Child Soldiers

We have good news. On 12 June, the government of Chad released 84 child soldiers to UNICEF, the United Nations Children’s Fund. These were children, age 14-15, who were captured with rebel unit. The success in releasing child soldiers came about after a long negotiation between the UN and the Government. When an agreement was reached with UNICEF, all the children associated with the armed forces and rebel groups were then returned to the community and family. Last year, the UN Secretary-General sent his Representative to Chad to try to get government’s commitment to allow UN verification team to visit detention centers, training camps and other military facilities. A commission was set up between UNICEF and the Government to carry out verification visits. The two-years effort succeed in releasing 555 child soldiers to UNICEF. Abusing children by forcing them to become soldiers have been going on for some time in many parts of the word. When I was working with UNICEF Regional Office for East Asia in the 60’s, we were involved in meetings and discussions about what to do when children were used as soldiers in Cambodia towards the end of the Vietnam war. At that time, UNICEF did not have an authority or a program to deal with the problem of child soldiers. The situation to day has changed. We have a Task Force on Children and Armed Conflict set up at UN headquarters. And to promote and protect the rights of children, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon sent a report to the 63rd Session of the General Assembly and the Security Council on Children and Armed Conflict. The report covered armed conflicts, not only in Chad, but also in Georgia, Uganda, Congo, Ivory Coast, Haiti, Iraq, Afghanistan, Lebanon, Myanmar, Southern Thailand, Sri Lanka, Occupied Palestinian Territory and Israel. The Secretary-General called on the Security Council and judicial system to step up action in the fight to end the abuse of children in those conflict zones and around the world.