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Remarks by Ambassador Samantha Power at a Security Council Open Debate on Children and Armed Conflict

U.S. Permanent Representative to the United Nations

Samantha Power
U.S. Permanent Representative to the United Nations
New York, NY
September 8, 2014

AS DELIVERED

To Special Representative Zerrougui, Special Envoy Whitaker, Deputy Executive Director Brandt, Under Secretary-General Ladsous, Foreign Minister Asselborn, and Sandra: thank you all for speaking with us today, and for your tireless efforts on behalf of the world's children.

We've heard a lot of statistics today measuring the massive scale of this problem: 3 million kids out of school in Syria; 9,000 children recruited to fight in South Sudan. And many of my colleagues have rightly spoken to the enduring, big-picture problems we have to address, like sexual violence and attacks on schools. Amidst so many numbers and issues, it's easy to forget that we're talking about a lot of individual children – boys and girls and infants – who suffer these deplorable injustices.

As the Council's last speaker, I'd like to tell two stories, in the hopes of reminding us that no matter how hard we are working to protect children, we have to work harder.

An 18-year-old woman from Mosul, in northern Iraq, relayed in a whisper what happened after she was abducted by armed men from ISIL. The fighters took her to a village called Kocho, where they separated the men and boys over twelve from the women, girls, and younger boys. This young woman – just 18 – was forced to watch as the fighters massacred the men and older boys. Then her captors took her to back to Mosul, where she said she was held with more than 300 Yazidi girls and women. They were locked up, two or three to a room. Every day, the routine was the same: they were told to shower, and then the men came to rape them. The young woman had managed to hide a cell phone before the fighters abducted her, and she called a family member from captivity to tell her story. That was on August 20 – just a few weeks ago. It is the last news we have from this young woman.

Matthew, age 16, was in math class in January of this year, in Bentiu, South Sudan, when rebel fighters raided his school. Matthew is an ethnic Nuer, as is most of his village. The armed men told Matthew – one of some 300 students there – that the students were being t­aken away to fight against the government, led by the rival Dinka group. Matthew didn't want to fight, but he was told that his family would be killed if he refused. He gave in, and was taken for military training, learning how to march, find cover, and shoot. One night, when he was sent to gather firewood, he fled and he eventually reached a UN camp, where he told his story to Al Jazeera. He is afraid fighters will catch him if he leaves the UN site. "If they find me, they will kill me," he says.

Abu Ibrahim lost his wife and four of his children when the Syrian regime struck his home in Ghouta with a barrel bomb, in April 2013. His only surviving child – a ten year-old boy – nearly died from shrapnel wounds in his leg, head and chest. For eight months, a desperate Abu Ibrahim carried his son from city to city in Syria seeking medical help. In January, he finally made it to Amman, where his son was treated. When I met Abu Ibrahim in a refugee camp in June, his son's physical wounds were healing, but the boy was still deeply traumatized. He hadn't been to school in over a year.

These are just 3 of the 23 places covered by the UN's report on Children and Armed Conflict, where children have been the victim of violence. There are many places – Pakistan, Palestinian and Israeli children, Nigerian children, children from the Central African Republic, Afghanistan, so many other countries.

What's happening to the 18-year-old girl and other Yazidi captives in Iraq, to Matthew in South Sudan, and to Abu Ibrahim's children is part of a disturbing pattern. First, we're seeing the continuing rise of extremist groups that are openly hostile to children's rights, and particularly the rights of girls. Girls captured by groups like Boko Haram and ISIL are being sold into markets, given to fighters as so-called "brides," or kept as sex slaves.

Second, as others have noted, we have a repeat offender problem. 31 of the 59 armed groups listed in the report have been named – have been named the last five years. 11 of those "persistent perpetrators" have been named in every single report issued by the Secretary General since the office began issuing reports in 2002.

We have to do better in protecting kids.

One key step is condemning – in a single, unified voice – these abuses. The resolution this Council adopted in March condemning military use of schools is one example. The only battles fought in schools should be battles over ideas.

We also need to try to work with all groups – state and non-state – to set concrete, time-bound action plans to root out these practices. This can be especially challenging with non-state groups, but in 2013, nine non-state groups issued public statements or command orders prohibiting the use of child soldiers. Last month, the Free Syrian Army sent a letter to this Council announcing it had banned the use of child soldiers, and pledging to punish child recruiters.

As the "persistent perpetrator" problem makes clear, global campaigns, action plans, and trainings won't do it alone. As Sandra told us today so movingly, perpetrators have to be held accountable. Groups that fail to change their behavior must be hit where it hurts.

The UN can apply this pressure, of course. So can individual countries. In 2008, the United States passed the Child Soldier Prevention Act, which limits U.S. military assistance to governments that recruit or use child soldiers.

Chad provides an example of how multilateral pressure can bring about real change. Last year, a chorus of actors pressed Chad to address its child soldier problem in the run up to re-hatting its peacekeepers for the UN mission in Mali. And Chad responded – setting up child protection units in its military; conducting age verification reviews of its troops with the UN; and signing a presidential decree making 18 the minimum recruitment age; among other steps. As a result, Chad was taken off the list of abusive parties in the Secretary General's annual report. Now, this doesn't mean that our work is finished, but real progress has been made. Governments can change. And when they do, so do the lives of kids.

We were all so moved today by Sandra's story – a child, as she described it, "born into war." A girl driven from her school and her home, who witnessed her relatives gunned down, in cold blood, in a refuge that they thought was safe.

But the most defining part of Sandra's story is not the trembling, ten-year-old girl – who said that what she feared was her last prayer at the barrel of a gun. The defining feature is the young woman who, with tremendous strength and determination, addressed the United Nations today. A young woman who spoke not of revenge, but of justice. A young woman who's already done so much to assist children recovering from experiences like hers, and dedicated herself to changing the world so fewer children endure such horrors.

To see Sandra today is to see the potential of all the children out there whose destinies hang in the balance in today's conflicts. There are so many of them. Sandras held captive in Nigeria; Sandras suffering through humanitarian blockades in Syria; Sandras fleeing massacres in the Central African Republic. Children who, like Sandra, have a world to change. We must do more to ensure that they can.

Thank you.

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