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26 August 1999 
United Nations Security Council Condemns Use of Child Soldiers 
(First UNSC resolution regarding use of children in combat) (710)
By Judy Aita
USIA United Nations Correspondent
United Nations -- The UN Security Council has for the first time
adopted a resolution underscoring the importance of protecting
children during armed conflicts and not using them as soldiers.
After a day-long debate, the Council approved a resolution August 25
focused solely on the plight of children in war, whether as targets of
attack, military recruits or laborers for military units.
Olara Otunnu, the UN Special Representative for Children and Armed
Conflict, pointed out to the Council that "children are innocent and
especially vulnerable. Children are less equipped to adapt or respond
to conflict. They bear no responsibility for conflict, yet suffer
disproportionately from its excesses."
He called the participation of children in armed conflict "one of the
most horrendous trends of recent wars."
During armed conflicts, Otunnu said, children are often uprooted from
their homes, orphaned, maimed, killed, sexually abused, or deprived of
education, medicines, and food. He said they are also frequently
forced to serve as child soldiers or porters, cooks, sex slaves and
suicide commandos in military units.
"We are talking about an abomination being committed against
children," he said.
Otunnu attributed this to the "qualitative shift in the nature and
conduct of war," the increase in civil wars, and the proliferation of
small arms and light weapons.
"To have an actual resolution ... that concerns children across the
board in situations in conflict, would be tremendous for us," he said.
Otunnu proposed launching an "era of application" of international
humanitarian and human rights instruments, reinforcing traditional
value systems, translating the concept of "children as a zone of
peace" into practical measures on the ground, engaging neighborhoods
and business communities, and "placing children's protection and
welfare on the peace agenda."
He also urged governments to deny aid to countries or opposition
groups that use children and bar anyone younger than 18 years of age
from military service.
U.S. Ambassador Nancy Soderberg said that "when children are used as
pawns in warfare, whether they are targets or perpetrators, a shadow
is cast on their future and on the future of their society."
Soderberg, who is the U.S. Alternate Representative for Special
Political Affairs, said the United States "places the highest priority
on assisting young children throughout the world who are forced
against their will, often kidnapped at gunpoint, to take up arms in
support of militias and paramilitary groups engaged in hostilities."
She noted that the United States is working closely with the UN High
Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and UNICEF (the UN Children's Fund)
on programs to rehabilitate children through counseling,
reconciliation, education and vocational training in the hope that
they will readjust and be reintegrated into civilian society.
Since 1989, the United States has provided over $30 million to
programs aimed at the needs of those children, Soderberg said. In
1998, the United States contributed over $7 million for refugee
children and in 1999 contributed $5 million to the UNHCR program for
children at risk.
Soderberg said that the resolution "follows on the progress made with
the adoption of the ILO Convention on the prohibition and elimination
of the worst forms of child labor and will provide momentum for
continued work later this year on the additional protocol to the
Convention on the Rights of the Child on the involvement of children
in armed conflict."
The resolution strongly condemned the targeting of children as well as
their recruitment and use in armed conflict and calls upon all parties
to put an end to such practices. It urges warring parties to ensure
that the protection, welfare, and rights of children are taken into
account during peace negotiations and afterwards.
In the resolution, the Council expressed support for Otunnu's work and
recognized "the deleterious impact of the proliferation of arms, in
particular small arms, on the security of civilians ... particularly
children."
The United Nations estimates that over 20 million children have been
affected by conflicts in about 50 countries. It also estimates that
300,000 young persons under the age of 18, some as young as seven, are
being exploited as child soldiers.
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