WUNRN
UN Special Representative of
the Secretary-General on Children in Armed Conflict:
____________________________________________________________________
SITUATION OF GIRLS IN WAR
It is clear that there are categories of children who are especially vulnerable in situations of armed conflict, such as girls, refugee and internally displaced children, and child-headed households. These children require special advocacy, attention and protection. The girl child is often the victim of sexual violence and exploitation, and, increasingly, girl children are being recruited into fighting forces.
In intervention initiatives for war-affected children, such as community-based reintegration programmes for children associated with fighting forces, it is girls that are most often being 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 labeled 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. In many conflict situations combatants have been reluctant to release girls to transit care facilities, holding them captive as "wives."
In these cases, even where associations between perpetrators and their victims began with abduction, rape and violence, over several years "family units" have developed which include babies born of rape. In terms of programme response, all of these factors represent critical challenges for the international community, and more often than not, resources available fall short of the scope and complexity of the situation.
Special attention must therefore be given to the specific needs of girls. A deeper understanding is required of the acute vulnerability of girls in situations of armed conflict, which should inform more gender-sensitive strategies. Disarmament, demobilization and reintegration programmes should include special attention to girl victims of sexual exploitation and girl heads of households.
Sexual and gender-based violence and the vulnerability of girls in the context of armed conflicts has been a particular preoccupation and focus of the office's advocacy. Even though girls are gradually receiving more attention, the child protection community, academia and other stakeholders must strive to deepen the knowledge base on girls to inform more effective advocacy and programme interventions.
Member States should also give priority attention to addressing sexual and gender-based violence, including through adoption of appropriate national legislation and rigorous and systematic investigation and prosecution of such crimes, with emphasis on support to and the well-being of victims.
__________________________________________________________________
UN SPECIAL REPRESENTATIVE OF THE
SECRETARY-GENERAL ON
CHILDREN IN ARMED CONFLICT REPORTS
TO HUMAN RIGHTS COUNCIL
14 September 2010
Radikha
Coomaraswamy, Special Representative of the Secretary-General on children and
armed conflict, said last year witnessed some important positive developments
with regard to children and armed conflicts around the world, but great
challenges remained. The recent incidents of mass rape in the Democratic
Republic of the Congo were mind boggling, and this was the international community's
collective responsibility. Ms. Coomaraswamy said that not all practices against
children took place in the developing world, and the problem of children in
detention had become a new challenge to be faced in the future. The special
needs and concerns of internally displaced children all over the world must be
highlighted, as they were at higher risk of becoming victims of grave
violations, recruited to be child soldiers, and at high risk of sexual violence
and harassment. Education was also a basic service that must be guaranteed to
children, Ms. Coomaraswamy said.
_________________________________________________________________
15
September 2010
UN Warns of Refugee Camp Dangers for
Children - Girls
Camps for displaced people are among the most dangerous places for children caught up in war, a UN special investigator says.
Radhika Coomaraswamy, who has produced a report on the camps for the UN human rights council, said there was a lack of protection for children.
She said they were vulnerable to sexual violence, and to forced recruitment by armed groups.
Many thousands in Sudan, Chad and DR Congo live in such camps.
They are there because they are fleeing war, they hope they will find safety
- but for children, these camps are often not safe at all, says Ms
Coomaraswamy.
In preparing her report for the human rights council, she visited a number of camps, some of them in Sudan's Darfur region.
"The first thing one notices is that they are dangerous, in the sense that you always meet children who have been victims of sexual violence when they went to get firewood or went to the toilet etc - so they are dangerous places," she says.
"Secondly, they are places of idleness. There are situations where children are recruited into armed forces and therefore many have been recruited by one group or another."
In fact, the camps are now the biggest recruiting ground for militia groups
looking for child soldiers.
A
key cause for the lack of protection for children, Ms Coomaraswamy says, is
that there are no uniform standards for these camps.
Some of the camps are run by the UN, some by other aid agencies, some are controlled by national governments, some have schools and some do not.
A first step towards making things safer for displaced children would be, she says, a guarantee that all children are offered at least some regular education - to keep them away from the militias, and to give them some skills, for the time when they can restart their lives again.