Astuces de recherche
SRSG on children and armed conflict: Annual report 2010, para. 3
- Paragraph text
- The 1996 Graça Machel study on the impact of armed conflict on children (A/51/306 and Add.1) and the 2007 10-year review of that study (see A/62/228) noted that the changing nature of conflict put children at a higher risk than ever before. Children have become more vulnerable to new tactics of war, including the blurring of lines between military and civilian targets, constriction of humanitarian space and access to affected populations, deliberate targeting of traditional safe havens and critical infrastructures such as educational institutions and medical facilities, and the rise of terrorism as well as counter-terrorism measures. Studies have also shown that armed conflicts hamper the achievement of the eight Millennium Development Goals, six of which promote the rights and well-being of children. Conflicts create an environment in which grave violations are committed against children and, by interrupting or slowing development, children are denied opportunities for a better future. Therefore, the changing nature of conflict and the impact on children continues to be an overarching framework of analysis for the agenda on children and armed conflict.
- Body
- Special Representative of the Secretary-General for children and armed conflict
- Document type
- SRSG report
- Topic(s)
- Humanitarian
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Year
- 2010
Paragraph
SRSG on children and armed conflict: Annual report 2010, para. 4
- Paragraph text
- Protecting vulnerable populations, and especially children, should be paramount during military operations. New tactics of war, the absence of clear battlefields and increasingly numerous and diverse parties to conflict in terms of their composition, motivations and character have complicated matters. Moreover, the rise of terrorism where civilians are the main victims directly challenges the distinction between military and civilian targets, one of the fundamental principles of international humanitarian law. Counter-terrorism and counter-insurgency also blur the line between what is legitimate and what is not in addressing security threats. Raids against predominately civilian targets, including night raids, and the use of aerial bombardment in civilian-populated areas, make children more vulnerable to being killed or maimed and often serve to fuel resentment and conflict.
- Body
- Special Representative of the Secretary-General for children and armed conflict
- Document type
- SRSG report
- Topic(s)
- Humanitarian
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Year
- 2010
Paragraph
SRSG on children and armed conflict: Annual report 2010, para. 5
- Paragraph text
- Rules of engagement of armed forces stipulate that the protection of civilians should remain the foremost consideration in the course of military operations. Increasingly, however, the record indicates that these strictures are inadequate to ensure the safety of children. Moreover, as noted by the Secretary-General in his most recent report on children and armed conflict (A/64/742-S/2010/181), there also seems to be a growing practice of putting children in the direct line of danger, through, for instance, their use for intelligence-gathering in military operations. This includes the interrogation of children separated from armed groups during military actions, in contravention of standards that require the immediate transfer of such children to protection actors.
- Body
- Special Representative of the Secretary-General for children and armed conflict
- Document type
- SRSG report
- Topic(s)
- Humanitarian
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Year
- 2010
Paragraph
SRSG on children and armed conflict: Annual report 2010, para. 6a
- Paragraph text
- [In this regard, the development of standard operating procedures by armed forces is critical in order to put in place additional protection measures for children during military operations. Regional and United Nations peacekeeping missions should also prioritize such measures and procedures in the context of peacekeeping engagements or where international forces are supporting national forces in joint operations. These standard operating procedures may vary from one context to another, but a minimum set of measures should include:] Joint military-civilian assessment of the security risk for populations, and especially children, prior to any military action;
- Body
- Special Representative of the Secretary-General for children and armed conflict
- Document type
- SRSG report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Humanitarian
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Year
- 2010
Paragraph
SRSG on children and armed conflict: Annual report 2010, para. 6b
- Paragraph text
- [In this regard, the development of standard operating procedures by armed forces is critical in order to put in place additional protection measures for children during military operations. Regional and United Nations peacekeeping missions should also prioritize such measures and procedures in the context of peacekeeping engagements or where international forces are supporting national forces in joint operations. These standard operating procedures may vary from one context to another, but a minimum set of measures should include:] Refraining from engaging in combat and/or using heavy artillery in highly populated areas;
- Body
