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ADVANCE
EDITED VERSION |
Distr.
GENERAL
A/HRC/4/45
9
February 2007
Original: ENGLISH |
HUMAN RIGHTS COUNCIL
Fourth session
Item 2 on the provisional agenda
REPORT OF THE SPECIAL REPRESENTATIVE OF THE
SECRETARY-GENERAL
FOR CHILDREN AND
ARMED CONFLICT, RADHIKA COOMARASWAMY
____________________________________________________________________________
Excerpt:
III. PROMOTING RIGHTS-BASED PROTECTION
FOR
CHILDREN AFFECTED BY ARMED CONFLICT
A. GIRL CHILDREN
19. It is clear that the girl child remains
particularly vulnerable in situations of armed conflict. The girl child is often
the victim of sexual violence and exploitation, and girl children are
increasingly being recruited into fighting forces. In intervention initiatives
for war-affected children, such as community-based integration programmes for
children asociated with fighting forces, girls are most often bypassed, even
though they are in greatest need of care and services. We miss girls in our
interventions because many of them are unwilling to come forward in the first
place to be identified as "bush wives" or to have their children labelled as
"rebel babies." Communities often stigmatize and ostracize girls because of
their association with rebel groups and the "taint" of having been raped. Often,
rebel groups categorically refuse to give up the girls at all even after
commitments have been made to release children, because even where association
between perpetrators and victims have begun with abduction, rape, and violence,
over several years, "family units" have developed which include babies born of
rape.
20. A deeper understanding of the actute
vulnerability of girls in situations of armed conflict is required, and there is
also a need to draw on girls' skills and capacities acquired in armed groups, so
that future strategies and programme responses address both the empowering and
the detrimental aspects of their experience to maximize the protection and
recognition of the human rights of the girl child. Effective action against
violations of these rights also needs our serious attention.