
encourages States to strengthen national measures for the
prevention of violations against children in armed conflict,
including recruitment and use of children and their use in
hostilities in violation of applicable international law,
inter alia, by enacting legislation that explicitly prohibits
such recruitment and use as well as other violations and
urges States that have not yet done so to consider ratifying
or acceding this Convention and its Optional Protocols.


14. The Security Council reiterates the importance of the
full, safe and unhindered access of humanitarian personnel
and goods and the delivery of humanitarian assistance to all
children affected by armed conflict, and stresses the
importance for all, within the framework of humanitarian
assistance, of upholding and respecting the humanitarian
principles of humanity, neutrality, impartiality and
independence.


15. The Security Council remains concerned with the illicit
trafficking of small arms and light weapons and its effect on
and their use by children in armed conflict.


16. The Security Council welcomes the sustained engagement of
its Working Group on Children and Armed Conflict and requests
it to adopt, with the administrative support of the
Secretariat, timely conclusions and recommendations in line
with resolution 1612 (2005). The Council encourages its
Working Group to continue its review process, to enhance its
ability to follow up the implementation of its
recommendations and the development and implementation of
action plans to halt recruitment and use of children, and to
consider and react in a timely manner to information on
situations of children and armed conflict, in collaboration
with the Office of the Special Representative of the
Secretary-General and UNICEF. It also invites its Working
Group to enhance its communication with relevant Security
Council Sanctions Committees, including by forwarding
pertinent information.


17. The Security Council commends the work carried out by the
Special Representative of the Secretary General for Children
and Armed Conflict, Ms. Radhika Coomaraswamy, and emphasizes
the importance of her country visits in promoting
collaboration between the United Nations and governments and
enhancing dialogue with parties to armed conflict.


18. The Security Council also commends the work carried out
by UNICEF as well as other relevant United Nations agencies,
funds, programmes within their respective mandates, the Child
Protection Advisers of United Nations peacekeeping,
peacebuilding and political missions in cooperation with
national Governments and relevant civil society actors.


19. The Security Council encourages the efforts of the
Department of Peacekeeping Operations in mainstreaming child
protection into all peacekeeping missions, in close
collaboration with the Office of the Special Representative
of the Secretary-General on Children and Armed Conflict and
UNICEF; and encourages the deployment of Child Protection
Advisers to peacekeeping operations, as well as into relevant
peacebuilding and political missions.


20. The Security Council invites the Peacebuilding Commission
to continue to promote child protection in post-conflict
situations under its consideration.


21. Given the regional dimension of some conflicts, the
Security Council encourages Member States, United Nations
peacekeeping, peacebuilding and political missions and United
Nations Country Teams to establish appropriate strategies and
coordination mechanisms for information exchange and
cooperation on cross-border child protection concerns such as
recruitment, release and reintegration of children.


22. The Security Council recognizes the important role of
education in armed conflict areas, including as a means to
achieve the goal of halting and preventing recruitment and
re-recruitment of children in violation of applicable
international law, and calls upon all parties concerned to
continue to ensure that all children associated with armed
forces and groups systematically have access to disarmament,
demobilization and reintegration processes where they can
benefit, inter alia, from education.


23. The Security Council also urges parties to armed conflict
to refrain from actions that impede children,s access to
education, in particular attacks or threats of attack on
school children or teachers as such, the use of schools for
military operations, and attacks on schools that are
prohibited by applicable international law.


24. The Security Council requests the Secretary-General to
submit his next report by May 2010 on the implementation of
its resolutions on children and armed conflict.
CLINTON