Ambassador Soderberg: Statement in the Security Council in Explanation of Vote on Children and Armed Conflict, August 25, 1999

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The United States is pleased to support the resolution before us today regarding Children and Armed Conflict. We appreciate the work of the Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict, Mr. Olara Otunnu, and his commitment to protect all children affected by armed conflict. He has eloquently described the horrendous impact of present-day conflicts on children, both in terms of their scale and their terrible lasting affects that can endure for years and even generations.

We agree wholeheartedly with the point made by Special Representative Otunnu in his last report -- that when children are used as pawns in warfare, whether they are targets or perpetrators, a shadow is cast on their future and on the future of their society. We lament the deterioration in local value systems that has accompanied the increase in protracted and brutal civil conflicts. As Special Representative Otunnu has pointed out in the past, and again today, many regions of the world are experiencing the breakdown of traditional norms and social codes of behavior, the casting-aside of local injunctions and taboos, the undermining of the authority of local elders and community structures. This disintegration of local value systems results in an "ethical vacuum," as Mr. Otunnu has termed it, in which civilians and combatants are viewed without distinction as enemy targets. Children, women and the elderly – the types of people whom societies have historically acted to protect from harm – have all become fair game for the most horrendous of atrocities in the value-less climate which prevails in too many war zones.

In examining the plight of war-affected children, it is important that we look not only at the symptoms of their plight, but that we take aim at the causes as well. The civil conflicts which put children in harm’s way, and which deliver so much death, homelessness, hunger, illness and suffering upon them, must be resolved in order for their suffering to be abated. We in the Security Council must continue to do all we can to help maintain, and when necessary, restore, international peace and security, so that fewer children and other civilians will suffer from the horrors of war.

As the number of civil wars increases, local value systems and international standards and principles are being swept aside. Civilian populations are often deliberately targeted, and children suffer disproportionately as their families are killed or displaced. One of the most heinous developments has been the increasing use of young children in armed conflict in blatant violation of international law.

On June 17, the International Labor Organization unanimously adopted Convention Number 182, the Convention Concerning the Prohibition and Immediate Elimination of the Worst Forms of Child Labor. On that occasion, President Clinton stated unequivocally, "We will not tolerate children being forcibly recruited to serve in armed conflicts." He added his strong support for universal ratification of the Convention, and he has submitted the Convention to the U.S. Senate for advice and consent to ratification.

Unfortunately, the development of lighter, more sophisticated weapons has made it easier to send both boys and girls into combat. Because of their size, these children are forced to work as scouts, spies, messengers and decoys. They are often drugged and face other real tragedies and human rights abuses. Many are wounded in both mind and body. Even if they survive their ordeal, they are often deprived of proper care and assistance both during and after the conflict. All have suffered a severe disruption of their education and preparation for their lives as adults.

We believe that it is time to exert pressure to implement the many existing norms to prevent further abuse and brutalization of children. We should not let our attention be distracted by debates on the margin of the problem, but focus on where the real abuses are - - with children even younger than fifteen whose lives are totally distorted by their recruitment into armed conflict and brutality - - becoming both perpetrators and victims.

The United States places the highest priority on assisting young children throughout the world who are forced against their will, often kidnapped at gunpoint, to take up arms in support of militias and paramilitary groups engaged in hostilities.

The United States is working closely with the UN High Commissioner for Refugees and UNICEF with respect to programs to rehabilitate children through counseling, reconciliation, education and vocational training, in the hope that they will readjust and be reintegrated into civilian society.

Since 1989, USAID has provided over $30 million in support of activities — including demobilization, rehabilitation and reintegration — that respond to the needs of children, including child soldiers, affected by armed conflict in such areas as Angola, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Sierra Leone and Sri Lanka.

In 1998, the U.S. contributed over $7 million to activities for refugee children, including over $4 million for UNHCR’s Children-at-Risk programs, which highlight those children affected by armed conflict, including child soldiers, and over $2 million for the Liberian Children’s Initiative, a joint UNHCR/UNICEF program to address the needs of children and youth in Liberia following seven years of war.

This year we have contributed $5 million to UNHCR in support of its children at risk program and refugee children related activities.

The Northern Uganda Initiative, announced by the First Lady during a March 1998 visit to Uganda, is a 3-year, $10 million project to provide targeted U.S assistance where it is most needed. In this connection, the United States condemns in the strongest terms the reprehensible acts of the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA).

In Sierra Leone, USAID has contributed $1.5 million to UNICEF for assistance to war-affected children, including documentation and tracing of unaccompanied children and reunification with their families, demobilization, and community reintegration of former child soldiers.

The United States strenuously condemns the use of children in armed conflict in a manner that violates international law, as exemplified by the examples just mentioned, and actively supports international efforts to curb this practice.

Demobilizing children involved in armed conflicts after peace is attained and reintegrating them into society is a complex process. Many emerge knowing no way of life beyond war. The United States works closely with UN organizations, international and non-governmental organizations, and other partners in support of efforts to rehabilitate children involved in armed conflicts.

The United States provides support for programs to rehabilitate affected children through counseling, reconciliation, education and vocational training in the hope that these methods will facilitate the reintegration of these children into civilian society, help them to readjust to being children, and prepare them to lead peaceful and constructive lives.

Because of the particular vulnerability of refugee and internally displaced children, the United States is working with the UN High Commissioner for Refugees to better address the special protection and assistance needs of refugee children. Americans support numerous international and non-governmental organizations whose work contributes to alleviating the suffering of children affected by hostilities. In addition, the United States historically has been the largest donor to UNICEF.

The United States endeavors to strengthen the capacity of local organizations so that they may continue working with children after the assistance ends. For the most part, children who fought in conflicts are not singled out to receive help, but are part of a larger program that assists children affected by war.

Approximately 5,000 children have received assistance, either directly or indirectly, from programs funded by the United States in Angola, Liberia, northern Uganda, and Sierra Leone. These programs include counseling not only for the children to deal with their experiences, but also for their families and communities to facilitate the acceptance of their return home. In the event that children who fought in armed conflicts cannot return to their villages, alternative measures such as relocating them to other villages, placing them in group homes or with substitute families are pursued. Educational and vocational training are also provided as a means of preparing children affected by wars to lead constructive lives.

The United States places the highest priority on assisting children throughout the world, and will continue to work with the governments, UN agencies, international and non-governmental agencies and other partners who have specific responsibility and expertise to address the difficult and tragic problem of the exploitation of children as soldiers.

The necessity of improving the situation of all children affected by armed conflict is of utmost importance to the United States, and that is why we are extremely pleased to vote in favor of the resolution we have before us. It is an important statement, and we are pleased that technical differences did not prevent us from reaching agreement on its text. The resolution follows on the progress made with the adoption of ILO Convention on the prohibition and elimination of the worst forms of child labor, and will provide momentum for continued work later this year on the additional protocol to the Convention of the Rights of the Child on the involvement of children in armed conflict.

Today’s children are tomorrow’s hope. We must all work to ensure that hope is not extinguished by the blight of armed conflict.

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