Open Debate on Children and Armed Conflict - Australian Permanent Mission to the United Nations

Australian Permanent Mission to the United Nations

New York

Permanent Mission address: 150 East 42 Street, Level 33, New York, New York 10017 - Telephone: 1 212 351 6600 - Fax: 1 212 351 6610

Open Debate on Children and Armed Conflict

Statement by Andrew Goledzinowski
Deputy Permanent Representative of Australia to the United Nations
(Check against delivery)

12 July 2011, delivered in the UN Security Council

Australia is committed to a strong and effective international framework to protect the rights and address the situation of children in armed conflict. As a member of the Group of Friends on Children and Armed Conflict, we are pleased to associate ourselves with the statement delivered by Canada on behalf of the Group.

We welcome the Security Council’s demonstrated commitment to address grave violations committed against children in situations of armed conflict. This commitment has yielded notable and tangible results. In this regard we congratulate Afghanistan for signing the comprehensive Action Plan to halt child recruitment and other violations by the Afghan National Security Forces only 12 months after the Afghan National Police was listed by the Secretary-General on recruitment grounds.

We commend progress in the Philippines toward the development of an Action Plan with the National Democratic Front of the Philippines to ensure children will not be recruited into the New People’s Army or involved in the conflict there.

We hope that the government in Myanmar will allow SRSG Coomaraswamy access to non-state armed groups so that action plans can be negotiated, allowing some such groups in Myanmar to be de-listed.

Mr President

Despite these successes, in his latest report, the Secretary-General notes that attacks and threats of attack against education and medical facilities are a growing trend and are of significant concern. We also note that these attacks are in contravention of international law. Clearly there is still work to be done.

Attacks on schools not only affect children and youth, but communities as a whole, undermining efforts to reduce poverty. We therefore welcome the resolution presented today, that expands the listing criteria to include the grave violation of attacks on schools and hospitals, and credible threats or attacks against schoolchildren and educational and medical personnel. Inclusion of both schools and hospitals reflects the relationship between access to educational and medical
services and the survival, development, and well-being of children.

Mr President

We encourage the Working Group to fully utilise its available toolkit, including the use of emergency or irregular briefings, in line with the Working Group’s terms of reference, to enable it to respond to surges in grave violations in a timely and flexible manner, particularly when they occur outside of the cycle of country reports and conclusions. The SRSG’s briefing on Cote d’Ivoire during the Working Group’s formal meeting in May is an example of how this could work in practice.

Australia firmly believes that Working Group field trips, such as those recently undertaken in Nepal and Afghanistan, are powerful tools for securing commitments by listed parties, and hope that the Working Group will undertake further field visits in 2011.

We commend the work of SRSG Coomaraswamy on the protection of children in situations of armed conflict including through her field visits, which represent an important means by which UNSC recommendations are realised and actioned at the ground level.

We look forward to increasing consideration by the UNSC sanctions committees of perpetrators of grave violations against children, noting that in 2010, for the first time, an individual in the DRC was listed under that sanctions regime on such grounds.

We are concerned that some persistent perpetrators cannot be held accountable through targeted measures given the absence of designated sanctions committees and call on the Security Council to address this accountability gap on an urgent basis.

In conclusion, the Security Council and its Working Group on Children and Armed Conflict have made significant advances in ensuring the protection of children in armed conflict. However, while we celebrate our collective successes, we must also recognise that challenges remain. We all share the responsibility of ensuring those who abuse children in times of conflict do not go unpunished, and we look to the strength and commitment of the Security Council to lead us in this regard.