Dáil Éireann debate -
Wednesday, 5 Mar 2003

Vol. 562 No. 5

Written Answers - UN Security Council.

Brendan Howlin

Question:

121 Mr. Howlin asked the Minister for Foreign Affairs his views on such meetings as have taken place, during and after Ireland's membership of the Security Council, in relation to UN special representatives of the Secretary General for children and armed conflict; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [6419/03]

Minister for Foreign Affairs (Mr. Cowen)

The special representative of the Secretary General of the United Nations for children and armed conflict acts as an advocate for the adoption of measures to protect children and their mothers in areas of armed conflict, to prevent the recruitment of children as armed combatants and to promote the demobilisation and re-integration of children who have been engaged in armed conflict with particular reference to their mental and physical health and education. Ireland actively supports the office of the special representative. It is a member of an informal group known as the Friends of the Special Representative, the aim of which is to support his work and to promote measures for the protection of children in armed conflict. In 2002, Ireland provided funding of €60,000 to the office.

I met special representative Olara Otunnu in New York on 12 November 2001. We had a fruitful discussion, including on such issues as the humanitarian needs of the children of Afghanistan. The Minister of State at the Department of Foreign Affairs, Deputy Kitt, met the special representative in New York on 5 November 2002. Mr. Otunnu inter alia expressed appreciation for the strong support Ireland had extended to his office from the commencement of his mandate.

During Ireland's membership of the Security Council, we worked hard for a strengthening of measures for the protection of children in armed conflict. We contributed actively to the drafting of Resolution 1379, adopted on 20 November 2001, in which the council supported the ongoing work of the special representative and expressed itself ready to include specific provisions for the protection of children in the mandates of peacekeeping operations. The council requested the Secretary General to take the protection of children into account in peacekeeping plans submitted to the Security Council, including through the appointment of child protection staff to peacekeeping operations. The Secretary General was also requested to report after one year on the implementation of the resolution and to attach to his report a list of parties to armed conflict that recruit or use children.

The Council reaffirmed its commitment to the protection of children in armed conflict in a presidential statement on 7 May 2002. The Secretary General issued a comprehensive report on 26 November 2002 on this topic and I refer the Deputy to it for a detailed assessment of the situation and of progress in the various areas.

The Security Council discussed this report in an open debate on 14 January last. Although Ireland was no longer a member of the council, we were associated with the statement made in the debate by Greece on behalf of the European Union and by Austria on behalf of the human security network. The council subsequently, on 30 January, adopted Resolution 1460 supporting the Secretary General's call for an era of application. It again called on all parties to armed conflict to halt immediately the recruitment of children and expressed its intention to enter into dialogue or to support the Secretary General in entering into dialogue with such groups in order to develop clear and time bound plans to end this practice. It stressed the need for monitoring to ensure that children involved in disarmament and demobilisation programmes are not re-recruited. The Secretary General will again report on progress in this difficult and important area towards the end of this year.