- Special Representative of the Secretary-General for children and armed conflict
- Document type
- SRSG report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Humanitarian
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Year
- 2010
Paragraph
SRSG on children and armed conflict: Annual report 2010, para. 6c
- Paragraph text
- [In this regard, the development of standard operating procedures by armed forces is critical in order to put in place additional protection measures for children during military operations. Regional and United Nations peacekeeping missions should also prioritize such measures and procedures in the context of peacekeeping engagements or where international forces are supporting national forces in joint operations. These standard operating procedures may vary from one context to another, but a minimum set of measures should include:] Protecting schools and hospitals as zones of peace;
- Body
- Special Representative of the Secretary-General for children and armed conflict
- Document type
- SRSG report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Humanitarian
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Year
- 2010
Paragraph
SRSG on children and armed conflict: Annual report 2010, para. 6d
- Paragraph text
- [In this regard, the development of standard operating procedures by armed forces is critical in order to put in place additional protection measures for children during military operations. Regional and United Nations peacekeeping missions should also prioritize such measures and procedures in the context of peacekeeping engagements or where international forces are supporting national forces in joint operations. These standard operating procedures may vary from one context to another, but a minimum set of measures should include:] Refraining from occupying or using schools and health facilities, or their vicinity, for purposes that could turn them into military targets;
- Body
- Special Representative of the Secretary-General for children and armed conflict
- Document type
- SRSG report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Humanitarian
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Year
- 2010
Paragraph
SRSG on children and armed conflict: Annual report 2010, para. 6e
- Paragraph text
- [In this regard, the development of standard operating procedures by armed forces is critical in order to put in place additional protection measures for children during military operations. Regional and United Nations peacekeeping missions should also prioritize such measures and procedures in the context of peacekeeping engagements or where international forces are supporting national forces in joint operations. These standard operating procedures may vary from one context to another, but a minimum set of measures should include:] Undertaking post-operation evaluations of the impact on civilians, including children;
- Body
- Special Representative of the Secretary-General for children and armed conflict
- Document type
- SRSG report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Humanitarian
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Year
- 2010
Paragraph
SRSG on children and armed conflict: Annual report 2010, para. 6f
- Paragraph text
- [In this regard, the development of standard operating procedures by armed forces is critical in order to put in place additional protection measures for children during military operations. Regional and United Nations peacekeeping missions should also prioritize such measures and procedures in the context of peacekeeping engagements or where international forces are supporting national forces in joint operations. These standard operating procedures may vary from one context to another, but a minimum set of measures should include:] Developing procedures for the reception, treatment and rapid handover to United Nations child protection actors of children separated from armed groups in the course of military operations.
- Body
- Special Representative of the Secretary-General for children and armed conflict
- Document type
- SRSG report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Humanitarian
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Year
- 2010
Paragraph
SRSG on children and armed conflict: Annual report 2010, para. 8
- Paragraph text
- Detention of children for alleged association with armed groups or other threats to security remains a significant concern. This includes the use of administrative detention in several conflict scenarios. An unknown number of children have been captured, arrested and detained by security and law enforcement forces in contravention of international standards for juvenile justice.
- Body
- Special Representative of the Secretary-General for children and armed conflict
- Document type
- SRSG report
- Topic(s)
- Humanitarian
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Year
- 2010
Paragraph
SRSG on children and armed conflict: Annual report 2010, para. 11
- Paragraph text
- Children being detained by multinational forces is also a concern that must be addressed by Member States. In such cases, access by child protection actors to all facilities, including high-security sites, is necessary for ensuring that procedures of detention and due process for children are in line with international standards. Beyond the responsibility and imperative to protect children, this represents a critical issue in respect of the credibility of international and multinational forces.
