Statement on Children and Armed Conflict by Australian Ambassador and Permanent Representative to the United Nations H.E. Robert Hill to the Security Council
12 February 2008
(As delivered)
Australia places the highest priority on protecting children and we remain extremely concerned about the plight of those affected by armed conflicts.
We welcome the significant steps which have been taken to address this issue and commend the Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Children and Armed Conflict for her leadership and dedication to the issue at hand.
The UN system must continue to draw upon its full range of expertise and coordinate its efforts to address children and armed conflict. We recognise the important role of UNICEF in child protection, including in supporting the work of the Security Council and the Special Representative on children and armed conflict. We also commend Professor Pinheiro, Independent Expert for the Secretary-General’s Study on Violence Against Children, for his work on this crucial child protection issue.
We are particularly pleased that significant progress has been made to operationalise the monitoring and reporting mechanism mandated in Security Council Resolution 1612 on children and armed conflict and that the Security Council Working Group has continued its consideration of country reports in this regard.
We commend the real progress made in Cote d’Ivoire in halting the recruitment of child soldiers and in progressing the Ouagadougou Agreement.
We need, however, to maintain attention and seek further progress in all situations of children affected by armed conflicts, among them those in Sudan, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Somalia.
Children in situations of armed conflicts, including those displaced by conflict, are not only vulnerable to recruitment as child soldiers, but also to other grave violations, including killing and maiming, rape and other grave sexual violence, abductions, attacks on schools and hospitals and the denial of humanitarian access. All these violations are egregious and no hierarchy can be ascribed to the abuses suffered by children in times of conflict. We would, however, encourage the triggering of the monitoring and reporting mechanism when any of these violations occur, and especially for situations of rape and other acts of sexual violence.
We encourage the Council to continue to call on parties listed in the annexes of the Secretary-General’s reports to prepare time-bound action plans to stop the recruitment of children into armed forces and other violations against children.
Many of those who commit violations against children in situations of armed conflict do so persistently and have been cited repeatedly in reports of the Secretary-General. We therefore encourage the Council to continue to consider targeted measures which may be taken against these persistent violators of child rights.
Efforts of all key stakeholders remain essential in combating violations against children in times of conflict and ensuring adherence to relevant international law. As well as ensuring that measures are taken at the international, regional and national level to combat such crimes, governments must also ensure that the perpetrators of these crimes are brought to justice. We echo the Secretary-General in highlighting the important role of the International Criminal Court in investigating and prosecuting violations against children in armed conflict that fall within its jurisdiction.
We encourage those member states that have not done so to ratify the Optional Protocol on the Involvement of Children in Armed Conflicts and the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court without delay.
If we, as an international community, are to create an environment in which children not only survive, but thrive - a goal of ‘A World Fit for Children’, which
was reaffirmed at the Commemorative High-Level Plenary Meeting in December last year - then we must reaffirm our commitment to protect all children, particularly those affected by armed conflict, from harm and exploitation and ensure that those who would abuse them are brought to account. Australia remains firmly dedicated to this end.