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	Countries must act to end the recruitment and use of children in armed conflict by Watchlist on Children & agencies Central African Republic / Chad   May 2011   Children and armed conflict in the Central African Republic. (Watchlist on Children)   Children in the Central African Republic (CAR) are being abducted, recruited into armed groups and denied access to humanitarian assistance, according to a report released by the Watchlist on Children and Armed Conflict (Watchlist) and the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC).   These violations, as well as attacks against schools and hospitals, have continued despite the fact that the UN Security Council identified them among the forbidden ‘six grave violations’ committed against children during times of conflict. These six grave violations are the basis of the Council’s protection of children during war.   The report, An Uncertain Future? Children and Armed Conflict in the Central African Republic, finds that the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) is still present and active in CAR, where it is abducting children.   Abducted children are raped, used as sex slaves and forced to attack villages and kill others, including other children by the LRA.   In the report, Watchlist and IDMC outline demands that the government of CAR, the UN Security Council and donors including the US and the EU, take specific actions to help children affected by armed conflict in CAR.   “Children are being abused and their rights are being ignored by the LRA, other rebel groups, and even by the government of CAR. The international humanitarian community at large is also failing them in their inability to monitor and address the situation properly,” says Eva Smets, Director of Watchlist. “We must protect and provide adequate support for these children.”   In January 2011, Watchlist and IDMC conducted a field mission during which a researcher held one-on-one interviews with former child soldiers, internally displaced children and their families, community leaders and teachers, security forces, and members of village self-defense militias.   “This report outlines the situation in CAR from the victims’ perspective,” says Laura Perez, Country Analyst for IDMC and researcher for the report. “We learned directly from the children and their families what is actually happening and how it’s affecting them.”   Specifically, Watchlist and IDMC found the following:   • Abduction: Not only is the LRA abducting children, using them as slaves and soldiers, but those children who manage to escape from the LRA experience great difficulties returning to their families. They rarely receive much-needed assistance, to heal from these traumatic events.   These children also suffer an arduous journey home that often takes them as long as the time they actually spent in captivity.   • Recruitment: The absence of a functioning army has forced local communities to form self-defense militias to protect themselves from criminal gangs and foreign armed groups like the LRA. These self-defense militias admit to recruiting children as young as 12.   In addition, there are significant problems in the long-term reintegration of the children. Without support programs allowing them to earn a living, these children are at risk of returning to armed groups.   • Denial of Humanitarian Access: Between restrictions placed on certain areas by the government of CAR, and the activities of the rebel groups and the LRA, humanitarian assistance organizations and UN agencies are unable to access two conflict areas in the country. This means that no assessment of needs is being made and no assistance provided to the children living in these areas.   The international community must respond now and commit the necessary resources to help children affected by armed conflict in CAR.”   February 2011   Chad must end the recruitment and use of children in armed conflict. (Amnesty)   Boys as young as 13 years old are being used as soldiers by officers of the Chadian national army and armed groups, a new report by Amnesty International states.   More than 40 former and current child soldiers from Chad and Darfur describe how they were compelled to join the groups in testimonies presented in the report “A compromised future: The plight of children recruited by armed forces and groups in eastern Chad”.   “It is tragic that thousands of children are denied their childhood and are manipulated by adults into fighting their wars,” said Erwin van der Borght, Amnesty International’s Africa director. “This scandalous child abuse must not be allowed to continue.”   “The Chadian government – and the Chadian and Sudanese armed groups operating in eastern Chad – must immediately stop the recruitment and use of children under 18 and release all children from their ranks.”   Up to half a million people live in refugee or displacement camps in eastern Chad after being forced to flee from their homes following the violence.   A former child combatant from Sudan now living in a camp in eastern Chad told Amnesty International: “There is nothing to do here; there is no work, no school, no money and I am poor… when we are in combat, we take stuff from the enemy.”   