![]() ![]() Twenty-five years ago, the world decided to take an important step acting together in attempting to protect children from the dreadful impact of hostilities, as the General Assembly, through Resolution 51/77, created the mandate of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict in December 1996, a position that I now occupy. We, as the international community, have acknowledged their plight. This tragedy for children has been playing in slow motion, for dozens of years. These are the ones I bring to witness to this meeting. Even as I speak, I know that hundreds of children will be deprived of humanitarian assistance today, and thousands more will not have a school to go to or a health clinic to tend to their wounds. Today, many more children will be used and abused for, in, and by parties to armed conflict. These are the children that I represent today. Last week, 8 children were killed in the Nangarhar Province of Afghanistan when an explosive remnant of war detonated near a school. In the same week in Myanmar, as the conflict escalates, at least 4 children were killed, and many others injured. In every one of the situations covered in the CAAC docket, children are suffering: they are killed and maimed by explosive remnants of war and active shooting, they are abducted on the way to school, they are raped while fetching wood and water, they are forced to join militias, armed groups and armed forces to feed and sustain conflict, or are pushed into volunteering to fight because they have no options due to the socioeconomic difficulties faced by their communities, their lack of education, and their own lack of choices. Thank you, Madam Minister, for your words and support to the Children and Armed conflict mandate. Voices for Children Affected by Conflict. ![]() ACT TO PROTECT children affected by conflict.Virtual Summer School on Child Protection in Armed Conflict.Ratification status of the Optional Protocol.OPAC – Optional Protocol on the Involvement of Children in Armed Conflict. ![]()
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