- Body
- Special Representative of the Secretary-General for children and armed conflict
- Document type
- SRSG report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Humanitarian
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Year
- 2010
Paragraph
SRSG on children and armed conflict: Annual report 2010, para. 12
- Paragraph text
- A marked characteristic of the changing nature of conflict is deliberate attacks against and destruction of educational infrastructure, including the targeting of schoolchildren and teachers. This is illustrated by data which indicate that over one third of the 72 million out-of-school children of primary school age reside in low-income countries affected by conflict.
- Body
- Special Representative of the Secretary-General for children and armed conflict
- Document type
- SRSG report
- Topic(s)
- Education
- Humanitarian
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Year
- 2010
Paragraph
SRSG on children and armed conflict: Annual report 2010, para. 15
- Paragraph text
- Beyond the destruction of educational facilities through deliberate targeting or as collateral damage during armed confrontation, attacks against education also present other faces. For instance, there are reports of the use of acid and gas on girl students on their way to or at school, as well as shootings and suicide bombings in school premises. In some contexts, schools are a prime recruiting ground of children by armed groups. Elsewhere, school buildings are used as training centres or as military bases, turning them into high-value military targets.
- Body
- Special Representative of the Secretary-General for children and armed conflict
- Document type
- SRSG report
- Topic(s)
- Education
- Humanitarian
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Girls
- Year
- 2010
Paragraph
SRSG on children and armed conflict: Annual report 2010, para. 17
- Paragraph text
- Attacks against schools and hospitals have been designated as one of six grave violations that are now systematically recorded under the Secretary-General's monitoring and reporting mechanism on grave violations against children in armed conflict. However, such attacks are still underreported and there remains a lack of knowledge concerning the context of attacks, the perpetrators and their specific motivations, and other factors that need to be understood in order to address the problem.
- Body
- Special Representative of the Secretary-General for children and armed conflict
- Document type
- SRSG report
- Topic(s)
- Humanitarian
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Year
- 2010
Paragraph
SRSG on children and armed conflict: Annual report 2010, para. 18
- Paragraph text
- It is imperative that schools and other educational facilities be considered as zones of peace for children - safe havens even in contexts of conflict and instability. The concept of schools as zones of peace should extend also to school instruction and curricula, with emphasis on peace education and fostering cultures of tolerance. There are examples in numerous contexts of educational institutions being hotbeds for radicalization and recruitment of children, a trend that must be countered.
- Body
- Special Representative of the Secretary-General for children and armed conflict
- Document type
- SRSG report
- Topic(s)
- Education
- Humanitarian
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Year
- 2010
Paragraph
SRSG on children and armed conflict: Annual report 2010, para. 19
- Paragraph text
- Sexual violence against children, particularly in the context of armed conflict, continues to be of utmost concern. Such violations are exacerbated in conflict situations by the general security vacuum and the lack of administrative, law enforcement and judicial infrastructures, among other factors.
- Body
- Special Representative of the Secretary-General for children and armed conflict
- Document type
- SRSG report
- Topic(s)
- Humanitarian
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Year
- 2010
Paragraph
SRSG on children and armed conflict: Annual report 2010, para. 20
- Paragraph text
- Sexual violence is often used to achieve military, political and social objectives through, for instance, the targeting of specific ethnicities or terrorizing populations to force displacement. Data indicate that children are particularly vulnerable to sexual violence in and around refugee and internally displaced population settings, and when they are directly associated with armed forces and groups. Child survivors of sexual violence suffer both physical and psychological consequences, which are often debilitating. This is particularly true for girls who have been raped or forced to "marry" combatants, as well as for their children born of rape.