Children dressed in nice clothes are sometimes sent to camps with money to lure new recruits, offering between up to US$500 to those who join up.   Those aged between 13 and 17 are most likely to be used directly in combat while children as young as 10 are used as porters and messengers.   Though the Chadian government with the assistance of UNICEF launched a demobilization and reintegration program for children associated with armed forces and groups in 2007, this has had little success to date. This is partly due to underfunding but is exacerbated by continued insecurity, extreme poverty and the reluctance of political and military officials to engage with demobilization processes.   Many former child soldiers do not go through the demobilization and reintegration process.   Amnesty International is particularly concerned about the lack of accountability for those suspected of committing human rights violations, including the recruitment of children. There have been no prosecutions of members of the army and armed groups for recruiting and using children.   For example eleven men were arrested in connection with the recruitment of children in a refugee camp in September 2010, but it is not clear what happened to them. As far as Amnesty International is aware these men were never brought to trial.   On 20 January 2011, Chadian President Idriss Deby Itno ordered an amnesty for crimes committed by members of the armed opposition, effectively perpetuating impunity for the human rights abuses committed against children used in hostilities.   “Instead of benefiting from amnesty, alleged perpetrators of human rights violations including the recruitment and use of child soldiers should be investigated. Individuals reasonably suspected of being involved in such crimes should be prosecuted in national courts in trials that meet international fair trial standards,” said Erwin van der Borght.   “The Government must issue clear orders to all army commanders not to recruit or use children and to cooperate with demobilization programs,” he added. “There is never an excuse to violate the rights of children.”   Close to 10,000 children linked with armed groups have been released since 2009, according to the United Nations. They’ve been caught up in conflicts around the world in countries including Afghanistan, Colombia, the Philippines, and Sierra Leone.   Patrick Maigua says, “I was 11, I was thrown into a conflict I did not cause to happen but I suffered the most.”   Messeh Kamara a survivor of the brutal 11-year Sierra Leonean civil war, works to advance the rights of children in Sierra Leone, says the recruitment of children into armed conflicts robs them off their dignity and humanity.   “Justice and accountability for us is very important, but then it is also mostly important when our rights are given back to us. They stole our rights from us and when you steal something from someone it is most important that you return that which you stole.   Our right to education, health, our basic rights, our fundamental rights as enshrined in international humanitarian laws.”   The forcible recruitment of child soldiers is considered a war crime Visit the related web page
	UN calls for more effective steps to sustain peace in post-conflict countries by United Nations News   26 January 2011   Countries emerging from conflict need help of entire UN family.   The task of consolidating peace in a country emerging from conflict belongs to the entire United Nations family and not just to its peacebuilding architecture, the outgoing chair of the Peacebuilding Commission said today.   “The challenge is huge,” Ambassador Peter Wittig of Germany told a news conference in New York, after handing over the chairmanship of the Commission to Ambassador Eugene-Richard Gasana of Rwanda.   “There is a rather sobering diagnosis that half of the countries where a peacekeeping operation was deployed relapsed into conflict within 10 years of the departure of the peacekeeping operation,” he noted.   “The challenge is of course to change that and to put more emphasis on the task of consolidating the peace after the conflict. That’s a challenge for the whole UN family, not just for the peacebuilding architecture.”   The cornerstone of the UN’s peacebuilding architecture is the Peacebuilding Commission (PBC), which was set up in 2005 to help struggling States avoid slipping back into war and chaos by providing strategic advice and harnessing expertise and financing from around the world to aid with recovery projects.   While previously there were four countries on the Commission’s agenda – Burundi, Sierra Leone, Guinea-Bissau and the Central African Republic (CAR) – a fifth, Liberia, was added in 2010.   Countries can also avail themselves of financial assistance from the Peacebuilding Fund to jump-start rebuilding projects.   Among the achievements of the past year, Mr. Wittig cited advances in enhancing the partnerships between the Commission and international financial institutions and regional organizations, such as the World Bank and the African Union.   In addition, the Commission had strengthened its relationships with UN bodies, including the Security Council.   “Of course, it takes two to tango – the Council has to be prepared to listen to advice and the PBC has to be able to give advice,” Mr. Wittig said.   He emphasized that the “litmus test of peacebuilding” is whether the situation on the ground improves and whether the people in conflict-torn societies receive the help they need. “This is the yardstick that all our efforts should be geared toward.”   21 Jan, 2011   The UN Security Council, which deploys peacekeeping missions to strife-torn countries, devoted a day-long session today to the equally important task of post-conflict peacebuilding – helping nations on the long road to forging institutions that prevent them from relapsing back into bloodshed.   In a presidential statement, the 15-member body called for “a more effective and coherent” national and international response so that countries emerging from conflict can deliver core government functions such as ensuring security, managing political disputes peacefully, protecting their populations, revitalizing the economy and providing basic services.   “Institution building should start early and be sustained not only for years, but decades,” Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said at the start of the session. “Unfortunately, the track record of international support to institution building is mixed. We can do better.   “Institutions can be critical in sustaining peace and reducing the risk of relapse into violence. Building legitimate and effective institutions that respect and promote human rights therefore must be a central element of the overall peacebuilding effort.”   Peacebuilding gained added momentum as part of UN reforms in 2005 when the Council and the General Assembly acted in concert to set up a 31-member Peacebuilding Commission to prevent countries emerging from conflict from falling back into chaos. Some 50 per cent of conflicts in the past two decades have recurred within five years of peace agreements.   The Commission’s first target countries were Burundi and Sierra Leone, two African countries emerging from years of civil war and ethnic violence. Guinea-Bissau, Central African Republic and Liberia are now also on the agenda of the Commission and the related UN Peacebuilding Fund is currently supporting more than 100 projects in 15 countries – the five on the agenda and 10 others certified by Mr. Ban as eligible – by delivering fast financing.   “Peacebuilding is certainly a major challenge for the whole UN system,” the Commission’s Chairman, Ambassador Peter Wittig of Germany, told today’s session, stressing that institution-building goes beyond nurturing organizational structures.   “From power-sharing and rotation, active participation of women in decision-making processes, to fair distribution of wealth and economic opportunities, societies emerging from conflict struggle to rebuild themselves on the basis of ‘new rules of the game,’” he said.   Mr. Ban cited three major lessons that need to be applied to the collective efforts. “First, we need to reinforce national ownership and leadership and build on existing institutions,” he said. “Responsive and inclusive institutions can only be built by national actors, using their knowledge of the context, the institutions that do exist, and the root causes of conflicts.” He called for more nimble and agile systems including stronger partnerships to provide the best capacity.   Secondly, he warned against “one-size-fits-all solutions,” noting that trying to impose outside models can do more harm than good.   He noted that in Guinea-Bissau weak institutions at many levels remain a main cause of political instability and lack of socio-economic development, while Mr. Wittig cited Bosnia and Herzegovina, which emerged from conflict in 1995 and holds the Council’s rotating monthly presidency, as an example where some institutions for rebuilding already existed.   Finally Mr. Ban stressed the long haul needed to achieve true peacebuilding, although in the short-term, early and tangible progress needs to be made in a few priority areas to restore confidence and increase the legitimacy of national institutions, including providing security, increasing access to the justice system, and expanding health and education services.   “International efforts have often failed to recognize that building effective institutions is a long-term effort, even in relatively stable conditions. Some progress can be made in three to five years, but expectations need to be realistic. This, of course, has implications for the Council and the missions it mandates,” he said.   “There is much that we can do to improve our efforts, reduce fragmentation and promote a coherent approach.”   In its presidential statement, the Council acknowledged “the need for continued improvement in the delivery of supporting the immediate aftermath of conflict in order to help stabilize the situation, whilst at the same time starting the longer-term process of institution building, including those institutions that promote democratic processes and foster economic and social development with a view to sustainable peace.” Visit the related web page
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