The UN’s annual report on children and armed conflict showed progress in some countries but setbacks in others. “While new crises erupted with a heavy toll on children such as in Syria and also in Libya, violations against girls and boys have come to an end in other parts of the world,” said Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict, Radhika Coomaraswamy.
Encouraging is the delisting of parties to conflict in Nepal and Sri Lanka after their successful completion of Security Council-mandated action plans to end the recruitment and use of children. In 2011, five more parties in Afghanistan, the Central African Republic, Chad and South Sudan entered into similar agreements with the UN.
In 2011, the release of children associated with armed forces and groups took place in Central African Republic, Chad, Colombia, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Myanmar, South Sudan and Sudan.
“The progress is continuous but the list of parties to conflict who harm girls and boys will always be too long,” Coomaraswamy said. Of the 52 listed, four parties are new – in Sudan, Yemen and Syria.
For the first time, the report also contains parties responsible for attacks on schools and hospitals in addition to those who recruit, kill and maim, or commit sexual violence. The listing is the result of Security Council Resolution 1998, which was adopted last year. On the list are armed groups in Afghanistan, the DRC and Iraq, as well as the Syrian government forces who regularly shell, burn, loot and raid schools, and assault or threaten teachers, students and medical personnel.
“In conflict, schools and hospitals must be zones of peace respected by all parties,” Coomaraswamy said. Of serious concern is also the growing list of persistent perpetrators of grave violations against children, which has doubled since last year. A total of 32 parties to conflict have been listed for at least five years and are considered persistent perpetrators. “We must put more pressure on these parties through sanctions, other Security Council action and closer collaboration with national and international courts,” said Coomaraswamy.
New crises have caused enormous suffering for children and continue in 2012. In Syria, children were victims of killing and maiming, arbitrary arrest, detention, torture and ill-treatment, including sexual violence, by the Syrian armed forces, the intelligence forces and the Shabiha militia. Children between 8 and 13 were forcibly taken from their homes and used by soldiers as human shields, placing them in front of the windows of buses carrying military personnel into assaults on villages. Schools have been regularly raided and used as military bases and detention centres. Girls and boys have been beaten, blindfolded, subjected to stress positions and to electrical shocks, as well as whipped with heavy electrical cables. “The world is keeping a detailed account of the violence committed against civilians in Syria and I am confident that these crimes will not go unpunished,” said Coomaraswamy.