- Body
- Special Representative of the Secretary-General for children and armed conflict
- Document type
- SRSG report
- Topic(s)
- Humanitarian
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Girls
- Persons on the move
- Year
- 2010
Paragraph
SRSG on children and armed conflict: Annual report 2010, para. 23
- Paragraph text
- The previous reports of the Special Representative to the General Assembly emphasized the challenges of collecting data and reporting on sexual violence against children in armed conflict. Part of the problem lies in the fact that these acts are considered in many contexts as strong taboos, and as such survivors and communities are not encouraged to speak out. The lack of trust in judicial process and the fear of reprisals accentuate the culture of silence. Yet, more precise and comprehensive information, including details of incidents and the identity of perpetrators is a prerequisite to combating impunity and for more effective response programming. Monitoring, reporting and response to sexual violence requires both new perspectives and new methodologies, as well as more extensive partnerships across the United Nations system and beyond. For example, in the context of United Nations peacekeeping, collaboration between civilian components and United Nations military and police components may entail the matching of information on sexual violence with intelligence gathered on movements of armed parties, as a contribution to the identification of perpetrators, particularly in remote areas where humanitarian presence is thin. At the same time, more precise incident-related information must be complemented by macro-level information as it relates to the scope and trends of sexual violence. More timely and effective programming and dedication of sufficient resources depends on the deepening of all aspects of the information base on sexual violence.
- Body
- Special Representative of the Secretary-General for children and armed conflict
- Document type
- SRSG report
- Topic(s)
- Humanitarian
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Year
- 2010
Paragraph
SRSG on children and armed conflict: Annual report 2010, para. 29
- Paragraph text
- A number of regional legal instruments also affirm the rights of internally displaced children, most notably the African Union Convention for the Protection and Assistance of Internally Displaced Persons in Africa (the Kampala Convention), which was adopted in October 2009. It includes specific provisions reaffirming the right of internally displaced persons to personal documentation, education, protection against recruitment and use in hostilities, kidnapping, abduction, sexual slavery and trafficking, and protection that addresses the special needs of separated and unaccompanied minors, as well as of mothers with young children. The African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child emphasizes the responsibility of States to ensure that internally displaced children receive appropriate protection and humanitarian assistance and pays special attention to the importance of reuniting families separated by displacement. Furthermore, the Council of Europe has adopted a number of recommendations concerning internal displacement, including the right of internally displaced children to education.
- Body
- Special Representative of the Secretary-General for children and armed conflict
- Document type
- SRSG report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Humanitarian
- Movement
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Families
- Persons on the move
- Year
- 2010
Paragraph
SRSG on children and armed conflict: Annual report 2010, para. 30
- Paragraph text
- The Office of the Special Representative continues to focus on this issue as a mandate priority, and in this regard is preparing a working paper stressing the particular vulnerabilities of displaced children and the responsibilities of Governments and other stakeholders in providing them with adequate and timely protection and services.
- Body
- Special Representative of the Secretary-General for children and armed conflict
- Document type
- SRSG report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Humanitarian
- Movement
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Persons on the move
- Year
- 2010
Paragraph
SRSG on children and armed conflict: Annual report 2010, para. 31
- Paragraph text
- [Vulnerabilities and risks faced by children who are internally displaced during armed conflict – addressing their rights]: Most people fleeing armed conflict do so within the borders of their own countries. They are unable or reluctant to leave their homelands and increasingly find countries of asylum less willing to accept them. Of the estimated 27.1 million people around the world today who have been forced to flee their homes due to armed conflict, and who remain within their countries as IDPs, at least half, and likely more, are children.
- Body
- Special Representative of the Secretary-General for children and armed conflict
- Document type
- SRSG report
- Topic(s)
- Humanitarian
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Persons on the move
- Year
- 2010
Paragraph
SRSG on children and armed conflict: Annual report 2010, para. 31
- Paragraph text
- The changing nature of conflict also carries implications and new challenges for the reintegration and rehabilitation of children. The United Nations system has invested significant resources in forging common standards and practice around disarmament, demobilization and reintegration of children. This has contributed significantly to system-wide buy-in and coordination for this critical priority. A tension exists, however, between the need for standardized practice and programmes and the fact that children face very different realities depending on the context. For instance, in settings of protracted conflict, children may be associated with armed forces and groups for many years. Others are abducted across borders, which has raised new challenges for regional coordination among many entities for family tracing, repatriation and reunification. In some contexts, children are increasingly used in terrorist activities and in counter-terrorism actions. It is also clear that the mode and rhythm for funding child disarmament, demobilization and reintegration programmes is increasingly under pressure where structured dialogue with parties to conflict and implementation of action plans to release children have yielded unanticipated caseloads.
