Search
  1. Home
  2. West Africa
  3. Sierra Leone

UN team visits camp for child soldiers

[Kenya] To be eligible for resettlement schemes the candidates must leave behind them a custom such as female genital mutilation forbidden in the US. Justo Casal
Married adolescents have little room to negotiate safe sex with their husbands
    NAIROBI

    A team from the UN Security Council has visited a camp for former child soldiers in Sierra Leone, a spokesman in New York said on Wednesday.

    A 14-year-old former combatant made a "simple and direct plea" to the Council members to exclude children from prosecution in a special court on Sierra Leone that is to try persons for war crimes, crimes against humanity and other violations of humanitarian law.

    The teenager was one of hundreds of youngsters at at the camp for former fighters. British Ambassador Jeremy Greenstock, who is leading the 11-member Council team, said no child regarded as a victim of the war, even if he had been fighting, would be taken to the special court, the spokesman said. The Council mission is on a five-nation tour seeking ways to promote stability in West Africa.

    Meanwhile, the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict, Olara Otunnu, said on Wednesday in New York that over the past three years progress had been made in protecting children affected by armed conflict. Otunnu said a significant development was an agreement in the Security Council to incorporate the protection of children into peacekeeping mandates.

    He also said a number of governments had made the protection of children affected by armed conflict a prominent feature of their domestic and international policies.

    This article was produced by IRIN News while it was part of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Please send queries on copyright or liability to the UN. For more information: https://shop.un.org/rights-permissions

    Share this article

    Our ability to deliver compelling, field-based reporting on humanitarian crises rests on a few key principles: deep expertise, an unwavering commitment to amplifying affected voices, and a belief in the power of independent journalism to drive real change.

    We need your help to sustain and expand our work. Your donation will support our unique approach to journalism, helping fund everything from field-based investigations to the innovative storytelling that ensures marginalised voices are heard.

    Please consider joining our membership programme. Together, we can continue to make a meaningful impact on how the world responds to crises.

    Become a member of The New Humanitarian

    Support our journalism and become more involved in our community. Help us deliver informative, accessible, independent journalism that you can trust and provides accountability to the millions of people affected by crises worldwide.

    Join