GA/SHC/3592/Rev.1*

THIRD COMMITTEE CONTINUES DISCUSSION OF PROTECTING CHILDREN’S RIGHTS; CHILDREN IN ARMED CONFLICT, CHILD REFUGEES AMONG ISSUES ADDRESSED

The Third Committee (Social, Humanitarian and Cultural) continued its deliberations on the promotion and protection of children’s rights this morning, with speakers touching on a number of issues, among them the plight of children in armed conflict, displaced and refugee children and children under foreign occupation.

The situation of children in the world was disturbing, the representative of Tunisia said. More than 300,000 below the age 18 were involved in armed conflict. Half the world’s refugees were children. All parties and resources must be mobilized to end such phenomena, particularly when those children lived under foreign occupation.

Finding ways to reverse the deplorable situation of displaced and refugee children was one of humanity’s greatest challenges, said the representative of Mozambique. The displacement of 13 million children by conflict within their borders was unacceptable. International law, political will and concrete action should be mobilized at all levels.

A climate of peace that ensured the protection of children was a necessary prerequisite for the full enjoyment of their rights, the observer for Palestine said. In the past two weeks, many Palestinian families had buried young sons and daughters. The Palestinian people, including children, were suffering. In areas throughout the occupied territory, many families were without electricity, schools were closed and the movement of people and goods was severely restricted. All of that had a very detrimental effect on the overall welfare of Palestinian children.

Numerous other speakers today spoke of children’s rights in a variety of contexts. The representative of Indonesia called for making the rights of children a priority in conflict resolution. The representative of Barbados, speaking on behalf of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), said child protection issues must be made a priority. Finally, recalling the horror of children living through war, the representative of Pakistan said all civil society should address the situation to build a culture of respect.

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* Reissued to reflect revised page 1.

Third Committee - 1a - Press Release GA/SHC/3592/Rev.1 22nd Meeting (AM) 13 October 2000

Also speaking this morning were the representatives of Ghana, United Republic of Tanzania, Andorra, Venezuela, Kenya, Australia, Cuba, Cameroon, Sierra Leone, Gambia and El Salvador.

The Observer of Switzerland also made a statement.

The Committee will meet again at 3 p.m. to continue its deliberations on children's rights.

Third Committee - 3 - Press Release GA/SHC/3592/Rev.1 22nd Meeting (AM) 13 October 2000

Committee Work Programme

The Third Committee (Social, Humanitarian and Cultural) met this morning to continue its deliberations on promoting and protecting the rights of children. (For background, see Press Release GA/SHC/3589 of 11 October.)

Statements

BETTY RUSSELL (Barbados), speaking on behalf of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), said that 10 years had passed since the adoption of the World Declaration and Plan of Action at the World Summit for Children. Much had been achieved since 1990, yet according to the “State of the World's Children 2000”, a number of goals remained out of reach for millions of children throughout the world. The United Nation’s Children’s Fund reported in 1999 that 32,000 children a day died from preventable causes, including malnutrition, respiratory infections and malaria. It was time for the international community to review the goals set in 1990, in time for the upcoming United Nations Special Session in 2001, and recommit itself to removing the obstacles that stood in the way of a better world for children.

The nearly universal ratification of the Convention on the Rights of the Child meant that a rights-based approach should underpin all future action for children. The alarming events of the last decade had shown that poverty was still a grave obstacle to the achievement of child rights. A main tool in the programme to tackle poverty should be education. It equipped children with the skills and confidence to make the most of their abilities to join a work force or to succeed in a sustainable livelihood. Above all, it put girls on the path to empowerment.

The CARICOM States agreed with the view that child protection issues must be given attention in the future. Special efforts were needed to protect children from drug abuse, exploitation, child pornography and trafficking. The Convention on the Rights of the Child was the legal and moral foundation on which the Caribbean region built its social structures for the protection of children. All Caribbean countries had signed the Convention and had established mechanisms for monitoring its implementation. Many programmes had been instituted to promote the Convention, such as radio call-in programmes, youth parliaments and training seminars. The CARICOM States expressed their gratitude to UNICEF for its continued and steadfast work in protecting the world's children.

