“The representative would spend three years in office and would have independent moral authority in order to “promote and protect the rights of children affected by armed conflicts.”
Since the 1990 World Summit for Children, one of the UN’s primary functions has been to make the international community aware of the condition of children in areas of armed conflict. The conclusions drawn by the report entitled “The impact of armed conflicts on children”, by Graça Machel, an independent expert appointed by the UN Secretary General in 1996, led to the election of a special representative for children and armed conflicts.
Victims, targets for, and, increasingly, instruments of armed conflicts, such children are the first to be affected by the serious attacks on human rights which occur within armed conflicts.
The Office’s responsibilities:
The Office of the Special Representative helps those who work on the ground to carry out humanitarian and diplomatic tasks as well as protecting children affected by armed conflict; the Office works on improving existing legislation and finding a better orchestrated response to such situations.
The Office is also responsible for reporting any breeches of children’s rights as defined by the UN. Thus, any group that recruits, kills, or harms children, which endangers or employs child soldiers, that is guilty of sexual violence against children, or attacks hospitals or schools, is automatically put on a blacklist along with 55 other armed groups from 14 different countries.
The Special Representative’s tasks:
Appointed in July 2012, Leila Zerrougui is the third Special Representative of the Secretary General for children in armed conflicts. In her report on the 13th of May 2013, five new action plans and several partnerships with regional organisations were put in place to encourage better co-operation between groups.
Thousands of children were also removed from armed groups in several central African countries in 2012; in the process, the recruitment of child soldiers was exposed as a war crime. Even so, the continued recruitment of such children, the increasing closure of schools, and highly limited access to humanitarian aid remain a concern necessitating the work of the Office of the Special Representative for children in armed conflicts.
