A/68/267
I. Introduction
1.
On 13 July 2012, the Secretary-General appointed Leila Zerrougui of Algeria
as his Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict to succeed Radhika
Coomaraswamy, who is thanked for the important progress achieved during her
tenure.
2.
In its resolution 67/152, the General Assembly requested the Special
Representative to submit a report on the activities undertaken in fulfilment of her
mandate, including information on field visits and on the progress and challenges in
the advancement of the children and armed conflict agenda.
3.
The present report highlights progress made over the past year and outlines the
immediate priorities, as well as a longer-term vision, to take forward the children
and armed conflict agenda in collaboration with Member States, United Nations
entities, regional organizations and civil society.
4.
The Special Representative expresses her gratitude to United Nations partners,
in particular the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the Department of
Peacekeeping Operations and the Department of Political Affairs, as well as to the
country teams and civil society organizations that continue to play a crucial role in
the fulfilment of her mandate. Child protection actors in the field are to be
commended for their commitment to their work and their ongoing courage.
II. Trends in the children and armed conflict agenda
5.
In 1996, by its resolution 51/77, the General Assembly created the mandate of
the Special Representative in response to the report on the impact of armed conflict
on children submitted by Graça Machel (A/51/306), in which the full extent to
which children are affected in situations of armed conflict was highlighted for the
first time. Since then, the international community has rallied behind the plight of
children and has united in the common goal to end grave violations. Progress has
been made at the normative and policy levels and coordination has been enhanced
among child protection actors within the United Nations system, as well as with
national and international partners.
6.
Nevertheless, children continue to bear the brunt of today’s conflicts.
Violations of children’s rights occur daily in new and deepening crises, often on a
large scale. The challenges of delivering humanitarian assistance to children
affected by conflict are often exacerbated by the difficulty of reaching populations
displaced as a result of insecurity across different regions. Similarly, the crossborder recruitment of children has become a common trait in many conflict
situations, deepening the protection crisis.
7.
Traditional warfare, evolving technologies and terror tactics deeply disrupt
children’s lives in many parts of the world. In other cases, extremist groups
indoctrinate and take advantage of children in conflict or specifically target children
and educational institutions.
8.
In some post-conflict situations, where the root causes of conflict have
remained unaddressed, cyclic relapses into violence have occurred, reversing
important gains for children and exposing them to the risk of rerecruitment. This
illustrates the need to enhance the mainstreaming of child protection concerns into
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