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	Protection for war’s youngest victims by Leila Zerrougui Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict   March 2015   The international community must act “collectively and expeditiously” to thwart the growing number of children affected by armed conflicts, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon declared today, as the Security Council met to discuss the myriad horrors faced by children caught up in wars worldwide.   “We agree that we cannot tolerate a world in which children are killed and maimed, where they are abducted, subject to sexual violence, forced to become soldiers, and where schools and hospitals are attacked,” Mr. Ban said.   Nonetheless, he added, “increasingly, children are snatched from a normal life of school and family, abducted by armed groups and thrown into a life of violence and horror.”   Mr. Ban observed that since he last addressed the issue in 2014, hundreds of thousands more children had been confronted with the emergence or intensification of conflict, while UN agencies on the ground were verifying more and more cases of child abductions by armed groups.   These children face “some of the worst human rights violations a child can experience,” including death, injury, imprisonment and torture, sexual abuse, forced recruitment and abduction, he added.   An estimated 230 million children reside in countries and areas where armed groups are fighting and are impacted by the violence.   “The world’s children are increasingly under threat in theatres of war,” Mr. Ban said. “Last year was considered one of the worst ever for children in areas affected by conflict.”   A report released by the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) last year, confirmed the “devastating” trend, noting that as violent conflicts proliferate across the globe – in the Central African Republic, Iraq, South Sudan, Syria, Ukraine and in the occupied Palestinian territories – children were being kidnapped from their schools or on their way to school and recruited or used by armed forces and groups in ever greater numbers.   Also addressing the Council, Leila Zerrougui, Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict, lamented the growing challenges facing the international community “despite the consensus and our combined efforts to spare children the horrors of war.”   “In this start to 2015, it is the violence of armed groups and the brutality with which they treat the children which is our main challenge,” Ms. Zerrougui said. “This is the case in Syria, Iraq, Nigeria, but also in other countries. Recurring conflicts have intensified and the expansion of armed groups is assuming alarming proportions.”   The Special Representative noted that out of the 59 parties documented as having committed violations against children, 51 were non-State actors. To that point, she continued, it remained necessary to enter into “constructive dialogue” with the armed groups, in order to dissuade them from continuing in their destructive practices.   Yoka Brandt, UNICEF Deputy Executive Director, emphasized that voicing outrage was “not enough” but that the international community’s words “must be matched by action to prevent violations of child rights.”   Ms. Brandt said there had been some minor successes as a number of child soldiers in South Sudan were undergoing demobilization. She underscored, however, that being released was “only a first step” as many children faced struggles when they returned home, such as stigmatization and psychological stress.   The Yazidi children who were recently rescued from the clutches of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), for instance, continued to recount stories of abuse from their time in captivity, she said, adding that they had “experienced the worst of humanity.”   “We can rebuild shattered lives and shattered societies,” Ms. Brandt continued. “As we heal these children, we also heal divided societies.”   Among those addressing the meeting was Junior Nzita Nzuami, who was abducted and forced to fight as a child soldier with rebel forces in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).   He recounted moments of horror during his three years of fighting, as he and other children “shot at everything that moved.” Nonetheless, the experiences, he said, prompted him to dedicate his life to helping his country rebuild a better future and so that what he went through “would no longer happen.”   Feb 2015   Ending the use of child soldiers in conflict   From Afghanistan to the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), as the world’s conflicts become more brutal, intense and widespread, children are finding themselves increasingly vulnerable to recruitment and deployment by armed groups, the United Nations warned today.   In a joint press release marking the International Day against the Use of Child Soldiers, observed every 12 February since 2002, the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict called for “urgent action to end grave violations against children” and appealed to all parties of conflicts to meet their obligations under International Law.   “While Governments of the world have made progress to recognize children have no place in their armies, the recruitment of child soldiers is still a huge problem, especially with armed groups,” said Leila Zerrougui, the Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict.   “Out of 59 parties to conflict identified by the Secretary-General for grave violations against children, 57 are named because they are recruiting and using child soldiers,” she added.   According to the UN, tens of thousands of boys and girls are associated with armed forces and armed groups in conflicts in over 20 countries around the world. In Afghanistan, for instance, children continue to be recruited into national security forces and, in some extreme cases, used as suicide bombers. Meanwhile, in the territories of Iraq and Syria controlled by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), children as young as 12 are undergoing military training and being used to carry out suicide bombings and executions as well.   At the same time, a number of conflicts in Africa have witnessed a rise in the use of children for military purposes. In the Central African Republic, where sectarian violence continues to ripple across the country, boys and girls as young as eight years old have been recruited and used by all parties to the conflict.   The DRC has witnessed a similar phenomenon in child soldier recruitment with boys being dispatched into conflict while girls are reportedly commissioned as sex slaves. In South Sudan, some child soldiers have been fighting for up to four years and many have never attended school. In the last year alone, 12,000 children, mostly boys, have been recruited and used as soldiers by armed forces and groups in South Sudan as a whole.   “The release of all children from armed groups must take place without delay. We cannot wait for peace to help children caught in the midst of war,” said UNICEF Deputy Executive Director Yoka Brandt.   “Investing in ways to keep children away from the frontlines, including through education and economic support, is absolutely critical to their future and the future of their societies.”   http://childrenandarmedconflict.un.org/effects-of-conflict/six-grave-violations/ http://childrenandarmedconflict.un.org/children-not-soldiers/ http://childrenandarmedconflict.un.org/ http://cacaccountability.org/ http://www.unicef.org/media/media_pr_childsoldiers.html http://www.genevacall.org/international-day-use-child-soldiers/ http://www.child-soldiers.org/ http://www.redhandday.org/index.php http://www.warchild.org/ Visit the related web page
	A century of progress in women’s equality under threat in the name of culture, religion & traditions by UN Working Group on discrimination against women   8 March 2015   A United Nations expert group on discrimination against women today warned that progress and achievements made over the last hundred years in the fight for women’s equality are under constant threat.   “We are seeing regressive signs, often in the name of culture, religion, and traditions, that threaten the hard-fought progress in achieving women’s equality,” the Working Group on discrimination against women in law and in practice said.   “We have seen attempts to restrict women’s place in the domestic sphere,” they said. “Attention and focus on family value and on protection of the family is important, but it is neither an equivalent nor a replacement of women’s equal rights and autonomy.”   Protection of the family must include protecting the human rights of individual members of the family, especially the right to equality between women and men as well as between girls and boys.   The human rights experts noted that “discrimination against women persists in both public and private spheres, in times of conflict as in times of peace, and in all regions of the world.   “No country in the world has yet achieved full substantive equality of women,” they stressed.   Participation of women in political and public life remains much too low – averaging 20% of parliamentarians and 17% of heads of States or Governments. Women continue to be paid less for work of equal value and are severely underrepresented in top leadership in decision-making bodies in business, finance and trade, including in international institutions as well as in cooperatives and trade unions.   “We continue to witness appalling forms of violence, in the name of perceived honour, beauty, purity, religion and tradition,” they said.   “Too many women are being deprived of their sexual and reproductive health and rights, fundamental human rights of women,” the Working Group underscored.   Each year, some 50,000 women die as a result of unsafe abortions, and some 5 million women suffer from disabilities due to lack of, or negligent reproductive health services, according to a recent study by the World Health Organization.   Completely avoidable maternal deaths are still very high in many countries. There are still countries that impose a total prohibition of abortion in all circumstances and imprison women accused of abortions for up to 30 years.   “There is no acceptable justification to deny the human rights of girls and women by allowing practices to continue which are harmful and dangerous to their physical and mental health,” the experts said. “Just like the century old foot binding, practices such as child marriages, female genital mutilation, and “honor” killings have no place in the 21st century. Visit the related web page
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