Country Visits

Since assuming her role in February 2006, the Special Representative has committed herself to undertaking field visits as a central element of her advocacy strategy to bring high-level attention to the plight and circumstances of children affected by armed conflict

In 2007, she visited the following areas where there are situations of concern: the Sudan (January 2007), the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Burundi (March 2007), Lebanon and Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories (April 2007), Myanmar (June 2007) and Côte d'Ivoire (September 2007). She also engaged a Special Adviser, supported by my Office, to visit Sri Lanka (November 2006).

The broad objectives of those visits were:

  • To make a first-hand assessment of the situation of children so as to enhance global advocacy for protection and programme interventions on their behalf, and to meet and speak with the children themselves to get a direct sense of their experience and their needs;
  • To support and facilitate the dialogue of United Nations actors with parties to conflict towards action plans to end the recruitment and use of child soldiers and release all children associated with fighting forces, and to advocate for concrete measures and elicit commitments by parties to prevent other grave violations;
  • To assess, where applicable, the implementation of Security Council resolution 1612 (2005), on children and armed conflict, including implementation of the monitoring and reporting mechanism on the six types of grave violations against children;
  • To engage in dialogue with relevant national authorities at the highest levels to gain concrete commitments to prevent and address violations, and to ascertain and highlight specific child protection measures that may have been taken by Governments;
  • To engage with NGOs and local civil society groups on protection concerns for children affected by armed conflict, and to better support their work.

    • April 08
    Iraq
    Sept 07
    Côte d'Ivoire     		June 07
    Myanmar    		 April 07
    Middle East
    March 07
    Democratic
    Republic
    of Congo    		 January 07
    Sudan    		 June 06
    Uganda