MIRKO GIULIETTI (Switzerland) said that broad cooperation was an absolute necessity among United Nations agencies and international actors in order to ensure the protection and the promotion of the rights of children. That was especially true in the area of children in armed conflict. In that regard, Switzerland welcomed the Convention’s optional protocol on children in armed conflict. His country would actively promote that important instrument within the international community, to ensure that it was signed by as many nations -- and as soon -- as possible. While that protocol had some obvious weakness -– its provisions on voluntary recruitment and participation in hostilities were particularly troubling -- it did, most importantly, lay down the universal age of 18 as the minimum age for recruitment.

He went on to say that actions at the regional level were necessary. He welcomed the efforts of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) to create machinery that would further promote and protect the rights of children. It was important for all actors to recognize the persistence of State and institutional violence against children. Many children were victims of torture, perpetrated by law-enforcement officers and other State actors. In fact, violence against children by State organizations, such as detention centres, was often as serious as that in conflict situations. He called on States to ensure punishment for such infractions by State actors. His delegation supported the General Assembly’s request to the Secretary-General to conduct an in-depth study of violence against children. He also welcomed international attention being paid to the elaboration of an optional protocol to the United Nations Convention on torture.

CARLOS DOS SANTOS (Mozambique) said it was unacceptable that almost one half of the world’s 21 million refugees were children, that another 13 million had been displaced within the borders of their own countries, and that child soldiers were estimated to be in the range of 300,000. The reversal of that appalling situation, outlined in the Secretary-General’s report remained one of humanity’s greatest challenges. The role of international law had to be complemented by the will and action of all international and national actors in society, comprising governments, international organizations and civil society, and including non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and academia.

The Government of Mozambique, in partnership with civil society and other stakeholders, had adopted legal, social and economic frameworks with a view to incorporating the main provisions of the Convention on the Rights of the Child in the national legislation. In a country that had experienced major consequences of a destabilizing war, most Mozambican children had lost their loved ones, others were refugees and others were seriously traumatized. Efforts had been made to ensure the integration of children involved in armed conflict in their communities and families. Those actions had been combined with other measures, including training of teachers to monitor and provide special assistance to traumatized children. The establishment of schools in refugee camps and centres hosting displaced people, were other measures successfully implemented in his country.

BEATRICE ROSA BROBBEY (Ghana) said that chronic social instability, the persistence of preventable diseases and the state of the world's children were indicative of the world community's apathy. While the Convention was much lauded, its implementation left much to be desired. The Special Representative on Children and Armed conflict should make implementation a central feature of his work. Member States should put the amendment to Article 43 into effect, so as to increase the membership of the Committee on children's rights, particularly to facilitate review of State reports.

The world situation for children was grim, she said, citing figures such as the displacement by war of 22 million children. Welcoming both optional protocols to the Convention, she said 80 governments had been represented at the recent conference on children and armed conflict in Canada. The plan of action was being implemented within the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). To curb violations of the second protocol dealing with the sale of children and related crimes, emphasis should be placed on dismantling the criminal networks.

Agreeing with the Special Rapporteur on the sale of children, she said the erosion of the family structure was indeed largely responsible for those crimes. Juvenile justice systems should be reformed to include remedial and preventive strategies. The power of the media to curb criminal activity could not be emphasized enough. To curb child labour in general, the focus should be on working with the business sector to uphold minimal standards. To make all those changes in the situation of the world's children, only political will was needed, plus a commitment to social action at all levels.

