The Convention on the Rights of the Child has been signed by 191 States: six more than the total membership of the United Nations. No other Convention or treaty has ever received such universal endorsement: an unparalleled testimony to the impact of children and their problems on the international conscience. Children are by far the greatest wealth of men and women from all over the world. I say men and women, but I should really say of women and men, in tribute to the maternal instinct, the deepest, most noble instinct, which has allowed the perpetuation of the human race. Children, we should never forget, represent the future of humanity.

While the brutality of wars and armed conflicts has gone on for millennia, certain ethical boundaries have almost always been respected. Children have been exposed to every form of violence—rape, killings, beatings, prostitution—but until today they were rarely its protagonists. War has taken on new, more horrifying characteristics: to an increasing extent, children are becoming directly involved in wars as combatants. They are recruited by armed groups, warlords and even Governments. Some are impressed into the army. Others are kidnapped from their homes, schools, orphanages or right off the streets. Others are forced to enlist in exchange for sparing the lives of their families. A combination of fear and poverty drives some parents to hand their children over to warring groups: the "paycheck" goes straight to the family. There are also children who just become soldiers to survive; from their uncentered lives, they come to see armed factions as a surrogate family.

The most vulnerable members of any mass exodus of refugees are children. Walking for days without food or water, they are the first to succumb. Once at the refugee camps, they become victims of further abuse. More often than not, the efforts by United Nations agencies and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) personnel to trace parents and relatives of unaccompanied children are fruitless.

One of the most insidious and long-lasting dangers to children is landmines. In at least 68 countries, they live with the daily threat of 110 million mines buried in the ground and thousands of unexploded devices, sometime disguised to look like toys, butterflies or pineapples, which children almost naturally think they can play with.

We owe an immense debt of gratitude to Mrs. Graça Machel, who was the first to address this sensitive issue in a famous report that brought it to the attention not only of the Members States of the United Nations, but also of the international public opinion as a whole.

The statistics cited by Ambassador Olara Otunnu, successor to Mrs. Machel as the Secretary-General's Special Representative on Children in Armed Conflict, in a 29 June meeting of the Security Council, could have not been more dramatic. In the last ten years, 2 million children have been killed in wars, 6 million mutilated, 12 million left homeless, 1 million orphaned and 10 million marked by irreparable psychological and spiritual scars: in brief, a sort of modern "massacre of the innocents".

How has the international community reacted to this appalling phenomenon?

By Article 38 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the State Parties have agreed to:

• respect and ensure respect for rules of international humanitarian law applicable to children in armed conflicts (principally, the Geneva Conventions);

• take all feasible measures to ensure that under-15-years-olds do not take a direct part in hostilities;
  refrain from recruiting under-15-year-olds into the armed forces;

• give priority to the oldest in recruiting any 15- to 18-year-olds; and

• take every feasible measure to ensure the protection and care of children affected by an armed conflict.

The Convention specifically addresses the rehabilitation of child victims of war. Article 39 states that States should take every measure necessary to promote the physical and psychological recovery and social integration of child victims of armed conflicts.

The 10-member Committee on the Rights of the Child, which meets three times a year in Geneva to monitor implementation of the Convention, has stressed the absolute need for children to never be involved in acts of war, either directly or indirectly, nor be recruited, through conscription or voluntary enlistment.

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Everyone has the right to education . ... Education shall be directed to the full development of the human personality and to the strengthening of respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms. It shall promote understanding, tolerance and friendship among all nations, racial or religious groups, and shall further the activities of the United Nations for the maintenance of peace. —Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Article 26