From Africa Recovery, Vol.11#2 (October 1997), Watch page

Otunnu appointed Special Representative for children

The United Nations took a significant step towards providing greater protection and rehabilitation for children who are victims of conflicts when Secretary-General Kofi Annan announced the appointment of the first UN Special Representative for Children in Armed Conflict, Mr. Olara A. Otunnu. The appointment was recommended by the General Assembly when it considered a comprehensive report on the subject by Ms. Graça Machel of Mozambique in November last year.

Introducing Mr. Otunnu to the press in October, Mr. Annan said his special representative would be building on Ms. Machel's pioneering work.

Mr. Otunnu's mandate includes the promotion of measures for the protection of children in times of conflict and for their healing and reintegration in conflict's aftermath. He will also work to mobilize public opinion to ensure that the welfare of children affected by conflict is a priority on the international agenda.

Mr. Otunnu told journalists that he would act as a catalyst and focal point for the UN and other humanitarian agencies to ensure "concerted action to correct the abominable situation faced by children during and after armed conflict." He said he was committed to making the protection of children a common agenda for all nations regardless of their political, cultural or religious orientation.

The issue of children in conflict is "too important" to be confined to the councils of the United Nations. "I will seek to broaden this agenda and its ownership to build a wide community of concerned organizations and individuals well beyond the United Nations on this issue," he said.

Mr. Otunnu faces an enormous and challenging task. In the last 10 years, an estimated 2 million children have been killed in armed conflict, some 6 million have been seriously injured or permanently disabled and another 10 million have been psychologically traumatized. In the last two years, more than 250,000 children under the age of 18 have fought as soldiers in 36 conflicts across the world, particularly in Africa. Nearly 30 million children are refugees or internally displaced because of war.

Born in Uganda in September 1950 and now a national of Côte d'Ivoire, Mr. Otunnu, who is a lawyer by training, has been President of the New York-based International Peace Academy since 1990. He has held many other high-level positions, including Minister of Foreign Affairs of Uganda, Permanent Representative of Uganda to the UN and Chairman of the UN Commission on Human Rights. He has also served on the Commission on Global Governance, the Carnegie Commission on Preventing Deadly Conflict and the Club of Rome.

Mr. Otunnu currently serves on the boards of several organizations, including the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, the Council of African Advisers of the World Bank, and the Advisory Committee of the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute.

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