VZCZCXYZ0013
OO RUEHWEB

DE RUEHC #3262 1191458
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
O 291437Z APR 09
FM SECSTATE WASHDC
TO USMISSION USUN NEW YORK IMMEDIATE 0000
INFO UN SECURITY COUNCIL COLLECTIVE IMMEDIATE

UNCLAS STATE 043262 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: UNSC GG PHUM PREL
SUBJECT: CHILDREN AND ARMED CONFLICT - GUIDANCE ON PRST 
 
¶1. (U) This is an action request.  The Department instructs 
USUN to join consensus on the following PRST on Children and 
Armed Conflict scheduled to be adopted by the Security 
Council on April 29, 2009. 
 
¶2. (U) Begin text: 
 
 ¶1. At the 6114th meeting of the Security Council, held on 29 
April 2009, in connection with the Council,s consideration 
of the item entitled &Children and armed conflict8, the 
President of the Security Council made the following 
statement on behalf of the Council: 
 
¶2. The Security Council takes note with appreciation of the 
8th report of the Secretary-General (S/2009/158) on children 
and armed conflict and of the positive developments referred 
to in the report, and notes the continuing challenges in the 
implementation of its resolution 1612 (2005) reflected 
therein. 
 
¶3. The Security Council reaffirms its commitment to address 
the widespread impact of armed conflict on children, and its 
determination to ensure respect for, and the implementation 
of, its resolution 1612 (2005) and all its previous 
resolutions on children and armed conflict, as well as 
respect for other applicable international law related to the 
protection of children affected by armed conflict. 
 
¶4. The Security Council stresses, in this regard, the 
importance of adopting a broad strategy of conflict 
prevention, which addresses the root causes of armed conflict 
in a comprehensive manner in order to enhance the protection 
of children on a long-term basis, including by promoting 
sustainable development, poverty eradication, national 
reconciliation, good governance, democracy, the rule of law 
and respect for and protection of human rights. 
 
¶5. The Security Council acknowledges that the implementation 
of its resolution 1612 (2005) in situations listed in the 
annexes to the Secretary-General,s report (S/2009/158) has 
generated progress and invites the Secretary General, where 
applicable, to strengthen the efforts to bring the monitoring 
and reporting mechanism to its full capacity in order to 
allow for prompt advocacy and effective response to all 
violations and abuses committed against children. In this 
regard, the Council reiterates its request to the 
Secretary-General to provide additional administrative 
support to its Working Group on Children and Armed Conflict. 
 
¶6. The Security Council reiterates its equally strong 
condemnation of the continuing recruitment and use of 
children in armed conflict in violation of applicable 
international law, killing and maiming of children, rape and 
other sexual violence, abductions, denial of humanitarian 
access to children and attacks against schools and hospitals 
by parties to armed conflict. The Council condemns all other 
violations of international law, including international 
humanitarian law, human rights law and refugee law, committed 
against children in situations of armed conflict. The Council 
demands that all relevant parties immediately put an end to 
such practices and take special measures to protect children. 
 
¶7. The Security Council expresses deep concern that 
civilians, in particular children, continue to account for a 
considerable number of casualties resulting from killing and 
maiming in armed conflicts, including as a result of 
deliberate targeting, indiscriminate and excessive use of 
force, indiscriminate use of landmines and cluster munitions 
and use of children as human shields. 
 
¶8. The Security Council further expresses deep concern with 
the high incidence and appalling levels of brutality of rape 
and other forms of sexual violence against children, girls 
and boys, committed in the context of and associated with 
armed conflict, including the use or commission of rape and 
other forms of sexual violence in some situations as a tactic 
of war. 
 
¶9. The Security Council recognises the importance of 
including in the annexes to the Secretary-General,s reports 
on Children and armed conflict those parties to armed 
conflict that commit acts of killing and maiming of children 
that are prohibited under applicable international law or 
acts of rape and other sexual violence against children that 
are prohibited under applicable international law, in 
situations of armed conflict, and expresses its intention to 
continue its consideration of this issue, in order to take 
action within three months of this date. 
 
¶10. The Security Council reiterates its call on parties to 
armed conflict listed in the annexes of the Secretary 
General,s report (S/2009/158) that have not already done so 
to prepare and implement, without further delay, concrete 
time-bound action plans to halt recruitment and use of 
children in violation of applicable international law, and to 
address all other violations and abuses committed against 
children and undertake specific commitments and measures in 
this regard, in close cooperation with the Special 
Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and 
Armed Conflict and the United Nations country-level task 
forces on monitoring and reporting. 
 