- Body
- Special Representative of the Secretary-General for children and armed conflict
- Document type
- SRSG report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Humanitarian
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Families
- Year
- 2010
Paragraph
SRSG on children and armed conflict: Annual report 2010, para. 32
- Paragraph text
- Such considerations beg the question of whether current disarmament, demobilization and reintegration approaches and programmes are adequate and reflective of the variety of contexts in which children are being recruited and used or the range of their experiences. Another question is whether reintegration programmes are flexible or adaptable enough to address an increasingly broad range of scenarios for children in conflict situations.
- Body
- Special Representative of the Secretary-General for children and armed conflict
- Document type
- SRSG report
- Topic(s)
- Humanitarian
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Year
- 2010
Paragraph
SRSG on children and armed conflict: Annual report 2010, para. 32
- Paragraph text
- [Vulnerabilities and risks faced by children who are internally displaced during armed conflict – addressing their rights]: Children are disproportionately affected by internal displacement not only in terms of the numbers of those affected, but also in the risks that they face. It is important to recall the challenges faced by internally displaced children, as articulated by Graça Machel, in her 1996 landmark report to the General Assembly on the impact of armed conflict on children (A/51/306): “During flight from the dangers of conflict, families and children continue to be exposed to multiple physical dangers. They are threatened by sudden attacks, shelling, snipers and landmines, and must often walk for days with only limited quantities of water and food. Under such circumstances, children become acutely undernourished and prone to illness, and they are the first to die. Girls in flight are even more vulnerable than usual to sexual abuse. Children forced to flee on their own to ensure their survival are also at heightened risk. Many abandon home to avoid forced recruitment, only to find that being in flight still places them at risk of recruitment, especially if they have no documentation and travel without their families.”
- Body
- Special Representative of the Secretary-General for children and armed conflict
- Document type
- SRSG report
- Topic(s)
- Humanitarian
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Families
- Girls
- Persons on the move
- Year
- 2010
Paragraph
SRSG on children and armed conflict: Annual report 2010, para. 33
- Paragraph text
- [Vulnerabilities and risks faced by children who are internally displaced during armed conflict – addressing their rights]: Displacement is an especially destabilizing and traumatic experience for children as it exposes them to risks at a time in their lives when they most need protection and stability. Moreover, the difficult conditions that IDPs endure typically persist for years, even decades, without a solution. Worldwide, the average duration of displacement situations today is nearly 20 years, meaning that many children grow up only ever experiencing life as an IDP.
- Body
- Special Representative of the Secretary-General for children and armed conflict
- Document type
- SRSG report
- Topic(s)
- Humanitarian
- Movement
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Persons on the move
- Year
- 2010
Paragraph
SRSG on children and armed conflict: Annual report 2010, para. 33
- Paragraph text
- Such an examination of the premises for child disarmament, demobilization and reintegration could be undertaken in the context of the Paris Principles and Guidelines on Children associated with Armed Forces or Armed Groups, which provide guidance on the basis of lessons learned over the past 10 years. The Paris Principles also call, as appropriate, for thorough needs assessments and review and reformulation of reintegration programmes through broad consultation of all relevant stakeholders.