ALI CHERIF (Tunisia) welcomed adoption of the two protocols and said the purpose of the coming special session should be to affirm what had already been done. The situation of children was disturbing. More than 300,000 of them below the age of 18 were involved in armed conflict. Half the world's refugees were children. All parties and resources must be mobilized to end such phenomena, particularly when those children also lived under foreign occupation. Who could not be angry at seeing a 12-year old child killed by soldiers when he was innocently walking along?

To protect its own children, he said Tunisia had changed its laws to comply with the child's rights Convention. A national plan of action had been developed. A code for children was taught in schools, and a Children's Day had led to a generation proud of its future. Support machinery had been set up, and legal norms had translated laws into action. A Commissioner for children had been appointed, and judges had been trained specifically to deal with minors. The programme had been extended to education, with an emphasis on pre-school, daycare and kindergarten. As a result, both the vaccination rate and education levels had gone up.

DAUDI N. MWAKAWAGO (Tanzania) said that his Government ratified the Convention on the Rights of the Child in June 1991 and had also adopted a National Plan of Action with specific goals and targets to conform to those embodied in the Convention. However, progress towards attainment of the goals of the World Summit for Children had been limited. There had been modest achievements, but more needed to be done, including the intensification of support from the international community, the Bretton Woods institutions, the private sector and NGOs. Under pressure of poverty, he continued, services such as education and health, most of which were child-specific, were relegated to the back burner, where they had to await the availability of resources or were sometimes scrapped indefinitely.

Today, he said, the HIV/AIDS pandemic had reversed the gains that Tanzania had recorded in the health sector. In Tanzania, mother-to-child transmission of the disease was one of the most cruel means of infecting the child. The number of orphans that the pandemic was leaving in its wake was alarming. As a result of the death of their parents, child-headed households were on the increase. The reports of the Secretary-General on Children and Armed Conflict, on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography were depressing. The international community must take urgent measures to address those problems. It was equally important to ensure that children were not exploited at work places whilst their seats at school remained vacant, and the world could not continue to see its children being victimized by perpetrators of violence in conflict situations.

ROSER SUNE PASCUET (Andorra) said that the successful and near-universal signing of the Convention’s two optional protocols would ensure improvement in many children’s lives around the world. It was important, however, to question why some children lived with great privilege while others lived in extreme conditions. Would such disadvantaged children see any real benefits from implementation of those instruments? She hoped that the upcoming General Assembly special session on children would provide an opportunity to examine such issues, and to identify concrete measures to ensure that all the world’s children were benefited by the tenets of the Convention. She praised Olara Otunnu, Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict, and his comprehensive report on the situation of those children. It was important to note, however, that more work needed to be done on behalf of children in the area of post-conflict assistance. Well laid-out plans should be adopted to take into account their special needs in those situations. It was also important to ensure that perpetrators be punished, and in that regard she looked forward to final discussions on the establishment of an International Criminal Court.

The world community was well aware of the frightening statistics surrounding the AIDS pandemic, she said. She hoped, however, that preparations for the upcoming world conference on that disease would focus on the impact of AIDS on children. Combating the sale of children and child pornography was vitally important, and she requested all governments to step up efforts to tackle those crimes. Finally, she said that access to education was one of the most basic tools for the promotion of all work aimed at improving the condition of the world’s children. That education should have a human-rights focus.

FEDA ABDELHADY-NASSER, observer of Palestine, said that her people had in recent days witnessed the brutal and wilful killing of more than 20 of its children, and the wounding of more than 1,000 children. The wanton killing on 30 September of a 12-year-old Palestinian boy by Israeli forces represented, in one stark photograph, the tragedy of the Palestinian child living under Israeli occupation. Mohammed Jamal Al-Durra was an innocent, defenceless child, whose life his father desperately pleaded for, but could not protect from, the lethal onslaught of Israeli bullets. Yet Mohammed had not suffered that tragic fate alone. In the past two weeks, so many other Palestinian families had to bury their young sons and daughters.

