A/65/219
United Nations
General Assembly
Distr.: General
4 August 2010
Original: English
Sixty-fifth session
Item 65 (a) of the provisional agenda*
Promotion and protection of the rights of children:
promotion and protection of the rights of children
Report of the Special Representative of the SecretaryGeneral for Children and Armed Conflict
Summary
The present report is submitted to the General Assembly pursuant to resolution
51/77 and subsequent resolutions on the rights of the child. It covers the period from
August 2009 to August 2010. The report outlines critical child protection themes in
the context of the changing nature of conflict and its impact on children. It describes
an overall situation in which children continue to be the victims of grave violations
in situations of conflict around the world, and a prevailing climate of impunity with
respect to perpetrators.
Under the overarching frame of the changing nature of conflict, section I of the
report highlights critical child protection themes and issues that require concerted
attention and action. Section II focuses on addressing the impunity of perpetrators of
grave violations against children, including through the judicious use of sanctions
and other targeted measures, and stresses the imperative to undertake dialogue
specifically for child protection purposes with all parties to a conflict. Section III
identifies opportunities to strengthen child protection in United Nations peacemaking
and peacekeeping engagements, an area that has seen significant gains in recent
years in terms of more consistent and concerted focus on the protection of children.
2010 marks the tenth anniversary of the adoption of the Optional Protocol to
the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the involvement of children in armed
conflict. In this regard, the report also highlights the two-year campaign launched by
United Nations system partners for the universal ratification of the Protocol by 2012.
* A/65/150.
10-47421 (E) 250810
*1047421*