UN adopts resolution to end use of child soldiers

The UN Security Council has called on all parties to armed conflict, who are recruiting or using children in violation of their international obligations, to immediately halt such practices, according to the UN. Unanimously adopting resolution 1460 (2003), the Council also supported the UN secretary-general's call for "an era of application" of international norms and standards for the protection of children affected by armed conflict. Thursday's meeting followed an open debate on the issue on 14 January, focusing on the secretary-general's report, which lists 23 parties to conflicts on the Council's agenda, including governments and armed groups that continue to recruit or use child soldiers. The conflicts include Afghanistan, Burundi, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Liberia and Somalia. "By further terms of today's resolution, the Council also called on the parties identified in the list to provide information on steps they have taken to halt their recruitment or use of children in armed conflict to the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict," the UN reported. [For more details see http://www.un.org/News/]