The Machel Original Study 1996
The Impact of Armed Conflict on Children

The Graça Machel report of 1996 on the impact of armed conflict on children laid the foundation for the children and armed conflict agenda and constituted a seminal call to action. In the course of the past several years, the Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict has led collective efforts, involving UNICEF and other United Nations entities, Governments, regional organizations and NGOs, to develop and transform the children and armed conflict agenda into concrete actions and initiatives. These have yielded important, tangible results and generated strong momentum for the children and armed conflict agenda:

Since the adoption of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the General Assembly has played a key role in shaping and advancing the agenda for the protection of the rights of war-affected children. In 1993, following a recommendation by the Committee on the Rights of the Child, the Assembly adopted a resolution recommending that the Secretary-General appoint an independent expert to study the impact of armed conflict on children. In 1996, in response to the Graca Machel report on the impact of armed conflict on children, the Assembly recommended that the Secretary-General appoint, for a period of three years, a Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict. In addition, since 1993, the General Assembly has addressed the issue of war-affected children as an aspect of the omnibus resolution on the rights of the child, calling on Member States, among others, to end the violation of the rights of children in armed conflicts, and to ratify the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the involvement of children in armed conflict. The Assembly has also urged States to take special measures for the protection of war-affected girls in a resolution devoted to the girl child.

The 1996 Machel report emphasized that "the impact of armed conflict on children must be everyone's concern and is everyone's responsibility", therefore the promotion of child protection norms and standards must not be the exclusive domain of one representative or one specialized agency. Senior United Nations officials have opportunities to raise child protection concerns in high-level settings, including with heads of State and at multi-country summits. Special representatives of the Secretary-General, resident or humanitarian coordinators and country representatives have important roles to play in advocating for the application of child protection norms and standards. One of the most positive instances of involvement by senior United Nations officials in concerns relating to children affected by armed conflict is in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where MONUC has been repeatedly seeking compliance with child rights standards from parties to the conflict there, and is effectively promoting the integration of child protection aspects of the Mission's mandate. Unfortunately, this is one of the few instances identified by the assessment where concerns relating to children affected by armed conflict have been integrated into the roles and responsibilities of senior United Nations officials other than the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict and UNICEF officials. Other senior United Nations officials, such as the Chairpersons of the Executive Committee on Humanitarian Affairs and the Executive Committee on Peace and Security, as well as the High Commissioner for Human Rights also have important leadership roles to play.