Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2004-02-09-Speech-1-090"
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"en.20040209.6.1-090"2
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"Mr President, the report on the work of the ACP-EU Joint Parliamentary Assembly contains some important considerations. It is good to see that the degree and quality of cooperation between the Joint Parliamentary Assembly and the United Nations reached unprecedented levels. I think its is especially worthwhile that enhanced cooperation with the UN is visible in the matter of child soldiers, as is evident from the report. This is an area where the battle cannot be ended before it is completely won. Even one child soldier is a gross injustice to humanity and its future.
There are an estimated 300 000 child soldiers under the age of 18 involved in some 40 conflicts throughout the world. Using children as soldiers is a violation of their human rights and deprives them of their childhood and the chance for education and building a better future as a result. Being a soldier always causes serious psychological and often also physical damage in children.
The use of child soldiers has increased with, for example, the development of weapons technology, as children can be made to use ever lighter and smaller weapons. The reason for the increase in the use of child soldiers is also due to the nature of modern warfare: most of today’s armed conflicts are civil wars. In the time of the First World War just 10% of the war’s casualties were civilians. Now the corresponding figure is 90%. Civil wars are waged between different ethic groups, which in practice means civilian populations. In this way children become targets and easily recruited additional troops. Children obey orders more readily than adults. Children have had to witness atrocities and carry them out themselves under coercion. Many guerrilla movements even prefer child soldiers to fully-grown combatants. Furthermore, children are prepared to take risks that adults would refuse to. One example is Iran, where children were used as messengers in minefields.
The International Save the Children Alliance was heard when the UN Security Council met in mid-January 2003 to discuss the plight of children in armed conflicts. The debate was preceded by the third report by the UN Secretary-General on children and armed conflicts. For the first time in an official report those responsible for using child soldiers were named. This is a significant step forward because it allows international pressure to be put on those who grossly violate children’s rights.
This otherwise excellent report is still in need of some small stylistic improvements. The Question Time in Rome was certainly animated, as points 6 and 26 state and which is all too commendable, but as it is actually mentioned twice, one gets the impression that this is an altogether unusual exception to the rule and that the basic nature of our work is lifeless and anaemic."@en1
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