By Prof. Bharat H Desai
The Maldivian diplomat Abdulla Shahid, President of the 76th session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA), symbolically handed over gavel on 12 September 2022, at the end of his ‘Presidency of Hope’, to the Hungarian diplomat Csaba Kőrösi, the President of the 77th session. “We owe it to ourselves, to our peers, to our children, to our grandchildren, to humanity, to choose hope”, Shahid said.
It is exactly that hope that lie in tatters even as millions of children worldwide face unprecedented challenges at birth, in growth, treatment on gendered lines and in violent conflicts that rage around the world. This sordid saga seriously impinges upon our future. Still, it remains mostly under wraps as jetsetter diplomats engage in glitzy state affairs, scholars quibble over geopolitics, spheres of influence, territorial disputes, bilateral photo-ops and others relish in finding faults with the UN and International Law.
Global Violence Against Children
A landmark 2006 UN study on violence against children emphatically asserted that “No violence against children is justifiable; all violence against children is preventable”. Globally, children now face growing violence such as bullying, including cyberbullying, sexual harassment including peer-to-peer and conscription by armed groups engaged in warfare and terrorism. Girls in particular are exposed to heightened risks of negative social norms, gender stereotypes, gender-based discrimination and sexual and gender-based violence. According to the Global Humanitarian Overview 2022, an estimated 16 million people pushed into food crises in 15 countries has exacerbated violence against women and children. In conflict zones, recurrent attacks take place on schools and hospitals and children get abducted.
Protection of Children: Existing Legal Framework
The global armed conflicts result in gross violations of International Humanitarian Law (IHL) and International Human Rights law (IHRL). The political organs of the UN have responded to the challenge through the resolutions of the UNGA and the UNSC for protection of the rights of the children against violence including in armed conflicts. The UNGA resolution 76/147 of 16 December 2021 called upon UNSG’s SR for Children and Armed Conflict to carry out her mandate for the protection of children in situations of armed conflict. She has been mandated to pro-actively engage with relevant UN entities, Member States, regional organizations and non-State armed groups. Now world’s 25% children (aged 0-14 years) population, out of 7.95 billion (2022), face a grim future.
The UNGA adopted the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) vide resolution 44/25 of 20 November 1989. It acknowledges that the Convention and the Optional Protocols thereto contain a comprehensive set of international legal standards for the protection and well-being of children. The nature and gravity of the challenges faced by world’s children can be gauged from the concerted works of the Special Representatives (SR) of the UNSG on Violence against Children as well as for Children and Armed Conflict, the Special Rapporteurs (SRs) of the Human Rights Council and the Committee on the Rights of the Child.
The 2021 annual report of the UNSG’s SR (Najat Maalla M’jid) on violence against children (A/HRC/49/57) highlighted how violence against children has sharply risen. It was followed by the UNSG’s own 2022 report of the UNSG on children and armed conflict that provides graphic details of the violations against children. It holds parties to the conflict responsible for “recruitment and use of children, the killing and maiming of children, rape and other forms of sexual violence against children, attacks on schools, hospitals and protected persons”. The report has enlisted 23,982 verified grave violations that have affected 19,165 children (13,633 boys, 5,242 girls, 290 sex unknown). The highest numbers of violations comprised the killing (2,515) and maiming (5,555) of 8,070 children and the recruitment of 6,310 children. In this respect, Afghanistan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territory, Somalia, the Syrian Arab Republic and Yemen top the chart.
The UNSG’s report (S/2022/272 of 29 March 2022) on conflict related sexual violence surmises that most of the cases of sexual violence continued to be vastly underreported, owing to stigmatization, the fear of reprisals, harmful social norms, the absence of services, impunity, the lack of humanitarian access and safety concerns. Any recruitment or use of children in armed conflicts is a violation of the IHL. In fact, IHL prohibits any indiscriminate attacks against civilians, including children, and they shall not be the object of attack, including by way of reprisal or excessive use of force. The role of various armed groups, as distinct from the armed forces of a State, have become a global concern as regards the recruitment and training of children in hostilities.
In view of growing conscription of children in armed conflict, the Optional Protocol (25 May 2000) to the CRC, has called for raising the minimum age for voluntary recruitment of persons into the national armed forces from that set out in article 38 (3) of the CRC. The Optional Protocol (Article 2) explicitly requires that the State Parties “shall ensure that persons who have not attained the age of 18 years are not compulsorily recruited into their armed forces”. Under the CRC too, persons under 18 years of age are entitled to special protection, and to adopt safeguards to ensure that such recruitment is not forced or coerced. As a corollary to these instruments, there has been other efforts at ‘taming the beast’ in armed conflicts such as the Cape Town Principles (1997) and the Paris Principles and Commitments on Children Associated with Armed Forces or Armed Groups (2007).
Striving for Children’s Better Future
In view of the above, as the authoritarian regimes, toxicity laden societies and violent conflicts pose grave risks to the 25% of global population (children), the UN member states need to urgently address the challenge. The road map can comprise convening of a special UN conference on the rights and protection of children including special focus at the Summit of the Future (22-23 September 2024), decided vide UNGA modalities resolution of 76/307 of 08 September 2022, to craft a concrete time bound action plan for the elimination of all forms of violence against children especially in conflict zones to ensure a better future for the world’s children.
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Professor Dr. Bharat H. Desai is Jawaharlal Nehru Chair and Professor of International Law at the Centre for International Legal Studies of SIS, JNU. He coordinated the Making SIS Visible initiative (2008-2013) as well as Inter-University Consortium: JNU; Jammu; Kashmir; Sikkim (2012-2020) and is the Editor-in-Chief of Environmental Policy and Law (IOS Press: Amsterdam).