17-07-2011

Child Charity NewsSri Lanka Seeks Removal from UN’s "Naming and Shaming" List

16/07/2011 – After the United Nations Security Council held an open debate on children affected by armed conflict, Sri Lankan officials stated that the country hopes to see itself removed from the list of parties reported to be using child soldiers.

A United Nations (UN) diplomat from Sri Lanka has urged the UN Security Council and Working Group on Children in Armed Conflict to remove the country from the Secretary-General’s list of countries using children in armed conflict – the "naming and shaming" list.

Dr. Palitha Kohona is the Permanent Representative of Sri Lanka to the UN. Dr. Kohona was speaking at the open debate held by the UN Security Council on Tuesday of this week.

Sri Lanka’s civil war ended in May 2009, after 25 years of violence. Still, many children have been and remain affected by the war.

In December 2009, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) launched a project to locate missing children in northern and eastern Sri Lanka after many requests for tracing were received upon the conclusion of the country’s civil conflict. An estimated 64 per cent of these missing persons cases related to children recruited as soldiers into the Tamil Tigers, the rebel faction defeated in 2009.

As of December 2010, 1,373 persons were unaccounted for, fifteen of whom were still children (others may have been children at the time of their disappearance). According to UN sources, by the end of December 2010, 662 requests by parents and families were made to trace missing children (including 293 girls). Of these, 21 have been reunified and 32 are in the process of reunification. Last year, Sri Lanka also developed a plan to trace missing persons in hospitals, children’s homes and police posts across the country.

UN sources further indicate that the last case of child recruitment in Sri Lanka was reported in October 2009. Information from the Secretary-General’s April 2011 report on the issue (A/65/820-S/250) states that the now-defeated Tamil Tigers were responsible for most of the child recruitment cases reported in the country.

On Tuesday, the Security Council unanimously adopted a resolution calling on all member states to take immediate and decisive action against the perpetrators of human rights abuses against children during situations of armed conflict. Among these abuses were "recruitment and use of children, killing and maiming, rape and other sexual violence, attacks on schools and/or hospitals."

Perpetrators should be brought to justice to ensure the end of impunity.

"Sixteen parties to armed conflict listed in the Annexes of the Secretary-General’s report have been listed for five years or more. This is plainly unacceptable," said Susan Rice, the US representative to the UN.