Joint statement of the Group of Friends on Children and Armed Conflict, 16 March 2022

Human Rights Council – 49th session

Interactive dialogue with Ms. Virginia Gamba, Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict.

15-16 March 2021

Joint statement of the Group of Friends on CAAC

Thank you, President,

It is my pleasure to deliver this statement on behalf of the Geneva Group of Friends on Children and Armed Conflict comprised of 27 States and co-chaired by Belgium and Uruguay.

Our group wishes to reiterate its unwavering support to the SRSG, Virginia Gamba, and the CAAC mandate in the context of its 25° anniversary, and to acknowledge its important contributions for the protection of conflict-affected children, including in favor of the release of more than 170,000 children from parties to conflict and the adoption of 37 action plans by parties to conflict, 20 of which are currently under implementation. There are no doubts that the creation of this mandate was an important milestone in the international child protection system, but our goal won’t be accomplished till all international law violations and abuses committed against children in the context of armed conflicts are brought to an end.

In fact, we are deeply concerned by the unprecedented challenges for the protection of children living in conflict zones that arose in 2021, including in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, and by the scale and severity of all six grave violations committed against children as reported by the UN Secretary-General pursuant to relevant UNSC resolutions, that we unequivocally condemn, noting that the killing and maiming of children remained the highest verified violation, followed by the recruitment and use of children and the denial of humanitarian access. We are also deeply concerned by the increase of attacks on education and of the military use of educational facilities in 2020 and 2021, as reported by the Global Coalition to Protect Education from Attack.

In this context, we join the SRSG call on all parties to comply with their obligations under international law, including applicable international humanitarian law and international human rights law. We encourage the swift and full implementation of all Action Plans and commitments made by parties to armed conflicts, and we call on all the relevant parties that haven’t done so to constructively engage in a dialogue with the SRSG.

We also stress the importance we attach to the independence, impartiality, and credibility of the Monitoring and Reporting Mechanism and the need for objectivity in decisions to list and de-list parties to conflict in the annexes of the Secretary-General’s annual reports.

We also call on States to ensure that international juvenile justice standards and due process are applied to any criminal proceedings involving a child, that children are treated primarily as victims, and that steps are taken to prevent their secondary victimization.

We welcome the work undertaken by the SRSG during 2021 and we commend the joint efforts together with country task forces on monitoring, reporting and continuing the engagement with parties to conflict despite the COVID-19 related challenges, regretting that the pandemic is turning into a broader child-rights crisis, and encouraging the mandate to continue exploring the opportunities offered by the digital technologies.

We urge States to end impunity for perpetrators of all six grave violations against children in armed conflict as reported by the UN Secretary-General pursuant to relevant UNSC resolutions, and to focus on long-term, survivor-centered and gender-sensitive rehabilitation and reintegration of children, including children with disabilities, taking into account its contribution to ensuring sustainable peace and security. We therefore join the SRSG call on States and other reintegration actors to provide support for such efforts, including for the provision of mental health and psychosocial services.

We welcome and further encourage the cooperation of the SRSG with the HRC and other human rights mechanisms, including the special procedures and the UPR, and we extend our appreciation to the SRSG and the team of her liaison office in Europe for their cooperation with our Group.

We also join the celebrations of the 20^th anniversary of the entry into force of the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the Involvement of Children in Armed Conflict, calling on all parties to step up efforts toward its implementation and encouraging States that haven’t done so to ratify it.

Finally, while acknowledging that the report highlights that it is critical to invest in early warning and preventive action to prevent grave violations and abuses against children in the context of armed conflicts, we would like to ask the SRSG how the human rights mechanisms could better contribute to these efforts.