Protecting world's children at 'watershed moment'

The battle to uphold the rights and wellbeing of children exposed to armed conflict "has reached a watershed moment," the Security Council has been told.

During the annual Council debate on children and armed conflict, Under-Secretary-General Olara Otunnu said that while there had been "significant progress" on many fronts for children, too many rights violators go "unpunished".

"The general situation for children remains grave and unacceptable," Mr Otunnu said.

The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), the Indonesian province of Aceh, Iraq, Liberia, the occupied Palestinian territories and Uganda were all cited as areas where children have particularly suffered over the past year.

Among his recommendations, Mr Otunnu proposed setting up a monitoring and reporting mechanism to track violations of children's rights during conflicts.

Progress on the issue had been made in recent years, he said, including greater advocacy for children, the development of international norms for their treatment, and the increasing integration of child protection into UN peacekeeping operations.

Carol Bellamy, Executive Director of the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF), told the Council that many children suffer more because humanitarian access "is often restricted or banned outright during wars".

Ms Bellamy said child soldiers were not the only victims of wars, adding that girls were especially vulnerable to sexual violence and exploitation.

"Another devastating consequence of today's wars is that they create and exacerbate conditions that lead to HIV/AIDS," she said.

"The impoverishment that accompanies conflict often leaves women and girls so destitute that trading sex for survival becomes the only option for many."

(gmcg)