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The Security Council Working Group on Children and Armed Conflict (CAAC) was introduced in July 2005 to recommend methods of protecting children impacted by armed conflicts.
The CAAC came out of the 2005 Millennium Summit [1] as a voice denouncing the use of children in armed conflicts. Children in many parts of the world are being forced to bear arms and wage war alongside adults. [2] To address and counter this heinous practice, the Security Council decided to establish a working group to address this matter. [3]
The Millennium Summit was a meeting among many world leaders lasting three days from 6 September to 8 September 2000 at the United Nations headquarters in New York City. Its purpose was to discuss the role of the United Nations at the turn of the 21st century. At this meeting, world leaders ratified the United Nations Millennium Declaration. This meeting was the largest gathering of world leaders in history as of the year 2000. It was followed by the World Summit five years later, which took place from 14 to 16 September 2005.
The United Nations Security Council Working Group on Children and Armed Conflict was established by the United Nations Security Council Resolution 1612 in 2005 to address issues related to children in armed conflict situations. [4] Representatives of the 15 member countries of the Council regularly meet and discuss countries or situations with a view to providing written recommendations that would have to be followed up by the concerned countries or situations. [5] In discharging its work, the Working Group is assisted by the Office of Special Representative of the Secretary General on Children and Armed Conflict, [6] which provides substantive inputs to the work of the Working Group and follows up on the agreed outcome of the Working Group. The Working Group produces conclusions and recommendations that have been developed among the fifteen members of the Working Group. [7] Since its inception, there has been progress in this field that is of particular importance to the international community.
The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization that was tasked to maintain international peace and security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international co-operation and be a centre for harmonizing the actions of nations. The headquarters of the UN is in Manhattan, New York City, and is subject to extraterritoriality. Further main offices are situated in Geneva, Nairobi, and Vienna. The organization is financed by assessed and voluntary contributions from its member states. Its objectives include maintaining international peace and security, protecting human rights, delivering humanitarian aid, promoting sustainable development and upholding international law. The UN is the largest, most familiar, most internationally represented and most powerful intergovernmental organization in the world. In 24 October 1945, at the end of World War II, the organization was established with the aim of preventing future wars. At its founding, the UN had 51 member states; there are now 193. The UN is the successor of the ineffective League of Nations.
United Nations Security Council Resolution 1612, adopted unanimously on 26 July 2005, after recalling resolutions 1261 (1999), 1308 (2000), 1314 (2000), 1325 (2000), 1379 (2001), 1460 (2003) and 1539 (2004), the Council established a monitoring and reporting mechanism on the use of child soldiers.
The international community is a phrase used in geopolitics and international relations to refer to a broad group of people and governments of the world. It does not refer literally to all nations or states in the world. The term is typically used to imply the existence of a common point of view towards such matters as specific issues of human rights. Activists, politicians and commentators often use the term in calling for action to be taken; e.g., action against what is in their opinion political repression in a target country.
Negotiation in the context of the United Nations Security Council tends to be intensive and time-consuming and may be trying for those who have little patience. [8] Negotiations normally occur inside one of the UN conference rooms, but in some cases there will be informal negotiations among members to find an agreed outcome. This interplay of formal and informal negotiation contributes to the fluidity and active dynamics of the process itself. A certain outcome can be agreed after a few meetings but other can consume considerable amount of time that span to months of negotiation. This is due to the complexity and sensitivity of the issue at hand that one single word would need long hour of negotiation as it can be interpreted in various ways depending on the national interests of the concerned countries and other factors.
The national interest, often referred to by the French expression raison d'État, is a country's goals and ambitions, whether economic, military, cultural or otherwise. The concept is an important one in international relations, where pursuit of the national interest is the foundation of the realist school.
