Sommaire: EU Presidency Statement - Security Council Open Debate on Children and Armed Conflict (24 July 2006: New York)
Statement on behalf of the European Union by H.E. Mr. Pertti Torstila, the Secretary of State of the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland at the United Nations Security Council Open Debate of the Security Council on Children and Armed Conflict, New York
Mr. President,
I have the honour to speak on behalf of the European Union.
The Acceding Countries Bulgaria and Romania, the Candidate Countries Turkey, Croatia and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, the Countries of the Stabilisation and Association Process and potential candidates Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro and Serbia, and the EFTA countries Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway, members of the European Economic Area, as well as Ukraine and the Republic of Moldova align themselves with this declaration.
I thank you for providing us with an opportunity to debate the important issue of children and armed conflict. I also wish to express my appreciation to the Special Representative of the Secretary General, Ms. Coomaraswamy, for her valuable contribution to today's meeting. The European Union truly appreciates her recent appointment to this key mandate. Further, I wish to express my appreciation to the UNICEF Executive Director, Ms. Veneman, for her statement and the commendable work by UNICEF
taking forward this important agenda.
Mr. President,
Ten years ago the Graça Machel report laid the foundation for the children and armed conflict agenda and constituted a call to action. Today's discussion is thereby more than timely in order to reflect back and give additional support towards the implementation of this agenda. The Security Council resolution 1612 was an important step in taking forward the 'era of application'. We must now ensure our renewed joint action and seek ways to strengthen it further, in order to improve the situation
of children on the ground.
The situation of children affected by armed conflict continues to be grave. As one serious example, we continue to have deep concerns on the negative impact, including the health and psychological consequences, of violence on the present and future well-being of children in the whole Middle East region.
Mr. President,
Killing or maiming of children, recruiting or using child soldiers, attacks against schools or hospitals, rape or other grave sexual violence against children, abduction of children, and denial of humanitarian access for children were identified by the Secretary-General as the six grave violations that should receive priority attention in the reporting and monitoring mechanism. The urgency of the attention needed and action to be taken remains critical. In order to end impunity, grave and
persistent violations must lead to targeted and concrete measures of response.
The European Union welcomes and is encouraged by the work already carried out by the monitoring and reporting mechanism on children and armed conflict. Dialogue with parties and concrete time bound action plans are central. We welcome the efforts of United Nations field teams, including UNICEF, DPKO Child Protection Advisers and OHCHR, in coordination with civil society partners and concerned Member States, to monitor and report. In this regard, the European Union looks forward to the
independent review on the implementation of the mechanism, as well as to the assessment of DPKO child protection advisers, with a view to further strengthening this important initiative.
The European Union welcomes the recent report by the Working Group of the Security Council on Children and Armed Conflict introducing the activities of the Group since the adoption of the resolution 1612. We appreciate the important work undertaken by the Group and this transparency in carrying it out. We look forward to receiving reports of the Group also in the future.
The presentation of the first country report on children and armed conflict in the Democratic Republic of the Congo was an important development. The European Union urges its recommendations to be taken up effectively in order to secure strengthened action for the protection of war-affected children in the country. Further, the European Union considers it important to continue and further develop the practise of reporting on specific situations, as well as to take full use of the reporting and
briefing by the Special Representative in order to provide basis for the Security Council's consideration of concrete steps to be taken.
The Security Council has noted that information compiled by the monitoring and reporting mechanism may be considered by other international, regional and national bodies, within their mandates and the scope of their work. The European Union will seek to find ways to best support the mechanism and its implementation.
Mr. President,
For its part, the European Union is determined to continue to mainstream children and armed conflict issues into its advocacy, policies and programmes.
The European Union has continued to actively implement its Guidelines on Children and Armed Conflict, adopted in 2002. Action - be it political or financial - has been focused in selected priority countries. At the same time urgent situations in other conflict areas have been closely monitored.
In order to ensure effective mainstreaming throughout the European Union system, the European Union adopted a comprehensive implementation strategy for these Guidelines. The European Union will, in countries affected by armed conflict, pay special attention to the issue of children, and will seek ways to alleviate the situation on the ground. In doing so, it is important to work closely with and seek expertise from the United Nations agencies and other actors working with children affected by
armed conflict in the countries concerned. The strategy gives priority attention and emphasises support to programmes and projects aimed at implementing the mechanisms provided for in the Security Council resolution 1612.
In the European Union crisis management operations the protection of children is a priority. The European Union has recently adopted a checklist for the integration of the protection of children affected by armed conflict into its operations with the aim to ensure that child rights and protection concerns are systematically addressed from the early planning through to the implementation. Close cooperation with the United Nations mechanisms is a clear starting point for the European Union.
Especially in the training programmes targeted for the mission personnel, the European Union can greatly benefit from the long and comprehensive experience of the United Nations in this field.
Armed conflicts have very different impact on girls and boys. Therefore a gender sensitive approach has to be applied also when it comes to children. The European Union has put particular effort into protecting girls from sexual violence, abuse and exploitation. Further, all Disarmament Demobilization Reintegration and Security Sector Reform programmes should pay special attention to specific needs of girls.
Mr. President,
The European Union agrees that we must ensure close collaboration between the United Nations, non-governmental organizations, civil society and governments in order to achieve a shared ownership. Moreover, participation of non-governmental organizations is central not only in providing information on violations and abuses against children, but also in providing support to protection mechanisms and programmatic responses.
The European Union continues to actively support and work closely with the Special Representative, UNICEF, OHCHR, UNHCR and other actors, including non-governmental organizations, aimed at relieving, to the greatest extent possible, the suffering of children in situations of armed conflict and ensuring that those responsible for atrocities against children are held accountable for their crimes. We look forward to further consideration of these issues later on this year and we will continue to
exert our full effort in order to ensure better protection, rights and well-being of all children affected by armed conflict.
Thank you, Mr. President.
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