On 27 August 2014 at the UNICEF house in New York, the United Nations launched a new website on the Monitoring and Reporting Mechanism (MRM) that includes the long expected MRM Field Manual, Guidelines and Good Practices Study developed by the United Nations Office of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict (OSRSG-CAAC), United Nations Department of Peacekeeping Operations (DPKO), and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF).
These materials aim to harmonize interventions and strengthen systematic monitoring and reporting of grave violations against children. They build on lessons learned from the implementation of the mechanism in 18 situations over the past eight years, and are a product of extensive consultations with United Nations and non-governmental partners at country, regional and global levels.
Watchlist welcomes this important tool that will serve as a practical reference and as guidance for UN practitioners mandated to implement the MRM in a coherent manner, but also as an effective way to facilitate NGO participation in the mechanism. Watchlist is also pleased to see how the guidance emphasizes the need to ensure that monitoring and reporting grave violations translates into informed and targeted programmatic response, advocacy and prevention strategies for the protection of children in armed conflicts.
