Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Kampala (Agenzia Fides)-. At least 1,500 child soldiers are still in the ranks of the notorious Ugandan rebel group Lord’s Resistance Army LRA which has led a bloody war in northern Uganda since the 1980s. Another 10,000 children are considered missing, since nothing has been heard of them for years. This information was part of a report presented by the humanitarian organisation Save the Children at a ‘Free Children From War’ forum in Paris.
The forum jointly hosted by the UN children's agency, Unicef, and the French government., opened today 5 February chaired by the French foreign minister Philippe Douste-Blazy and UNICEF director Ann Veneman.
The conference in Paris will seek to get countries to sign up to a new framework of action known as the Paris Principles - the aim being to get them to work harder to release children from conflict and reintegrate them into normal life.
The conference will bring together governments from affected countries in several continents as well as humanitarian organisations. They will discuss a new set of commitments and principles to end recruitment of children and to demobilize and reintegrate those who have been involved with armed groups and forces. Ten years since the approval of the Cape Town Principles, the Paris Principles insist more on protection for minors in armed groups where many are raped and become mothers and are rejected by their communities.
Taking part in the conference are the EU countries as well as Canada, Japan and countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America Latina affected by the phenomenon
“An estimated 250,000 children are involved in conflicts around the world,” said UNICEF Executive Director, Ann M. Veneman. “They are used as combatants, messengers, spies, porters, cooks, and girls in particular are forced to perform sexual services, depriving them of their rights and their childhood.”
The most affected countries include Afghanistan, Burundi, Chad, Colombia, Democratic Congo, Cote d’Ivoire, Philippines, Myanmar, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Somalia, Sudan and Uganda. And also Sierra Leone and Liberia, where conflict ended only in recent years and where children were recruited to fight ferocious wars. (L.M.) (Agenzia Fides 5/2/2007 righe 30 parole 357)
