Children affected by armed conflict and violence

Excellencies,

Dear colleagues and friends,

It is an honor to be with you today to address the topic of children affected by armed conflict and violence.

I thank the European Parliament and the Global Campus of Human Rights for the invitation and opportunity to set the stage alongside my colleague Virginia Gamba, the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict.

This is an issue of urgent and global concern.

At the end of last year, more than 450 million children – or one in six – were living in a conflict zone, the highest number in 20 years. A record 36,5 million children were displaced from their homes as a result of conflict, violence and other crises.

The conflict in Ukraine has caused two million children to flee their country and displaced some three million internally.

Every child living under these circumstances is a child deprived of their basic rights and protection.

As early as 1924, the Geneva Declaration of the Rights of the Child declared that “mankind owes to the child the best it has to give” and that “the child must be the first to receive relief in times of distress”.

Since then, States have developed an elaborate legal framework under international human rights law, international humanitarian law and international criminal law that govern the treatment and protection of children, and related obligations on States and non-state actors.

Notably, the 1977 Additional Protocols to the Geneva Conventions codified the concept of “special protection” of children under international humanitarian law and introduced the legal standard that children under the age of fifteen should not be recruited or be allowed to take part in hostilities.

The international human rights system has further strengthened the legal protection of the rights and dignity of the child.

At its heart stand the Convention on the Rights of the Child and its Optional Protocol on the Involvement of Children in Armed Conflict.

It is worth recalling the four general principles that imbue the Convention:

Non-discrimination;
The best interest of the child;
The right to life, survival and development;
Participation and inclusion of the child.

Like all human rights standards and principles, they apply at all times and everywhere.

Yet, the reality is grim.

The blatant disregard for international human rights and humanitarian law in today’s conflicts disproportionately impacts children, in part because of their invisibility.

The absence of children as participants in peace processes, and of child protection provisions in peace agreements, serves to illustrate.

It is therefore vital to redouble efforts to recognize children both as victims of violence and as active participants whose voices and experiences are heard.

The dedicated report in 2020 by the Commission of Inquiry on Syria entitled “They have erased the dreams of my children: children’s rights in the Syrian Arab Republic” did exactly that. Dedicated expertise and focus on children allowed for this, and the report underscored that a child-centered approach is essential for durable peace.

Allow me to offer another few examples of how the United Nations is working in partnership with Member States, civil society and children themselves to strengthen protection of children’s rights and to prevent violations in the first place.

In United Nations peace missions, human rights components work hand in hand with child protection units to monitor and report on child rights violations – including the six grave violations of children – to support accountability and justice efforts.

In the Central African Republic, for instance, we support the establishment of community-based committees to support proper management of cases and ensure adequate protection of victims.

In Iraq, the United Nations Assistance Mission engages in a broad range of activities to prevent the use and recruitment of children: From awareness-raising of the right to education to ongoing dialogue with the Government of Iraq and the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) to sign an action plan to end and prevent use and recruitment and other child rights violations.

We also support the work by international criminal tribunals, including the International Criminal Court. In 2021, our Office together with other UN partners submitted a joint amicus curiae brief to the ICC Trial Chamber in the Dominique Ongwen case, addressing  harms caused by the conflict in northern Uganda, including for survivors of conflict-related sexual violence and their children, and appropriate forms of reparation.

Special procedures of the Human Rights Council also play important roles to raise visibility and sound the alarm.

Last month, the Special Rapporteur on the human rights situation in Myanmar presented a report on the horrific violence by the military junta against children, highlighting killing and maiming, arbitrary detention, torture – and hostage-taking of children to exert pressure on parents to turn themselves in.

He urged States to take immediate coordinated action to prevent children becoming “a lost generation” amid the escalating humanitarian, political and economic crisis.

This conference offers an opportunity to bring his cri de coeur for children to global application.

This includes small places, close to home. We know that children in situations of migration, including in Europe, unaccompanied children, asylum seekers and refugee children continue to be at a higher risk and vulnerable to different forms of detention and violence.

It is for us all to ensure coordinated engagement, targeted advocacy and mobilize resources – at all levels – to ensure that the human rights and special protection afforded each child are implemented.

We owe to children the best we can give. It is not only a legal and moral imperative – it is a responsibility to humanity.

Thank you.