October 2017 Security Council Open Debate on Children and Armed Conflict: Review, Analysis, and Lessons learned

November 2017 – On October 31, 2017, the UN Security Council held an Open Debate on Children and Armed Conflict (CAC) under the Presidency of France. The debate followed the publication of the Secretary-General’s 16th Annual Report on Children and Armed Conflict (A/72/361–S/2017/821), covering the period from January 1 to December 31, 2016. The Council adopted a Presidential Statement (S/PRST/2017/21) as the outcome document.

Seventy-seven Delegations, representing 100 countries intervened at the Open Debate. The following themes were most prominently discussed in the delegations’ statements:

1) calls for better accountability for all perpetrators of child rights violations, including for recruitment and use and attacks on schools;

2) calls for more effective monitoring, reporting, and response on the ground, including on detention of children for their association with armed forces and armed groups;

3) calls for ensuring accurate and credible listing of perpetrators of the six grave violations, based on impartial evidence-based reporting; and

4) calls for effective implementation and signing of more UN action plans with armed forces and groups listed in the annexes of the SG’s annual reports on CAC.

Read Watchlist’s Review of the October 2017 Security Council Open Debate on Children and Armed Conflict.