A climate of peace that ensured the protection of children was a necessary prerequisite for the full enjoyment of their rights, she continued. The Palestinian people, including children, continued to suffer from the oppressive Israeli occupation. The recent excessive use of force by the Israeli army had resulted in grave loss of life, serious injuries, the destruction of homes and properties and the rapid deterioration of the situation in the occupied Palestinian territory, including Jerusalem. Currently, in areas throughout the occupied territory, many families were without electricity, schools had been closed and the movement of people and goods was severely restricted. All of which had very detrimental effects on the overall welfare of Palestinian children. It was clear that over the decades, and even today, Israel as the occupying power had been violating the rights of the Palestinian child.

MARIO ALEJANDRO AGUZZI-DURAN (Venezuela) said the figures on children in armed conflict were truly regrettable. That was particularly so in light of the ills that still visited many other children in the world today, such as poverty, disease, ignorance and lack of education. All resources should be mobilized to fight those problems, including legal resources. While the two protocols to the Convention were welcome, the other atrocities should not be forgotten, and must be addressed.

He described a wide range of legal protections in his country for children. In all Venezuelan legislation, he added, guarantees for the recognition of children's rights were built-in.

FARES M. KUINDWA (Kenya), said his country attached great importance to the issue of children. Towards that end, the Government had approved the Children’s Bill of Rights and had ratified the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of Children. The Government had also signed the two optional protocols to the Convention on the Rights of the Child during the Millennium Summit. During her 36 years of independence, Kenya had not experienced armed conflict. However, she had had to offer refuge to child victims of armed conflict from neighbouring countries. Kenya had, therefore, seen first-hand the suffering of innocent children as a result of armed conflict. In addition, the Kenyan Government, in collaboration with the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) was trying to put in place peace and reconciliation initiatives in order to safeguard children from being used to perpetuate hostilities.

It was of particular importance that the international community should look beyond those events and consider how to establish and encourage training and capacity-building in trauma counselling and rehabilitation at the local levels for those children who were affected. The international community must also be able to assess and address the impact of the emotional damage resulting from the violation of children’s rights. A holistic, integrated, action- oriented approach, which combined the elements of social policy, political will, economic and financial commitment, was one way in which the international community could make a positive impact on the problem.

ROBYN MUDIE (Australia) said that her country cherished democracy, the rule of law and the defence of human rights, including those of children and young people. The way children were treated in any society was a defining characteristic of that society. The international community had made great strides towards achieving explicit and comprehensive legal protection of the human rights of children. Over the past decade, the Convention on the Rights of the Child had been a significant factor in raising awareness of children's rights. With 191 countries party to the Convention, it had almost achieved universal ratification. Australia urged the very small number of States that had not yet ratified it to do so as soon as possible. It also welcomed the conclusion of negotiations on the optional protocols and their adoption by the General Assembly.

Australia supported the ongoing work of the Secretary-General's Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict, she said. The adoption of the Agenda for War-Affected Children at the recent International Conference on the subject in Winnipeg had played an important role in focusing international attention on the issue of children in and affected by armed conflict. Australia also supported the efforts to counter the repugnant practice of trafficking in children. The Special Session would need to address those problems and define a continuing agenda to further improve the well-being of children worldwide. Her delegation looked forward to playing an active role and to contributing to a productive and effective meeting. It was necessary to build on past achievements in the legal recognition of the inalienable rights of the child.

MUNAWAR SAEED BHATTI (Pakistan), recalling the horror endured by children who had lived through war, said all civil society should address the situation in the interest of building a culture of respect. Adopting the two protocols to the children's Convention went a long way towards redressing wrongs against children, which was a priority because atrocities committed against children had long-term consequences for both families and societies. The best safeguard for children's rights was to provide for strong families.

He said about a million young people entered the global sex market annually, which earned billions of dollars worldwide. Eradicating the widespread poverty that caused the atrocity of child labour was the most formidable challenge for humanity. His country was implementing the Convention by elaborating legal and social mechanisms incorporating its elements. Legal reforms provided for such safeguards as a prohibition against capital punishment for those under 18 when the crime was committed. No juvenile offenders were housed with hardened criminals.

