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ASSESSING THE IMPACT OF ARMED CONFLICT ON CHILDREN

& CURRENT RESPONSE MECHANISMS          

             

            Submitted by Denise Scotto, Esq.&Teresa Schiller,Esq.

            Women's Bar Association of the State of NewYorkUSA             

 

As part of the Women's Bar Association of the State of New York Conference regarding The Impact of Armed Conflict on Women and Children, a  Workshop was entitled “Assessing the Impact of Armed Conflict on Children and Current Response Mechanisms."  Ms.Denise Scotto, Chair of the New York Chapter’s Children’s Rights Committee organized and moderated the workshop, which featured: Hazel De Wet, Project Officer, Humanitarian Policy & Advocacy Office of Emergency Programmes, UNICEF;  Ann Makome, Child Protection Focal Point, Peacekeeping Best Practices Section, Policy, Evaluation & Training Division, DPKO; Nancy Wallace, LMSW, Adjunct Lecturer, NYU School of Social Work; and Letitia Anderson, Programme Associate Governance, Peace & Security, UNIFEM.

 

Ms. Scotto explained how WBASNY has been dedicated for over 10 years to issues relating to the impact of armed conflict on women and children and the International Criminal Court (ICC).  Back in the 1990’s as co-chair of WBASNY’s International Women’s Rights Committee, she organized a series of programs together with Fordham Law School exploring various aspects of the theme including Children in War.  She thanked WBASNY for continuing to support these subjects and thanked the co-sponsoring organizations in helping to make the events of the day possible—The American Bar Association, International Law Section, the International Federation of Women in Legal Careers, the NGO Committee on Mental Health, Women in International Security (WIIS), the Faith & Ethics Network for the ICC, the Planethood Foundation, Fordham Graduate School of Social Service, the Society for Women and AIDS in Africa and First American Title Insurance Company of New York.

 

Ms. Scotto described how situations of armed conflict affect girls and boys and discussed the seminal 1996 Graca Machal UN Study on the Impact of Armed Conflict on Children.   She related how the report brought the issue to the attention of the international community and offered the statistics of how youngsters were affected as targets and instruments of armed conflict, experiencing grave abuses of their human rights and sustaining physical and mental trauma.  In the UN Study, Ms. Machal noted Ten Commandments to take action to move forward and to better protect children from these kinds of violations.  Ms. Scotto explained that positive action had occurred since 1996, whereby some of the Machal recommendations had been undertaken.  One such key positive recommendation included the creation of the post of the UN Special Representative of the Secretary General on Children in Armed Conflict. 

 

As part of the 1996 UN Study ten year review process, a publication was prepared as a result of consultation with children in areas of armed conflict across the globe. Ms. Scotto read the very words of these youngsters so that audience members could better appreciate the kinds of violations that these youngsters endured and the feelings that these boys and girls are living with.  She also linked the earlier plenary session ICC speakers’ comments with the current outstanding indictments of Joseph Kony from Uganda and Thomas Lubanga from the DRC as both men have been indicted for recruiting children as soldiers in the rebel movements in their respective countries.  The ICC can be an instrument to hold high level ranking leaders accountable for heinous violations of children’s rights in times of war and political instability. 

 

Ms. Scotto stressed another important legal instrument particularly the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child which concerns the prohibition on the use of child soldiers and the recruitment of those under 18 years.  She highlighted that while the US is not a party to the CRC itself, it is a party to this Optional Protocol.  She mentioned that the UN Security Council has been active in passing various SC Resolutions which other speakers would elaborate upon.  Lastly, she stated that the 1996 Machal Study acknowledged the importance of the mental health component and that in keeping with the Study, we would discuss fashioning protection mechanisms which included psycho-social services.

 

Ms. De Wet described the work of UNICEF to help child victims of armed conflict -- from child soldiers to sexually-exploited girls.  She discussed the important basic humanitarian needs of youngsters such as food and medical care and how in times of war and instability there are significant challenges in delivering them to youth.  She explained how continuing the education of girls and boys is another area of focus for UNICEF. 

 

Ms. De Wet , stated how UNICEF works to implement the protections afforded through the Convention on the Rights of the Child, its Optional Protocols, and CEDAW.  She explained, however, that international human rights law is not currently sufficient to deal with the changing nature of conflict.  She said that UN responses to human rights violations tend to be project-oriented, when more holistic-oriented solutions are needed instead. 

 

She discussed her work prior to UNICEF where she was involved in writing the terms of the post of the UN SR of the SG on Children in Armed Conflict.  She remarked how both mandate holders—Olaro Otunnu and Radhika Coomaraswamy have helped bring attention to these youngsters and have helped to bring political attention to their particular circumstances by their field missions and reporting to the UN Security Council. She praised both mandate holders for their dedication to the cause.

 

Ms. Makome talked about developments in international law regarding child protection in peacekeeping operations.  She said that Security Council Resolution 1261 called for peacekeepers to be trained about children in armed conflict zones and remarked that there have been six resolutions since 1999 regarding children and armed conflict flowing from the 1996 Machal Study. She discussed her personal experience working in the field in the DRC for close to 2 years.  Child protection advisors are necessary in peacekeeping operations to train peacekeeping personnel about the use of children in armed conflicts, to educate peacekeeping personnel about grave violations of children’s rights, to monitor and to report these grave violations and to protect youngsters and remove them from combat when possible. 

 

As part of her duties in the DRC, Ms. Makome,  identified with which groups youngsters were recruited to fight as soldiers and with much patience and negotiation, she was able to get some of them released. She also discussed the particular plight of girls in the DRC and the high numbers of rapes of girls, some of them as young as 5 years old.  She explained in south eastern DRC there were over 20,000 young women who had been brought to the Panzi Hospital due to injuries sustained in rapes.  She additionally mentioned that many of these young girls consequently became pregnant and that they then were children raising babies.  

 

Ms. Wallace, who currently is working with a large group of Liberian refugees living in Staten Island, spoke about the psychological impact of armed conflict on child victims.  She said, for example, that child soldiers have special needs and that girl child soldiers have even more special needs.  Ms. Wallace said that mental health specialists try to help child victims by reconnecting them with stabilized communities and with normal environments, such as school.  She said, however, that some children who have been traumatized develop an inability to concentrate and need much more focused mental health care, which currently is not available globally, particularly in post-war areas.

 

Ms. Anderson stated that girls have rights under UN SC Resolution 1325 but that girls are still too often marginalized.  She described the plight of girl soldiers, who may not only be aggressors in armed conflict, but victims as well.  She explained that girl soldiers may have joined rebel groups in efforts to escape violence themselves but that some may find themselves to be rape victims within the rebel groups.  She quoted one victim as saying, “That man had the gun and the power.  I just wanted my life to be spared.”  Ms. Anderson characterized violence against women and girls as the most pervasive -- but least punished -- of all crimes.  She said that the international laws protecting women and girls are “not adequately respected, implemented, and enforced.”  She also ended on a positive note indicating that women are great agents of social change and have the capacity to participate at the table during peace negotiations and to mobilize society during the post conflict peace building stage.  





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