Education Under Attack - UNESCO Islamabad

Security Council and pressure on Member States to comply with international normsand standards. 90A UN Security Council resolution in July 2005 established a monitoring and reportingsystem for children affected by armed conflict, which required both governmentsand armed groups to use time-bound plans of action to end the use and recruitmentof child soldiers. It also requires the UN system to monitor and report on six graveviolations against children: the killing or maiming of children, recruitment or use ofchild soldiers, attacks against schools or hospitals, rape and other forms of sexualviolence, abduction of children, and denial of humanitarian access. 91 Rima Salah,Deputy Director of UNICEF, hailed this as a “critical measure to hold accountable theparties that continue to harm those children”.The Office of the Special Representative was given the task of implementing themonitoring and reporting of grave violations in a phased approach beginning withBurundi, Côte d’Ivoire, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Somalia and theSudan. It has also done so in Nepal and Sri Lanka. Its work has added to previousmonitoring by the UN system and by NGOs.It has strongly advocated the exclusion of all grave crimes against children fromamnesty provisions and legislation arising from peace agreements. It has alsosought to end impunity for child-related war crimes by developing a framework forthe protection and participation of children in judicial tribunals and truth-seekingprocesses. This resulted, for instance, in guidelines for the Special Court and theTruth and Reconciliation Commission in Sierra Leone, and relevant provisions in theInternational Criminal Court rules of evidence and procedure.Perhaps recognising that by far the most attention had been paid to the child soldierissue, the Secretary-General recommended in October 2006 that the SecurityCouncil give equal weight and attention to all six grave violations against children inall conflict situations of concern.He also encouraged states parties to the Convention on the Rights of the Child tostrengthen national and international measures for the prevention of the recruitmentof children for armed forces or armed groups and their use in hostilities, in particularby signing and ratifying the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of theChild on the involvement of children in armed conflict, and by enacting legislation90 Report of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict, 7September 2005, (A/60/335).91 UNICEF, 25 July 2005, ‘Official Statement on the Security Council Resolution on Children inArmed Conflict’.57