He called for progressive elimination of child labour and for further elaboration of juvenile justice. And because no society could progress without providing for the social, moral and material progress of its children, education should be a major focus of the special session on children next year.

MERCEDES DE ARMAS GARCIA (Cuba) said that, despite the good work of the United Nations and its agencies, it seemed as though the world’s children would be left with the “rubble of modern society” created by the persistence of incurable diseases, malnutrition, protracted conflict and sexual exploitation. The situation of children today was simply and eloquently demonstrated by the widening gap between the North and South. Millions of children died in the developing world each year because of circumstances that were, for the most part, preventable. For its part, Cuba had initiated a national plan of action for the protection and promotion of the rights of children, thus demonstrating the political will to take positive action on their behalf. She was proud that Cuba had spared no effort in improving the situation of children, particularly as progress had come in spite of the economic embargo by the United States. But elsewhere, nations were confronted with fundamental limitations beyond the scope of any one government. Efforts at the national level should, therefore, be accompanied by a new philosophy of international solidarity.

She welcomed the adoption of the two optional Protocols to the Convention on the Rights of the Child. As part of its cooperation with and commitment to international human rights initiatives, Cuba had signed those protocols this morning. While she praised the efforts of the Organization to protect the rights of children, she was concerned about two recent developments. First, it was troubling that the Security Council, a body whose main concern was the maintenance of international peace and security, was now interfering in areas related to the rights of children. While it was true that broad cooperation and coordination between the agencies of the United Nations was necessary, it was also true that the protection of children’s rights was an issue better served by the work of the General Assembly and the Economic and Social Council. She felt that those bodies had the capacity to devote the appropriate attention to those issues.

She was also concerned with what she felt was an increasing problem with special rapporteurs of the Commission on Human Rights who were focusing their attention on issues which were not necessarily at the heart of their mandates. For example, she said that while her delegation awaited a substantial all- encompassing report on the work of the special rapporteur on sexual exploitation, that rapporteur had chosen to focus much of her upcoming work on specific aspects that were related to the situation of the private sector. Although that was a worthwhile endeavour, the rapporteur’s work should be focused on putting forward clear recommendations specific to her mandate.

PIERRE NDZENGUE (Cameroon) said that it seemed as though social value systems had moved away from the universal protection of the rights of children. That situation was further exacerbated as new challenges arose that exposed children to new dangers. The international community must refocus its efforts to ensure a better life for the world’s children, with the clear understanding that any form of abuse marked them for life. He said that universal ratification of the Convention’s optional protocols, as well as the International Labour Organization’s (ILO) convention on child labour, would, no doubt, prove that the world community was committed anew to the alleviation of the suffering of the world’s children.

He went on to say that the major obstacles to promoting and protecting the rights of children remained poverty, AIDS and armed conflict. Undernourished children were forced to work and live in the streets and were, therefore, trapped in a vicious circle of poverty. The fight against poverty must remain a priority on the international agenda. In that regard, developing countries must receive sufficient resources, and particular attention should be paid to finding an equitable solution to the debt problem. World leaders must also address the devastating effects of AIDS on children. For its part, Cameroon had initiated programmes aimed at community and family education, awareness raising and promoting legislation on the protection of children. FODE S. KAMARA (Sierra Leone), said that his country had been saddled with an unnecessary rebel war for the past eight years, which had caused the nation and its inhabitants, particularly the children, much misery. Many member States had ratified or acceded to the Convention on the Rights of the Child, but the situation of children in many parts of the world remained critical. The Government of Sierra Leone had established the Ministry of Social Welfare, Gender and Children, with particular responsibility for child protection, including of those in armed conflict. With assistance from the international community, there was also a department set up by the Government that was charged with the disarmament, demobilization and reintegration programmes, wherein particular attention was paid to the special needs of child soldiers.

