The engagement of children in armed conflict is a worldwide problem.
Radhika Coomaraswamy, the United Nations' Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict, is responsible for locating children around the world who are involved in armed conflict and removing them from the situation.
To commemorate United Nations Day, Coomaraswamy visited Kansas City Thursday and delivered a presentation titled "The United Nations, Children and Armed Conflict" at the Kansas City Public Library - Plaza Branch.
Because children in countries around the world are actively engaged in conflict as child soldiers, Coomaraswamy said the UN Security Council has begun getting involved with the issue when it formerly did not. A monitoring system has been put in place and the Council receives a report based upon the "six great violations."
"The six great violations are the killing and maiming of children, sexual violence against children, abduction of children, recruitment and use of child soldiers, denial of humanitarian access and a tax on schools and hospitals," she explained.
The only violation on which the Council has considered placing sanctions and preventative measures is the recruitment of child soldiers.
"Every year, we prepare a list for the Council on the parties that are sure to have used child soldiers," Coomaraswamy said. "We name them and list them. The possibility of targeted measures against these parties exists."
UN representatives travel around the world visiting all of the groups on the list and relay to them that steps will be taken, including announcing to the international community that their children are being exploited, if the situation is not remedied. So far, Coomaraswamy said it has worked most of the time.
"Not Al Qaeda or many others because they don't care what the international community says," she said. "But there are a large number of parties that really do care what the international community says. It is them who we are targeting. To them we are saying, 'If you release your children, you will not be listed on the Secretary-General's list, you will not have UN sanctions against you.'"
The three pillars the UN uses to deal with child soldiers are prevention, deterrence and reintegration.
Contrary to what was once believed, Coomaraswamy said they are now finding many children are volunteering to be part of the militant groups as a way of escape from their lives of poverty.
She said the three pillars are key to rehabilitating the children.
Rather than just going in and removing the children from the conflict, the UN reestablishes the children with their families, helps them get an education and continues to monitor them throughout childhood.
So other children in the city or village don't get the idea that being a child soldier gets them better treatment, all of the children in the same schools or neighborhoods as former child soldiers are mentored by the UN.
Coomaraswamy said this approach has proved to be very effective and the UN is successfully rescuing a large number of children from armed conflict situations.
"The Security Council is seen as deadlocked on many issues, but on this issue, we are making progress," she said.
"The United Nations, Children and Armed Conflict" was co-sponsored by the Harry S. Truman Center for Governmental Affairs at UMKC, the Harry S. Truman Library and Museum, the Greater Kansas City chapter of the United Nations Association and the League of Women Voters.
alang@unews.com
