State-Secretary Leiv Lunde

Childhoods 2005: Children in War and Conflict

Oslo, 2 July 2005

Check against delivery.

Dear friends, distinguished representatives of academia,

Thank you for giving me this opportunity to address an issue of great concern to my government and to me personally: How we – the world community – can assist in making the world a better place for children affected by war and conflict.

During the last decade, at least two million children have been killed as a direct result of armed conflicts. Every month 800 children are either killed or seriously wounded by land mines. About 300 000 children are used as soldiers. In Africa it is estimated that up to 100 000 children were involved in fighting in mid-2004. Thousands of children continue to be abducted to serve as soldiers, spies, messengers, servants and sexual slaves in armed forces, including paramilitaries, guerrilla groups and rebels, as well as government armies.

In Sudan, in Northern Uganda, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and in Colombia, entire generations have grown up in the shadow of armed conflicts, have been denied basic human rights and have been deprived of human dignity. Coming generations are also threatened.

In Nepal, an increasing number of children are targeted by the fighting parties, in their schools, in their homes, in the market place. Places where children should feel safe, such as schools and hospitals, have become the targets of deliberate armed attacks and unspeakable atrocities. There have even been reports of members of peacekeeping forces sexually abusing children.

War and armed conflicts breed brutality beyond imagination.

Conflict has the potential to change forever children’s aspirations and capabilities by subjecting them to horrific physical, psychological, sexual and societal violence.

Children have widely differing needs and experiences in conflict and in post-conflict situations. However, no child emerges unscarred or unaffected from situations where killings, indiscriminate bombings, recruitment, torture, sexual exploitation, forced labour, abduction, sickness and malnutrition are a constant threat, and where educational opportunities rarely exist.

The international community condemns such violations of the rights of the child. It condemns the recruitment and use of children in armed conflict. It also condemns attacks on traditional places of protection for children, such as schools, hospitals and homes.

Nevertheless, children continue to suffer in armed conflicts. And this is unacceptable.

Legal protection

During the last 15 years, a number of regional and international legal instruments have been put in place to protect the rights and welfare of all children, including those who are affected by war. We have witnessed a shift in focus as regards children from a welfare and assistance perspective to a clearer emphasis on the rights of the child and the obligations and responsibilities of states to uphold the protection of children.

This is a development Norway strongly supports as we believe in the unique value and integrity of every child, as well as in the importance of children’s own resources and capabilities. It is the responsibility of the state to give children the opportunity to prosper in a peaceful society where human rights are protected.

When it was adopted in 1989, the Convention on the Rights of the Child established a core set of basic rights for children – putting the best interests of the child and the child’s right to non-discrimination at the centre. The convention has now gained almost universal ratification. The need to strengthen the protection of children affected by armed conflict led to the adoption of the Optional Protocol on the involvement of children in armed conflicts in 2000. NGOs, in particular the Coalition to stop the use of child soldiers, contributed hugely to this process.

Despite these encouraging normative and institutional improvements, the situation for millions of children around the world clearly does not give much reason for optimism.

We now need concerted efforts to breathe life into the principles and obligations enshrined in these instruments. We need to come to terms with the gaps between the normative framework and its implementation.

We need widespread ratification, effective implementation and international co-operation. We need political, moral, economic and social leadership.

The depth of our commitment today to immediate action together with and on behalf of war-affected girls and boys will determine their future commitment to peace. Children who grow up in a climate of violent conflict are likely to pass on the heritage of violence to the next generation. We must help break this vicious cycle.

The UN Security Council

The UN Security Council has a crucial role to play in the protection of children. The 1996 Graca Machel Report on the Impact of Armed Conflict on Children highlights the relevance of children’s rights to the international peace and security agenda. And I think it is fair to say that the Security Council is to a growing extent shouldering its responsibility to strengthen the protection of children affected by armed conflicts.

Several Security Council resolutions reaffirm that the authorities, rebel groups, and the private sector are all responsible for safeguarding children's fundamental rights in both wartime and peacetime. They impose a number of requirements on member states, the Security Council, the UN system, financial institutions, regional organisations and not least the parties to conflicts.

We must make sure, through our words and deeds, that we live up to the challenges and expectations these documents present us with.

