Madame President,

I should like to express my appreciation to you for convening this open meeting of the Council on this important subject. I should also like to thank the Secretary General for his detailed and comprehensive Report on the Implementation of Resolution 1261 (1999) on Children and Armed Conflict. I am grateful to the Deputy Secretary-General for her introductory remarks. Let me also take this opportunity to thank the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict, Mr. Olara A. Otunnu, and the Executive Director the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), Ms. Carol Bellamy, for the important contributions they made just now. I commend them for their strong, unshakable commitment in the cause of the protection of children.

2. It is indeed encouraging to note that considerable progress has been made since we last debated on this issue in August last year. However, more needs to be done and it is imperative for the Council to continue to keep the issue of Children and Armed Conflict on its agenda. It has clearly acknowledged, in several of its resolutions and presidential statements, that the harmful impact of conflict on children has grave implications, not only in the context of peace and security but also socio-economic development.

Madame President,

3. Nearly all of today's conflicts occur within national boundaries, and 90 per cent of the victims are civilians, mainly children and women. We cannot deny the fact that in many conflict situations, the most vulnerable members of the population, particularly children and women, are often targeted with impunity; and because children have been conscripted to bear arms, they end up killing other children as well. This is indeed a sad state of affairs. The proliferation of small arms and light weapons has not only exacerbated conflicts around the world but has also led to the increased use of children as combatants who are used as pawns in the deadly game of warfare played and orchestrated by adults. Many of these child soldiers either fall as early casualties of the conflict or survive to become cold and callous.

4. In its State of the World’s Children 2000 report, UNICEF has reported that in the decade since the adoption of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, more than 2 million children have been killed and over 6 million injured or disabled in armed conflicts. Hundreds of thousands of children have been forced to take part in armed conflict as soldiers, sex slaves or porters, clearly in violation of their human rights. Countless children, including girls of very tender age, have been scarred psychologically by the violence and the traumas they endured. Many have died for lack of food and the necessary medical or health services, and a great number of them have been orphaned due to armed conflict. The statistics on children as victims of armed conflict are mind-boggling and mind-numbing. They should spur us to taking prompt action.

Madame President,

5. The protection of children in armed conflict should be all-encompassing. They should not only be assured of their physical security in situations of armed conflict but also be provided with legal protection under international law. This point has been underscored by the Secretary-General in his report and by previous speakers. The report has drawn our attention to the fact that there are in existence a number of international instruments and conventions that provide a legal basis for their protection but these have not stopped children from being attacked, targeted and abused with impunity. The perpetrators of these crimes must be held accountable for their crimes. They must be told in unambiguous terms that they cannot hope to escape the full penalty of the law even after the conflict is over. There should be no leniency or amnesty on crimes perpetrated on innocent children. As a signatory to the 1989 Convention on the Rights of the Child, Malaysia calls on the few remaining countries to sign or ratify this Convention so as to make the Convention a truly universal legal instrument. Malaysia continues to strongly support the optional protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child.

6. As a practical measure to ensure the protection of children in armed conflict, it is important that United Nations personnel, both military and civilians involved in peacekeeping missions be appropriately sensitised and trained on the subject so as to be better able to handle actual situations on the ground. Indeed, the physical protection of children in armed conflict has become even more urgent than before given the fact that there are, today, millions of refugees and internally displaced persons around the world – vast numbers of whom are children, many of them orphaned.

Madame President,

7. Equally important in this exercise is the disarmament, demobilization and reintegration of child soldiers. It is shocking that as many as 300,000 children under the age of 18 are currently participating in armed conflicts around the world. What is even more alarming is the fact that this trend of involving children in armed conflict is on the increase. Hence, the importance of ensuring that the need for their protection and well-being be recognised as a priority concern in the mandates of peacekeeping operations, including the DD&R programmes. We therefore welcome the collaboration among the Department of Peacekeeping Operations (DPKO), Office of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict (OSRSG/CAC), the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and other UN agencies, in producing the terms and reference for Child Protection Advisers or (CPAs). We recognise that two peacekeeping operations currently have senior CPAs on the ground; two of them were seconded from UNICEF and a third was previously with a UN peacekeeping operation. We also take positive note of the fact that there are two CPAs working with the Special Representative of the Secretary-General in Kinshasa and others are being recruited for imminent deployment.

8. My delegation is equally concerned about the debilitating effects of sanctions on children which may take years before the problem is recognised. We fully agree with the Secretary-General’s recommendation that there should be a coordinated and integrated approach, when sanctions are imposed, to minimise unintended consequences on civilian populations, especially children. We have consistently called for and therefore strongly support the despatching of assessment missions to targeted States not only before the operation of a sanctions regime but also after sanctions have been imposed.

Madame President,

9. My delegation agrees with the Secretary-General that the best way to address the problem of children in armed conflict is to prevent armed conflict in the first place - which entails the promotion of a culture of peace and prevention. Just last week the Council addressed this very important issue. In its presidential statement, the Council recognized that peace was not only the absence of conflict, but required a positive, dynamic, participatory process where dialogue was encouraged and conflicts were to be solved in a spirit of mutual understanding and cooperation. This Council also reaffirmed the belief that early warning, preventive diplomacy, preventive deployment and post-conflict peace-building were interdependent and complementary components of a comprehensive conflict prevention strategy and emphasized its continuing commitment to addressing the prevention of armed conflicts in all regions of the world.

Madame President,

10. We should move beyond pronouncements to action. The Secretary-General’s Report, which is rich in details as well as in recommendations, has laid out the problem of children and armed conflict in all its dimensions and has challenged us to taking concrete action. He has outlined some 55 recommendations, some of which clearly fall within the purview of this Council. We should rise to meet the challenge, mindful of the fact that children are society’s most precious asset and we should do everything in our power as adults to protect and nurture them as our sacred God-given responsibility. In this undertaking we should mobilise the necessary resources and cooperate and collaborate with all the relevant international and domestic actors, including international institutions, the private sector and civil society, who have all played commendable roles.

Thank you.

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