Post-conflict rebuilding of the position of children and their rehabilitation required long-term attention, he said, and the rights, protection and well-being of children should become the central concern in planning, programming and resource allocation. To that end, his Government in April this year had established the National Commission for war-affected children as a means of ensuring that the concerns of children and youths were taken fully into account. His country would continue to welcome the sympathetic assistance of other countries on a bilateral basis in order to alleviate the sufferings of children and accord them the protection required by the Convention and its protocols.

JULIANA BALDEH (Gambia) said that armed conflict had been the cause of 2 million child deaths, 6 million child injuries and over 1 million orphaned children. Furthermore, armed conflict had led to more than 10 million psychologically traumatized children between the years 1986 and 1996. Those statistics were distressing, she said. Children were increasingly targeted by being forcefully conscripted into armed groups or abducted and sometimes sexually abused. There were situations were their limbs were amputated, and other similarly horrendous atrocities were committed against them physically and psychologically. Despite the existence of an array of international legal instruments geared towards the protection of children in armed conflicts, the human rights of children continued to be violated with impunity.

There was a clear need to ensure that war crimes against children did not go unpunished. Perpetrators of those heinous crimes must be held accountable through concerted international action. That was why her delegation favoured the establishment of the International Criminal Court. It was also crucial to address “vested interests” that contributed to the perpetuation of conflicts, as epitomized by the so-called diamond factor syndrome. That was a common denominator in many of the current conflicts around the world, and in the African continent, in particular. Conflict prevention was important. By investing in conflict prevention, it would be possible to minimize situations where children’s economic, social, political, civil and cultural rights were trampled on with impunity.

LUCIA RUSTAM (Indonesia), associating herself with Malaysia's earlier statement on behalf of the Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN), said it was incomprehensible that so many children continued to die from hunger and malnutrition, neglect, and lack of clean water and basic sanitation at a time of

such great wealth and prosperity. That indictment of contemporary civilization was compounded by commitments that were made annually to resolve the situation through official development assistance, debt relief, trade and anti-poverty programmes, but to little avail. In addition, the Asian financial crisis, and Indonesia's own experience, had shown the direct negative impact of financial instability on the health and welfare of children. Sustained economic recovery was essential if families were to provide their own safety nets for their children.

While it rightly stressed the linkage between poverty and exploitation, she said, the international community must, nevertheless, recognize that poverty did not excuse such practices as child labour, child prostitution and other forms of exploitation. Indonesia had signed and ratified the ILO Conventions on the effective abolition of child labour and on the Prohibition and Immediate Action for the Elimination of the Worst Forms of Child Labour.

She said the rights of children in armed conflict must be a priority in all peacemaking, peace-building and conflict resolution processes, as well as in demobilization and reintegration plans. Indonesia joined in calling for urgent measures to protect children from the effects of landmines, and urged the international community to provide technical and financial assistance for mine clearance and the rehabilitation of victims. Indonesia was also concerned at the number of children suffering from the consequences of sanctions. Extreme care must be taken when imposing sanctions, which must contain specific measures to ensure that humanitarian supplies reached affected populations, particularly children.

CARLOS ENRIQUE GARCIA GONZALEZ (El Salvador) said his country was strengthening mechanisms to take care of children living in poverty. That condition was prevalent in El Salvador because the country was prone to natural disasters, such as hurricanes and storms. That was exacerbated by new social phenomena such as youth gangs. Social initiatives and legal measures were being elaborated to create special programmes for employment and education. Cooperative work with agencies, such as UNICEF and Save the Children, were instituting other programmes, such as one focused on developing children's leadership skills.

He said his country had signed the optional protocol on children in armed conflict, and was ready to sign the one on sale of children and related activities. Reaffirming the desirability of a culture of peace, he said the special session should address the goal of eradicating the worst manifestations of poverty, which affected children even more than others.

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