It is of paramount importance that the Security Council systematically integrates child-protection objectives when it adopts and reviews the mandates of peacekeeping operations. All peacekeeping missions should receive child-sensitive training and include child-protection advisers who can safeguard the rights of children.

In March 2002, during the Norwegian presidency, the Security Council launched an aide-memoire – a check list and reference guide to make the normative framework easier to apply in concrete field operations.

In his latest report to the Secretary-General, the Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflicts points to the fact that children bear the least responsibility for conflict and yet they suffer disproportionately from its effects. The next step for the UN Security Council should therefore be to establish a robust international mechanism for monitoring and reporting serious international crimes against children in all situations of conflict.

Over the last years, the Council has operated with lists of parties to armed conflicts that continue to recruit or use child soldiers in violation of international law. The time is now overdue to identify what steps the international community, through the Security Council, will take against such parties, which include states.

Just last week, Norway, together with several like-minded countries, sent a letter to all the members of the Security Council urging the council to hold the interests of children paramount in its negotiation processes, and to adopt without delay a monitoring mechanism for children affected by armed conflict.

Impunity

Armed conflicts across the world breed on impunity – and vice versa. Even the perpetrators of the gravest breaches of human rights and humanitarian law have enjoyed impunity.

The establishment of the International Criminal Court and its subsequent ratification by a large number of states is a major achievement in the field of child protection in armed conflicts. Human security, but above all, the security and protection of our children depends on perpetrators being made accountable for the atrocities they commit.

The International Criminal Court provides an opportunity to make offenders accountable for universally recognised crimes against humanity, including conscripting and enlisting children under the age of 15 into the armed forces, and using strategies that target children in conflicts. Sexual violence including rape can also constitute a crime against humanity. All states must stop granting impunity for these atrocious acts. Bringing the offenders to court is a vital step in preparing the grounds for a lasting peace where justice and human rights prevail.

Peace processes

The demobilisation and reintegration of child soldiers following armed conflicts is a complex and challenging task. It cannot, however, be left undone. Peace cannot prosper while arms are still proliferating and blood is still spilling from open wounds.

Demobilisation and reintegration efforts must address the special needs of child soldiers. Armies often try to cover up the presence of child combatants in their ranks. As a result, peace agreements have no provisions for this category of former soldiers, despite the debt owed them by society for having deprived them of opportunities for normal emotional and intellectual growth. Child combatants need to be reunited with their families if they can be traced, they need to continue their education and they need psychological counselling so they can readjust.

Demobilisation and reintegration is in general a challenging task. But reaching the girls seems to be extraordinarily difficult. In many conflicts, girls are taken as “wives” of combatants, and traditional demobilisation and reintegration programmes are unable to identify them, their needs and their suffering.

Children who become separated from their families are at extreme risk. With their small hands and light bodies, they are regarded by some as useful tools and assets, rather than valued as precious human beings protected by human rights. Children who are separated from their families can easily be absorbed into illicit trading or exploitation of resources. It is vital, therefore, that we make every effort to prevent separation, to identify separated children and to reunite them with their families.

After the Rwandan genocide in 1994, an estimated 45 000 households were headed by children, of whom 90 per cent were girls. However, under Rwandan law, girls could not inherit land. Girls with responsibility for younger siblings were given no fair chance of self-sustainability, and prostitution became the only possibility of survival for many of them.

Initiatives designed to help war-affected children must be tailored to all the needs of the child – mental, physical and spiritual. These initiatives must also take into account the widely divergent needs and experiences of these children, and the challenges facing them.

Every war-torn society faces a huge task of rebuilding all that has been destroyed. Conflicts destroy more than buildings and bridges. They also rip apart the cultural fabric that binds societies together. War shatters legal and moral norms, making it extremely difficult for families to offer security to their children.

National rebuilding efforts must, therefore, extend beyond the repair of physical structures. They must establish a culture of human rights that provides a safe, nurturing environment for children and promotes social and economic policies that protect them.

The Graca Machel report calls for children to be placed at the centre of reconstruction and for young people to be involved in the rebuilding of family and community life. It recommends that reconstruction and development should be integrated into humanitarian assistance, and that education should be made a priority. These recommendations are as relevant today as they were in 1996.

How should we incorporate the peace-building agenda into our daily work?

Article 12 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child reads as follows: "The child has the right to express his or her opinion freely and to have that opinion taken into account in any matter or procedure affecting the child."