Take for example negotiation on a resolution on one particular issue, one of the operative paragraphs can generate heated debate whether the Security Council should "take note" the report from the Secretary General, or should the Security Council just "acknowledge with appreciation the report" or "welcome the report". In most cases, the Security Council should welcome or at minimum acknowledge with appreciation the report since in most cases reports by the Secretary General is in compliance with the explicit request of the Security Council. This issue can generate such a long debate because the report might contain elements that are directly or indirectly affecting the national interests of one of the members. On one side, "to acknowledge with appreciation" might be construed as challenging or undermining the said country. On the other side, "to acknowledge with appreciation" can be used as a negotiating tool to put pressures on the said country that viewed it as a threat or challenging its national interests. It is worth to note as well that reports of the Secretary-General can be highly political and sensitive. Here, we generally use the term Secretary-General to refer to the UN Secretariat that is mandated to render services to the Member-States of the United Nations that are currently composed of 193 countries (including, annual and thematic reports)
It is worth noting that negotiation in the UN setting is typically a multi-party negotiation where there are more than two countries that are involved in the negotiation. Since there are more than two countries, there are multiple interests that have to be considered and accommodated.
The Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict is a member of the United Nations Development Group. [9]
The United Nations Development Group (UNDG) is a consortium of many United Nations agencies, created by the Secretary-General of the United Nations in 1997 to improve the effectiveness of UN development activities at the country level.
The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) is the United Nations' global development network.
Peacekeeping refers to activities intended to create conditions that favour lasting peace. Research generally finds that peacekeeping reduces civilian and battlefield deaths and reduces the risk of renewed warfare.
United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325 (S/RES/1325), on women, peace, and security, was adopted unanimously by the UN Security Council on 31 October 2000, after recalling resolutions 1261 (1999), 1265 (1999), 1296 (2000), and 1314 (2000). The resolution acknowledged the disproportionate and unique impact of armed conflict on women and girls. It calls for the adoption of a gender perspective to consider the special needs of women and girls during conflict, repatriation and resettlement, rehabilitation, reintegration, and post-conflict reconstruction.
A United Nations Resident Coordinator is the highest United Nations official and the chief of UN diplomatic mission in a country. It confers the same rank as an Ambassador of a foreign state. The resident coordinator is the designated representative of the UN secretary general and leader of United Nations Country Team of agencies such as UNICEF, WHO, WFP or UNFPA.
United Nations Security Council Resolution 1919, adopted unanimously on April 29, 2010, after recalling resolutions 1674 (2006), 1894 (2009) on the protection of civilians in armed conflict, 1612 (2005) and 1882 (2009) on children in armed conflict, 1502 (2003) on the protection of humanitarian and United Nations personnel, and 1325 (2000), 1820 (2008), 1888 (2009), and 1889 (2009) on women, peace, and security, the Council extended the mandate of the United Nations Mission in Sudan (UNMIS) until April 30, 2011 with the intention of renewing it further if necessary.
United Nations Security Council resolution 1124, adopted unanimously on 31 July 1997, after reaffirming all resolutions on Georgia, particularly Resolution 1096 (1997), the Council extended the mandate of the United Nations Observer Mission in Georgia (UNOMIG) until 31 January 1998.
United Nations Security Council resolution 1261, adopted unanimously on 25 August 1999, in the first resolution to address the topic, the Council condemned the targeting of children in armed conflict including the recruitment and use of child soldiers.
United Nations Security Council resolution 1332, adopted unanimously on 14 December 2000, after recalling resolutions 1234 (1999), 1258 (1999), 1265 (1999), 1273 (1999), 1279 (1999), 1291 (2000), 1296 (2000), 1304 (2000) and 1323 (2000) on situation in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Council extended the mandate of the United Nations Mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo (MONUC) until 15 June 2001.
United Nations Security Council resolution 1379, adopted unanimously on 20 November 2001, after recalling resolutions 1261 (1999), 1265 (1999), 1296 (2000), 1306 (2000), 1308 (2000), 1314 (2000) and 1325 (2000), the Council considered provisions to protect children during peacekeeping operations and requested the Secretary-General to identify parties to conflict that used or recruited child soldiers.
