September 2016 – On August 2, 2016, the UN Security Council held an Open Debate on Children and Armed Conflict (CAC) under the Presidency of Malaysia. The debate followed the publication of the Secretary-General’s 15th Annual Report on Children and Armed Conflict covering the period from January 1 to December 31, 2015. The Open Debate was not followed by an outcome document.
Sixty-nine delegations intervened at the Open Debate, representing ninety-eight countries. The following themes were most discussed in the delegations’ statements:
1) need for accurate and credible listing of perpetrators of the six grave violations, free of politics and based on impartial, evidence-based reporting, and use of credible tools such as the UN-led Monitoring and Reporting Mechanism (MRM);
2) call for successful implementation of existing UN action plans with armed forces and groups listed in the annexes of the Secretary-General’s annual reports on children and armed conflict;
3) calls for maintaining the UN’s specialized capacity to better monitor, report, and respond to child rights violations in the field, including on detention of children for their association with armed forces and armed groups, and attacks on health care; and
4) strengthening child rights protections within UN peacekeeping operations by ensuring greater accountability for, and prevention of, violations by UN peacekeepers.
Read Watchlist’s Review of the August 2016 Security Council Open Debate on Children and Armed Conflict.
