Schools and Hospitals Increasingly Attacked in Armed Conflicts, Number of Children Soldiers Rising Say New Reports

The annual report of the Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict finds that out of 22 conflicts that were monitored, attacks against schools and hospitals were reported in at least 15.

The physical damage or destruction of schools is the most re-occurring violation, but there are also reports of schools being closed because of military occupation or direct threats.

Somali children displaced by conflict

Image: UN

“The infrastructure of schools have been physically destroyed by armed actors, and students and educational personnel have been attacked, threatened or intimidated,” the report states.

“In some situations, girls and girls’ schools have been specifically targeted. The use of schools by armed elements has, in certain circumstances, compromised the civilian nature of schools and put students at risk.”

The report recommends that the Security Council agrees to add the armies, rebel militia and other insurgent groups that target schools to its “list of shame” that already includes groups that recruit or use child soldiers, kill or maim children or commit acts of sexual violence against them.

Issuing the report, Radhika Coomaraswamy, the Secretary-General’s Special Representative, stressed that schools must always be safe places of learning for children.

“They should be zones of peace. Those who attack schools and hospitals should know that they will be held accountable,” she said.

No parties were taken off the shame list in the report, which covers 2010, but four more were added – two in Yemen and two in Iraq. The Yemeni groups named were pro-Government tribal militia and al-Houthi rebels, both for recruiting and using child soldiers. The Iraqi groups cited were the insurgent group known as the Islamic State of Iraq, and Al-Qaida in Iraq, including its armed youth wing known as the Birds of Paradise.

Ms. Coomaraswamy told journalists that naming and shaming parties was important because it acted as a catalyst for them to change their practices, and in some cases has led to the framing of action plans for ending the recruitment and use of child soldiers.

In Afghanistan, the UN and the Government recently reached an agreement to release children from the Afghan national security forces and to put in place age verification measures to prevent under-age recruitment.

Progress has also been made in the Philippines, Sudan and Somalia, and Ms. Coomaraswamy said she was encouraged that more and more parties on the shame list are approaching the UN to enter into an action plan.

Overall, the Special Representative stressed, 2010 was “another tragic year” for the world’s youngsters.

The report stressed that all parties to conflict, including international forces mandated to intervene, must meet their obligations under international humanitarian and human rights law.

The report examined armed conflicts last year in Afghanistan, Burundi, the Central African Republic (CAR), Chad, Colombia, Côte d’Ivoire, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Haiti, India, Iraq, Lebanon, Myanmar, Nepal, the occupied Palestinian territories and Israel, Pakistan, Philippines, Somalia, Sri Lanka, Sudan, southern Thailand, Uganda and Yemen.

Another new United Nations report voices serious concern about the continued recruitment of children by armed groups in the Central African Republic (CAR) and calls for measures to address the ongoing “protection crisis” in the country.

In this latest report to the Security Council on the issue of children and armed conflict in CAR, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon notes a number of factors contributing to the protection crisis, which affects women and children in particular.

Child Soldiers

Image: UN

These include sporadic fighting between Government forces and armed groups – despite the signing of a peace agreement in June 2008 – and widespread banditry, as well as extreme poverty and the lack of capacity of the defence and security forces and the judiciary.

“In spite of the Government’s commitment to end the use and recruitment of children, their mobilization into the ranks of rebel groups and self-defence militias throughout the country continued during the reporting period,” Mr. Ban says in the report, which covers the period from December 2008 to December 2010.

The report notes continued grave violations, such as the killing of children, sexual violence, attacks on health centres and the denial of humanitarian access. In addition, in the south-east of the country, the Ugandan rebel Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) continues to abduct and forcibly recruit children and use them as combatants, spies, sex slaves and porters.

The lack of systematic birth registration exacerbated challenges related to addressing grave violations, according to the report, since it is often not possible to prove the age of an individual. Official statistics show that only 49 per cent of births were registered nationally in 2010.

Source: United Nations