¶11. The Security Council expresses its concern with 
situations where insufficient or no progress has been made by 
parties listed in the annexes to the Secretary-General,s 
reports in halting recruitment and use of children in 
violation of applicable international law, including through 
the preparation and implementation of concrete time-bound 
action plans, and reiterates its determination to ensure 
respect for its resolutions on children and armed conflict, 
making use of all the tools provided in its resolution 1612 
(2005), including action as appropriate in accordance with 
paragraph 9 of its resolution 1612 (2005). 
 
¶12. The Security Council strongly emphasizes the need for 
concerned Member States to take decisive and immediate action 
against persistent perpetrators of violations against 
children, and to bring to justice those responsible for the 
recruitment and use of children in violation of applicable 
international law and other violations against children 
through national justice systems and, where applicable, 
international justice mechanisms and mixed criminal courts 
and tribunals, with a view to ending impunity for those 
committing crimes against children. 
 
¶13. &The Security Council reiterates the primary 
responsibility of States in providing effective protection 
and relief to all children affected by armed conflicts, and 
calls upon them to comply with their obligations under 
applicable international law, including the Convention on the 
Rights of the Child and the Optional Protocols thereto and 
encourages States to strengthen national measures for the 
prevention of violations against children in armed conflict, 
including  recruitment and use of children and their use in 
hostilities in violation of applicable international law, 
inter alia, by enacting legislation that explicitly prohibits 
such recruitment and use as well as other violations and 
urges States that have not yet done so to consider ratifying 
or acceding this Convention and its Optional Protocols. 
 
¶14. The Security Council reiterates the importance of the 
full, safe and unhindered access of humanitarian personnel 
and goods and the delivery of humanitarian assistance to all 
children affected by armed conflict, and stresses the 
importance for all, within the framework of humanitarian 
assistance, of upholding and respecting the humanitarian 
principles of humanity, neutrality, impartiality and 
independence. 
 
¶15. The Security Council remains concerned with the illicit 
trafficking of small arms and light weapons and its effect on 
and their use by children in armed conflict. 
 
¶16. The Security Council welcomes the sustained engagement of 
its Working Group on Children and Armed Conflict and requests 
it to adopt, with the administrative support of the 
Secretariat, timely conclusions and recommendations in line 
with resolution 1612 (2005). The Council encourages its 
Working Group to continue its review process, to enhance its 
ability to follow up the implementation of its 
recommendations and the development and implementation of 
action plans to halt recruitment and use of children, and to 
consider and react in a timely manner to information on 
situations of children and armed conflict, in collaboration 
with the Office of the Special Representative of the 
Secretary-General and UNICEF. It also invites its Working 
Group to enhance its communication with relevant Security 
Council Sanctions Committees, including by forwarding 
pertinent information. 
 
¶17. The Security Council commends the work carried out by the 
Special Representative of the Secretary General for Children 
and Armed Conflict, Ms. Radhika Coomaraswamy, and emphasizes 
the importance of her country visits in promoting 
collaboration between the United Nations and governments and 
enhancing dialogue with parties to armed conflict. 
 
¶18. The Security Council also commends the work carried out 
by UNICEF as well as other relevant United Nations agencies, 
funds, programmes within their respective mandates, the Child 
Protection Advisers of United Nations peacekeeping, 
peacebuilding and political missions in cooperation with 
national Governments and relevant civil society actors. 
 
¶19. The Security Council encourages the efforts of the 
Department of Peacekeeping Operations in mainstreaming child 
protection into all peacekeeping missions, in close 
collaboration with the Office of the Special Representative 
of the Secretary-General on Children and Armed Conflict and 
UNICEF; and encourages the deployment of Child Protection 
Advisers to peacekeeping operations, as well as into relevant 
peacebuilding and political missions. 
 
¶20. The Security Council invites the Peacebuilding Commission 
to continue to promote child protection in post-conflict 
situations under its consideration. 
 
¶21. Given the regional dimension of some conflicts, the 
Security Council encourages Member States, United Nations 
peacekeeping, peacebuilding and political missions and United 
Nations Country Teams to establish appropriate strategies and 
coordination mechanisms for information exchange and 
cooperation on cross-border child protection concerns such as 
recruitment, release and reintegration of children. 
 
¶22. The Security Council recognizes the important role of 
education in armed conflict areas, including as a means to 
achieve the goal of halting and preventing recruitment and 
re-recruitment of children in violation of applicable 
international law, and calls upon all parties concerned to 
continue to ensure that all children associated with armed 
forces and groups systematically have access to disarmament, 
demobilization and reintegration processes where they can 
benefit, inter alia, from education. 
 
¶23. The Security Council also urges parties to armed conflict 
to refrain from actions that impede children,s access to 
education, in particular attacks or threats of attack on 
school children or teachers as such, the use of schools for 
military operations, and attacks on schools that are 
prohibited by applicable international law. 
 
¶24. The Security Council requests the Secretary-General to 
submit his next report by May 2010 on the implementation of 
its resolutions on children and armed conflict. 
CLINTON