- Body
- Special Representative of the Secretary-General for children and armed conflict
- Document type
- SRSG report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Humanitarian
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Year
- 2010
Paragraph
SRSG on children and armed conflict: Annual report 2010, para. 34
- Paragraph text
- [Vulnerabilities and risks faced by children who are internally displaced during armed conflict – addressing their rights]: On several of her missions in recent years, the Special Representative has witnessed the deeply distressing and precarious conditions of IDPs, the vast majority of whom are children and women. For instance, in November 2009, the Special Representative visited Sudan where she met with communities who were internally displaced. Many children have been displaced for years, with some of them having been born during displacement, while others were newly displaced in 2009 because of continuing armed violence. In these camps, the concerns include tensions caused by the presence of armed groups and the increase in incidents of gender-based violence. Due to lack of security, livelihoods and basic services, few internally displaced families manage to return to their place of origin. Further, during her last visit to Uganda in May – June 2010, the Special Representative spoke with victims of armed conflict and displacement in Gulu, northern Uganda, where many women and children were forced to flee in search of safety and livelihoods. Upon return to their villages, they faced multiple challenges, such as the absence of clean water, health care and education. Schools struggled with a lack of teachers, classrooms and teaching materials. Another major concern was the protection of children and young women against sexual and gender-based violence, caused by a frequent lack of rule of law in IDP return areas.
- Body
- Special Representative of the Secretary-General for children and armed conflict
- Document type
- SRSG report
- Topic(s)
- Gender
- Humanitarian
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Families
- Persons on the move
- Women
- Year
- 2010
Paragraph
SRSG on children and armed conflict: Annual report 2010, para. 35
- Paragraph text
- [Vulnerabilities and risks faced by children who are internally displaced during armed conflict – addressing their rights]: The Special Representative therefore, continues to raise the key protection concerns for children displaced as a result of conflict, and to advocate for the rights and guarantees that should be accorded to every internally displaced child. These rights and guarantees were outlined in her reports to the General Assembly and Human Rights Council last year. Since then, the Office of the Special Representative has embarked, in consultation with the Representative of the Secretary-General on the human rights of internally displaced persons, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), UNICEF, and non-governmental organization (NGO) partners, on producing a working paper drawing attention to the particular vulnerabilities and risks faced by children who are internally displaced in armed conflict, as well as to the responsibilities of governments and all other authorities to provide internally displaced children with the protection that they require, and to which they have a right. The objective of the working paper is to guide and support advocacy efforts, especially in relation to governments, as they bear primary responsibility for protecting, assisting and securing the rights of internally displaced children.
- Body
- Special Representative of the Secretary-General for children and armed conflict
- Document type
- SRSG report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Humanitarian
- Movement
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Persons on the move
- Year
- 2010
Paragraph
SRSG on children and armed conflict: Annual report 2010, para. 36
- Paragraph text
- [Vulnerabilities and risks faced by children who are internally displaced during armed conflict – addressing their rights]: The rights of internally displaced children are expressly guaranteed and firmly entrenched in international humanitarian law and human rights law – the Geneva Conventions and their Additional Protocols, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the International Covenant on Economic Social and Cultural Rights, the Convention on the Rights of the Child and its Optional Protocol on the involvement of children in armed conflict. These instruments obligate State and non-State actors alike to protect children from the harmful effects of armed conflict, to prevent arbitrary displacement, to protect and assist persons who are displaced, and to facilitate durable solutions to displacement, paying special attention to the particular vulnerabilities and risks faced by internally displaced children.
- Body
- Special Representative of the Secretary-General for children and armed conflict
- Document type
- SRSG report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Humanitarian
- Movement
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Persons on the move
- Year
- 2010
Paragraph
SRSG on children and armed conflict: Annual report 2010, para. 36
- Paragraph text
- Beyond the national level, a central rationale and strategy for the engagement of the Security Council on the issue of children and armed conflict has been to hold perpetrators accountable under international law. The unique means of the Council to impose sanctions and other direct and targeted measures raises the stakes for perpetrators. Thus far, the Council has expressed its readiness to consider targeted measures against perpetrators of grave violations through its resolutions on children and armed conflict, including 1539 (2004), 1612 (2005) and 1882 (2009). Council resolution 1882 (2009) also establishes a linkage between the Security Council's children and armed conflict agenda and its sanctions committees.
- Body
- Special Representative of the Secretary-General for children and armed conflict
- Document type
- SRSG report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Humanitarian
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Year
- 2010
Paragraph