Children and armed conflict – SecCo meeting – Verbatim record (excerpts)

Security Council

Sixty-fourth year 

6114th meeting

Wednesday, 29 April 2009, 10 a.m.

New York

Agenda

 Children and armed conflict

The meeting was called to order at 10.10 a.m.

 Adoption of the agenda 

 The agenda was adopted.

 Children and armed conflict

  Report of the Secretary-General on children and armed conflict (S/2009/158)

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 Ms. Coomaraswamy:…

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  Before the Council is the eighth report of the Secretary-General on children and armed conflict (S/2009/158). …

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  The Security Council and the General Assembly have repeatedly urged me to undertake field missions in order to monitor country situations, to be an independent moral voice for the sake of children and to advocate for their needs. My most recent trips have been to Gaza and southern Israel and to the Democratic Republic of the Congo. …

  In February, I visited Gaza and southern Israel after weeks of war. As it was just days after the fighting had ended, the children, their teachers and parents in Gaza were still in a state of shock and they had horror in their eyes. The children demand accountability, and the international community must respond. The crossings must be opened, and reconstruction must begin in haste. Everyone hopes for peace, and in southern Israel, where children also live in fear, girls and boys speak freely of reaching out to their Palestinian brothers and sisters.

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  The President (spoke in Spanish ): I thank Mr. Le Roy for his statement.   I shall now give the floor to Ms. Ann M. Veneman, Executive Director of the United Nations Children’s Fund.

 Ms. Veneman :…

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  In places such as Afghanistan, schools have been attacked and teachers, and particularly girl students, have been targeted by horrendous acts. When I visited Gaza earlier this year, I saw schools damaged or destroyed and children suffering from the trauma of violence and the loss of loved ones. Sadly, as the report illustrates, disrespect for the sanctity of schools continues to be the situation in far too many countries.

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  Although challenges lie ahead, progress has been made. UNICEF remains committed to working with and for children in armed conflict, including through continued efforts to monitor, report and respond to grave violations. Adherence to international humanitarian law and respect for children’s rights must be strengthened, and those who commit violations against children must be held accountable.

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 Mr. Churkin (Russian Federation) (spoke in Russian ): …

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  We resolutely condemn intentional attacks on civilians, including children, and the deadly, indiscriminate or disproportionate use of force….

  Nor can we pass over in silence the grave violations of international humanitarian law during the military operations that Israel carried out in Gaza in January; these claimed the lives of hundreds of children and reduced schools — including a school operated by the United Nations — to rubble.

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 Mr. Shalgham (Libyan Arab Jamahiriya) (spoke in Arabic ): …

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  Children continue to be the main victims of grave violations of human rights in conflicts throughout the world. The report of the Secretary-General bears sad testimony to that fact. My delegation shares the view of the Secretary-General that the detention of children in various conflict areas, based on their alleged association with armed groups, constitutes an express violation of human rights standards.

  In particular, my delegation wishes to focus on the abuse, torture and coercive interrogation of Palestinian children in Israeli prisons. Here, we would like to strongly condemn the Israeli military operations that have recently led to the killing and displacement of thousands of Palestinian children, caused by the demolition of their homes and the killing of their families. In addition, thousands of children suffer daily while going to school because of the racist separation wall erected on Palestinian land and the hundreds of checkpoints that separate Palestinian villages. The unique nature, duration and extent of their suffering, as well as its continuation, constitute an established policy pursued by the occupier, and affect tens of thousands of children. These practices and policies should be prosecuted.

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  The President (spoke in Spanish ): I now give the floor to the representative of Brazil.

 Mrs. Viotti (Brazil) ( spoke in Spanish ): …

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  There has also been progress in specific conflict situations. However, in reviewing the document, my delegation was particularly struck by instances where a variety of State actors were engaged in acts of violence against children or in behaviour that endangered them. Although such acts are to be condemned regardless of their perpetrators, States bear a special responsibility. They must lead by example in their own territories and in those territories where their forces are placed for whatever reason and purpose. From the mountains in Afghanistan to the towns in Gaza and the villages in Africa, children in armed conflicts must find in States an active protector and never an agent of violence, even if unintended.

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The meeting was suspended at 1.20 p.m.

This record contains the text of speeches delivered in English and of the interpretation of speeches delivered in the other languages. The final text will be printed in the Official Records of the Security Council . Corrections should be submitted to the original languages only. They should be incorporated in a copy of the record and sent under the signature of a member of the delegation concerned to the Chief of the Verbatim Reporting Service, room C-154A.