United Nations Security Council Resolution 1960, adopted unanimously on December 16, 2010, after recalling resolutions 1325 (2000), 1612 (2005), 1674 (2006), 1820 (2008), 1882 (2009), 1888 (2009), 1889 (2009) and 1894 (2009), the Council requested information on parties suspected of patterns of sexual violence during armed conflict to be made available to it.
United Nations Security Council Resolution 1653, adopted unanimously on January 27, 2006, after recalling previous resolutions concerning the situations in the African Great Lakes region, Democratic Republic of the Congo and Burundi, particularly resolutions 1625 (2005), 1631 (2005), 1649 (2005) and 1650 (2005), the Council addressed the stability of the Great Lakes region in Africa.
United Nations Security Council Resolution 1998, adopted unanimously on July 12, 2011, after reaffirming resolutions 1261 (1999), 1314 (2000), 1379 (2001), 1460 (2003), 1539 (2004), 1612 (2005) and 1882 (2009) on the protection of children in armed conflict, the Council declared schools and hospitals off limits for both armed groups and military activities, asking the Secretary-General for such crimes to be placed on a list of those committing "grave violations" against children.
United Nations Security Council Resolution 1820 was unanimously adopted on 19 June 2008. It condemns the use of sexual violence as a tool of war, and declares that “rape and other forms of sexual violence can constitute war crimes, crimes against humanity or a constitutive act with respect to genocide”. The adoption of the resolution marked the first time that the UN explicitly linked sexual violence as a tactic of war with women, peace, and security issues. Security Council Resolution1820 reinforces United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325 and highlights that sexual violence in conflict constitutes a war crime and demands parties to armed conflict to immediately take appropriate measures to protect civilians from sexual violence, including training troops and enforcing disciplinary measures. In November 2010, the UN Secretary General presented a report on the implementation of UNSCR 1820.
United Nations Security Council Resolution 1882 was unanimously adopted on 4 August 2009.
The United Nations Supervision Mission in Syria (UNSMIS) is a United Nations peacekeeping mission in Syria, set up in 2012 as a result of United Nations Security Council Resolution 2043 in response to the Syrian Civil War. It was commanded by Norwegian major general Robert Mood until 20 July 2012 followed by Lieutenant General Babacar Gaye from Senegal. Although observers remain in the country, Mood suspended their mission on June 16, 2012 citing "escalating violence." Observers will conduct no further patrols and stay in their current positions until the suspension is lifted. On 20 July 2012, the Security Council extended UNSMIS for a final period of 30 days. According to resolution 2059, the Council would only consider more extensions in the event that the Secretary-General reports and the Security Council confirms the cessation of the use of heavy weapons and a reduction in the level of violence sufficient by all sides to allow UNSMIS to implement its mandate.
The political status of the Nagorno-Karabakh region remains unresolved. Since 1991, it has been largely controlled by the self-proclaimed Republic of Artsakh, a de facto independent entity. The region, however, is internationally recognized as an integral part of Azerbaijan, although it has not exercised power over most of the region since 1991. Since the end of the Nagorno-Karabakh War in 1994, representatives of the governments of Armenia and Azerbaijan have been holding peace talks mediated by the OSCE Minsk Group on the region's disputed status.
The Office of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Sexual Violence in Conflict (OSRSG-SVC), is an office of the United Nations Secretariat tasked with serving the United Nations' spokesperson and political advocate on conflict-related sexual violence, the Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Sexual Violence in Conflict (SRSG-SVC). The Special Representative holds the rank of Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations and chairs the UN Action Against Sexual Violence in Conflict. The mandate of the SRSG-SVC was established by Security Council Resolution 1888, introduced by Hillary Clinton, and the first Special Representative, Margot Wallström, took office in 2010. The current Special Representative is Pramila Patten of Mauritius, who was appointed by United Nations Secretary General António Guterres in April 2017. The work of the SRSG-SVC is supported by the United Nations Team of Experts on the Rule of Law/Sexual Violence in Conflict, co-led by the Department of Peacekeeping Operations (DPKO), Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), also established under Security Council Resolution 1888.
