9/2/2007
Historic conclusion to the ‘Free Children from War’ conference in Paris.

The top United Nations official dealing with children and armed conflict hailed agreements reached this week in France, known as the Paris Principles, aimed at ending the unlawful recruitment and use of children in warfare, but she also highlighted increasing problems for children in strife-torn Sudan.

“These [Paris] Principles relate to the duty of ground recruitment and release of child soldiers and also with regard to the reintegration of child soldiers… and we are very happy many of the countries that were affected were present,” said the Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict Radhika Coomaraswamy, who attended the conference on Monday and Tuesday.

Representatives from 58 countries committed themselves to putting an end to the unlawful recruitment and use of children in armed conflicts, as well as to ensuring that conscription and enlistment procedures for recruitment into armed forces comply with applicable international law.

The UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF), a co-host of the conference along with the French Government, has welcomed the agreement but noted that political and legal efforts are not enough on their own to end child recruitment as effective social programmes are also required to tackle its root causes.

Ms. Coomaraswamy, who recently visited Sudan along with UNICEF’s Deputy Executive Director, said recent agreements to end abuses of children in that country must now be implemented, while she also pointed out new concerns caused by the breakdown of the social fabric in Darfur and in Juba and other areas of southern Sudan.

“All I’m saying is that commitments are being made, implementation is another issue and we have to watch that all the time, but the commitments are being made,” she told reporters, referring to pledges made last week by Sudan’s Government and armed groups to reinforce child protection.

“There were a few other concerns relating to children… the first is that the destruction of the social fabric has led to a great many orphans and street children, which is a new phenomenon in Sudan and there’s need for UN programmatic intervention in this regard.”

“Secondly… the issue of re-integration is not working so well and therefore we and UNICEF will sponsor a major study in Juba to see how children who have been taken back into their communities, whether they are being reintegrated properly and to study really what social services are needed in the community to keep the children there,” she added, referring to attempts to integrate child soldiers.