Two New Watchlist Publications Contribute to Mainstreaming of Children and Armed Conflict

In March 2013, Watchlist issued two new publications intended to contribute to the mainstreaming of children and armed conflict within the Security Council and within the United Nations more broadly, namely the Report of the Workshop on Children and Armed Conflict: How to deal with Persistent Perpetrators? and the briefing note A Checklist for Mainstreaming: Children and Armed Conflict-Friendly Security Council Resolutions.

On 15 March 2013, the Report of the Workshop on “Children and Armed Conflict: How to deal with Persistent Perpetrators?” was issued as an official United Nations document, A/67/694-S/2013/158. The report was submitted to the United Nations by the workshop’s co-organizer, the Permanent Mission of Liechtenstein, and it was launched at a meeting on UN premises on 21 March 2013. The report provides an overview of the discussions which took place at the workshop, held at Princeton University on 8 February 2013, and it offers 22 recommendations to the Security Council, its Working Group on Children and Armed Conflict, Member States and the UN Secretariat for addressing persistent perpetrators of violations against children and for mainstreaming the protection of children affected by armed conflict in the Security Council’s country-specific work.

Also in March, Watchlist published and distributed its new briefing note A Checklist for Mainstreaming: Children and Armed Conflict-Friendly Security Council Resolutions.  This note contains a 10-point checklist designed to assist Security Council experts and others in mainstreaming the protection of children affected by armed conflict in country-specific Security Council resolutions. This checklist is based on existing practice. Each item is derived from Security Council thematic resolutions on children and armed conflict and is supported by additional detailed recommendations. This checklist soon will be uploaded to Watchlist’s Children and Armed Conflict smartphone/tablet app, where you will also find relevant example language from previous Security Council resolutions.