UN special envoy urges protection and rehabilitation of children

At the conclusion of a 10-day visit to the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) to assess first-hand the impact of the wars on children, Olara Otunnu, the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict, called for the protection and rehabilitation of war-affected children to become a top priority in the country. From his headquarters in New York, he urged political and military leaders to bring a complete stop to all recruitment and use of child soldiers, saying “there is an urgent need for a plan of action to address the grave situation of war-affected children in the Congo”. Otunnu proposed a programme of action that was accepted by all political and military leaders, and before returning from Kinshasa, the DRC government signed and ratified an amendment to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child which calls for an end to the use of child soldiers in war. Otunnu appealed to Congolese leaders and the international community “to reach out to the Congolese children with concrete assistance, focusing particularly on rehabilitation of schools and health care centres, and the provision of much-needed resources for the demobilisation of child soldiers. The measures are necessary to break the present cycle of despair and exploitation. They will serve as means of protection, rehabilitation and prevention.” Otunnu also drew attention to the looting of natural resources of the DRC, which he called “an outrage that is robbing the Congolese children of their birthright, of resources that should be used for their education, health care and development.”