NEW YORK — The UN Security Council on Wednesday backed the naming and shaming of
governments and armed groups that recruit, kill or sexually attack children in
armed conflicts despite protests from Russia, China, Pakistan and Azerbaijan.
A resolution supporting the UN
special representative for children and armed conflict and continuing annual
reports by the secretary-general identifying those countries and groups
victimizing youngsters was approved by a vote of 11-0 with abstentions by the
four countries.
The dissenters accused the
report’s supporters of trying to expand the naming and shaming list to all
countries and not sticking to conflicts that the Security Council is dealing
with, which is its mandate. Pakistan also protested that the report includes
situations that are not conflicts but acts by terrorists and criminals.
The secretary-general’s latest
report in June included Pakistani armed groups as well as Syrian government
forces and their allied “shabiha” militias on a list of 52 governments and
armed groups that recruit, kill or sexually attack children in armed conflicts.
The list includes 32 “persistent perpetrators” that have been on the list for
at least five years, including the security forces of seven countries.
The resolution calls on member
states to bring those responsible for such violations to justice, either
through national or international judicial systems.
The Security Council also
reiterated its readiness to adopt “targeted and graduated measures”—a code
phrase for sanctions—against persistent perpetrators.
Pakistan’s deputy UN ambassador
Raza Bashir Tarar said his government supports reporting on violations in
conflicts addressed by the council.
Pakistan is not on the council’s
agenda and Tarar called allegations against armed groups associated with the
Taliban and al-Qaida in the report, “unwarranted and completely misleading.”
“This not only misrepresents
Pakistan’s law enforcement and counterterrorism measures but also serves to
accord undeserved respectability to terrorists and criminals,” he said.
China’s UN Ambassador Li Baodong
called for more international support for Pakistan to fight terrorism “rather
than creating difficulties and obstacles.” He insisted that the resolution
cannot be interpreted “to equalize the incidents of terrorist attacks in
Pakistan to armed conflict,” a view echoed by Russia and Azerbaijan.
The Watchlist on Children and
Armed Conflict, an international network of organizations established in 2001
to end violations against children in armed conflict, said Wednesday’s vote
marked the first time a country has ever abstained from a resolution protecting
children. It quoted members as calling the abstentions “shocking” and
“disappointing.”
Philippe Bolopion, UN director
for Human Rights Watch, accused Russia, China, Azerbaijan and Pakistan of
playing politics, saying their absentions “are a huge disservice to children
caught up in conflicts around the world.”
“Children victimized by war do
not care whether the country in which they live is on the Security Council’s
agenda or not, but instead deserve all the UN attention they can get,” he said.
Leila Zerrougui, the new UN
special representative for children and armed conflict, pointed to the
resolution’s success in getting 20 governments and groups to adopt plans to
stop recruiting and using children in conflicts. She also pointed to the
International Criminal Court’s convictions of Congolese warlord Thomas Lubanga
and former Liberian president Charles Taylor for using child soldiers.
But Zerrougui said thousands of
children are still being victimized, and she urged the council to take action
against persistent perpetrators, saying “the cost of inaction has become too
high.”
“The situation for children in
Syria is dire,” she said, citing attacks on schools, the killing of children in
bombings and youngsters being tortured and subjected to sexual violence,
sometimes for weeks.
Syria’s UN Ambassador Bashar
Ja’afari criticized the secretary-general’s report for implicating the Syrian
armed forces for violence against children—and not the leaders of “terrorist
groups” which he accused of using armed groups of children to take part in
terrorist acts.
Zerrougui said that since the
report was published her office has gathered evidence of violations committed
by armed groups including the Free Syrian Army, “who may have children
associated with their forces.”
A resolution adopted by the UN
Security Council in 2005 took the first major step to prevent the victimization
of young people in war zones by addressing the exploitation of children as
combatants and identifying governments and armed groups that recruit child
soldiers. In 2009, the council voted to also name and shame countries and
insurgent groups engaged in conflicts that lead to children being killed,
maimed and raped.
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