Young people must be seen as key contributors in planning and implementing long-term solutions. Civil society organisations are vital in this respect. International NGOs play a leading role in providing emergency support for children, but in the aftermath of war, it is also vital that civil society is empowered. Resources must be provided to strengthen the capacity, build up the institutions and broaden the scope of civil society organisations.

Norway is well known for its extensive involvement in peacemaking and peacekeeping operations. We are also involved in post-conflict peace-building operations in many parts of the world. Our experience in these fields have been systematised in a strategic framework for peacebuilding. Several of the conclusions are directly relevant to the situation of children. The framework states that we will:

Support special programmes for disarmament, demobilisation and reintegration of child soldiers

Help build capacity and competence among key actors and young people – the leaders of the future – in reconciliation efforts

Secure educational programmes for refugees and internally displaced persons, so that they can be assets to their societies upon their return

Include special measures for children in repatriation and reintegration programmes, such as schooling, tracing and reuniting families and psychosocial counselling

Restore schools and health services as one of the first priorities in reconstruction in post-conflict situations. The rapid provision of a minimum of public functions is essential, because it also shows that “war is costly – peace pays”.

Efforts to build lasting and sustainable peace must not be limited to quick-impact projects. Quick impact is important, but we must also include long-term education and health programmes with an emphasis on quality, accessibility and non-discrimination.

The logic is as simple as it is evident: the conditions under which children grow up are decisive for sustainable peace and development. This must be the guiding principle for our peacebuilding efforts. We must make war-torn societies fit for children.

Three billion reasons

This government has tried to put children first in all its development policy and co-operation strategies. This is most clearly apparent in our recently launched Strategy for Children and Young People in the South entitled Three Billion Reasons.

Three billion is the number of children and young people in our world today. The largest generation ever. Three billion is also the forecast number of children and young people who will be living in developing countries alone in 2015. If you ask me, this adds up to three billion strong reasons for taking children seriously.

I will not go into detail about this strategy here, but I would like to highlight a few of Norway’s action points in relation to children and young people in situations of war and conflict:

We will continue our extensive economic, political and diplomatic efforts in Africa, Asia and Latin America to prevent armed conflict, promote peaceful solutions to conflicts and build lasting and sustainable peace

We will help ensure that children’s special needs and rights are taken into account in peace negotiations, the mandates of peacekeeping operations and the planning and implementation of peace-building measures

We will direct special attention to the situation of girls and children who are on their own

We will work to ensure that as many countries as possible ratify the additional protocol on the involvement of children in armed conflict

We will increase our support to children who are affected by violent conflicts both through preventive protection measures and through rehabilitation efforts. NGOs will be an important channel for this support, particularly in relation to families, the local community, etc.

We will give particular priority to educational and recreational programmes, training in non-violent conflict resolution and psychosocial rehabilitation for children, in connection with both our humanitarian assistance and in our peace-building efforts. These efforts will be particularly directed to girls who have been subject to violence, rape and other sexual abuse in connection with armed conflict.

We will strive to prevent the recruitment of children to armed forces and to promote the disarmament, demobilisation and reintegration of child soldiers into their local communities

We will seek to ensure that programmes for refugees and internally displaced persons safeguard children’s rights and needs, including the need for psychological counselling services, schooling and tracing of families.

Dear friends,

Your wide range of efforts, capacities and knowledge is badly needed. Your input, your knowledge and your advice are essential for our efforts.

I know that there are some young people from a number of different countries at this conference. Some of them live their daily lives in war-torn societies. Listen to them. Listen to their stories, to their experiences. And be inspired. Be inspired by their hopes for the future.

At the Children's Summit three years ago, a young boy said:

“We hear a lot about giving us children a chance and this is all fine. But today I say it is more important that you give us children a change!”

Let your work be informed by the voices of children and youth.

We need to build better alliances to combat the atrocities perpetrated against children in armed conflicts. And you, distinguished representatives of academia, are part of these alliances.

Let us form more alliances that can give children not only the chance but also real change. This is a political challenge. And in tackling this challenge we need guidance. The Norwegian government is prepared to do its part.

But we need to be sure that you will do your part: advising other governments and us. Watching over our actions – watching closely over other governments and us.

Thank you for your attention.