On 22 April 2013, the Security Council Working Group on Children and Armed Conflict (SCWG-CAC) adopted the “Conclusions on the situation of children and armed conflict affected by the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA)” (S/AC.51/2013/1). The Working Group expressed its condemnation in the strongest terms of the LRA’s continued violations and abuses against children, demanded that the LRA immediately cease all violations of international law, and stressed its intention to consider a broad range of options to increase pressure on persistent perpetrators. The Working Group further recommended that the President of the Security Council send letters to the Governments of the Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, South Sudan and Uganda as well as to the UN Secretary-General and to the African Union, expressing support for their respective contributions to ending violations by the LRA and calling for further action. Finally, the Working Group agreed to send a letter to the World Bank and donors in order to mobilize resources including for the release, return and reintegration of children formerly associated with the LRA.
The Working Group conclusions were based on the Secretary-General’s report of 25 May 2012 (S/2012/365). This is the first comprehensive report of the Secretary-General submitted on a regional rather than country-specific basis. Negotiations on the conclusions took almost 11 months, principally due to a delay in 2012 over the Sudan and South Sudan conclusions. Actual negotiation time was less than four months, still double the target of two months.
