Mr. President,
It is, indeed, appalling to see how children are affected by armed conflict. They are recruited into armed combat; often by force, sometimes by desperation when societies are falling apart. They are forced to kill, to torture and to humiliate other human beings, sometimes even other children. Children are killed or severely injured and end up disabled, deprived of their future. In armed conflicts the principal victims are always the weakest ones; civilians rather than soldiers, children rather than grown-ups.
Children witness atrocities committed against their families, neighbours and friends. The social fabric of families, schools and society is torn apart. Child refugees are all too often deprived of their rights to education. Children in refugee camps, in particular girls, are vulnerable to violence and sexual abuse.
The outright breaches of established global norms of humanitarianism and human rights, in particular concerning children, that we witness in many conflicts today constitute a threat to peace, stability and development - within societies as well as between them.
The recent briefing in the Security Council by the Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Children in Armed Conflict, Mr. Oral Outrun, was a good start for what we hope will be a recurring contact on this important issue. His program of work and his stated priorities for action demonstrate an agenda of significant humanitarian and political importance. In discharging our duties with regard to international peace and security, there is also a number of things that we in the Security Council can do with regard to the protection of children in armed conflict.
Let me raise some points of particular importance to us where the Security Council, the UN as a whole and the international community should act:
1. Children must be kept out of acts of armed conflict. The age of 18 should be the minimum age of recruitment and participation in military activities. An Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child could achieve this. Sweden welcomes the new mandate of the Chairperson of the Working Group of the Commission on Human Rights on a draft for such a protocol to hold broad informal consultations on how to break the present stalemate in the work of the Group.
2. The Security Council should give particular consideration to the need for demobilization, rehabilitation as well as physical and social reintegration of child soldiers and child combatants in post conflict peace-building operations.
3. Land mines kill, hurt and disable children at work or play. Children constitute a major part of civilian victims of land mines. Sweden welcomes the new mandate of UNICEF to work on mine awareness programs. We would also like to emphasize the importance of the catalytic role of the Special Representative in prevention and rehabilitation of child victims. But for a lasting solution to this menace, it is evident that the Ottawa agreement on land mines must be fully implemented.
4. Small arms are increasingly available, also to children, with disastrous consequences. Restricting the supply of small arms in areas of conflict is a necessary step in halting armed conflicts and their harmful impact on children.
5. The Security Council should pay attention to the importance of special training for peace-keepers and civilian police who while on mission will come into contact with child combatants or children who have been abused. This is also an important task for the Special Representative in collaboration with the Department of Peace-Keeping Operations. Peace-keepers and civilian police should be well versed in International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights, in particular the Convention of the Rights of the Child. Sweden welcomes the initiative of the Special Representative to form a joint working group with the Department of Peace-keeping Operations.
6. The Special Representative should also continue to keep track of crimes against children in the context of armed conflict. He should be able to alert the International Criminal Court, once established, as well as the international community at large. Political actors should know from the outset what kind of consequences they will have to face if they take part in these types of crimes. Impunity for crimes against humanity, and in particular crimes against vulnerably children, cannot be accepted.
7. As my last point, particular attention must also be paid to how children are affected by the humanitarian consequences of sanctions. It is our view that sanctions should be designed in such a way that negative humanitarian consequences on vulnerable groups, in particular children, are minimized and that the appropriate humanitarian exemptions are made.
The issue before us today is of relevance to the work of the Security Council in yet another way. The impact of armed conflict on children - the generation on which all our future relation depends - will also influence the way they will settle their disputes and conflicts. To build the foundation for a peaceful world where violence and war will no longer be used as means for settling disputes and conflicts, children's education should emphasize the values of peace, tolerance, understanding and dialogue. And in this regard we all are teachers.
We have all witnessed the arduous process of bringing about sustainable peace and reconciliation in the many civil wars and conflicts of our time. Even if it is not easy, a grown-up soldier can return to the life he had before the war; to farm his piece of land, to take up his previous profession, to reconcile with his neighbours. But a child who has maybe lost both parents, who has been prevented from going to school, and instead grown up amid violence and fear, has nothing to return to. His, or her, only skills is to handle a weapon. Only with strong support from parents of foster-parents, teachers and other adults can this damage be repaired. But there is a risk that these children will continue to live the only lives they know; to obey orders and to kill. This time as criminals in their own countries. This is why recruitment and use of children for armed conflicts is not only a violation against international law and the rights of the child. It could also have serious consequences for peace and security in the future.
In the 1990 the World Summit for Children was held in New York. It brought together more Heads of State and Government than had ever assembled before and they agreed to work carefully to protect children from the scourge of war and to take measures to prevent further armed conflicts, in order to give children everywhere a peaceful and secure future. That pledge will need to be continuously renewed as long as children continue to suffer in armed conflicts. The Special Representative has an important mission in this field. But all of us, including this Council, have a responsibility to meet that commitment.
Thank you, Mr. President.