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La Coalition internationale contre l’Utilisation des Enfants Soldats, en coopération avec le Réseau africain pour la protection et prévention de l’abus des enfants (ANPPCAN), a ouvert aujourd’hui un atelier d’une durée de trois jours sur le recrutement et l’utilisation d’enfants comme soldats dans la région desGrandsLacs.

Ceci coïncide avec le lancement international à New York d'une liste de 195 pages qui nomme et dénonce le recrutement d’enfants soldats, préalable au débat du Conseil de Sécurité sur les enfants et les conflits armés. Le recrutement et l’utilisation illégaux des enfants soldats dans la région des Grands Lacs figurent de façon prominente aussi bien dans le "rapport1379"de la Coalition. "Tout en reconnaissant que la question des enfants soldats n’est pas simplement une problématique africaine, il est important de noter que notre atelier amène un rassemblement de participants des pays identifiés comme ayant de sérieux problèmes reliés à l’utilisation d’enfants soldats," a déclaré la responsable du programme Afrique à la Coalition, ChristinaClark.

Plus de quarante représentants d’organisations locales, régionales et internationales de l’Ouganda, du Burundi, de la République Démocratique du Congo, du Rwanda et du Kenya se sont réunis pour discuter du problème des enfants soldats dans leurs pays respectifs et pour développer des stratégies préventives aux niveaux national, régional et international. "Les conclusions préliminaires de notre première journée indiquent que quelques dynamiques spécifiques au problème des enfants soldats diffèrent d’un pays à l’autre, mais qu’il y a également des dimensions trans-frontalières qui doivent être adressées à un niveau régional. Par conséquent, nous anticipons de proposer des stratégies et des mécanismes concertés pour répondre plus efficacement au problème," a déclaré Espérance Musirimu , facilitatrice de l’atelier et représentante de l'International Human Rights Law Group au Burundi.

L’honorable Dame Justice Aluoch, Présidente du Comité Africain sur les Droits et le Bien-Être de l’Enfant, a ouvert l’atelier avec une référence sur les standards légaux continentaux pour la protection des enfants. L’Afrique est la seule région dans le monde avec ses propres standards régionaux qui interdisent l’utilisation de tous les enfants comme soldats, tel que décrit dans la Charte Africaine sur les Droitet le Bien-Être des l’Enfant. Cependant, les conclusions préliminaires de notre atelier en cours, rejoignent les inquiétudes soulignées dans le rapport 1379 de la Coalition, que cette politique n’est pas encore mise en pratique dans la région des Grands Lacs.

En vue de promouvoir une meilleure mise en oeuvre du droit international dans ce domaine, la Coalition joint son rapport international avec un atelier pratique pour mobiliser des réseaux nationaux et régionaux dans le but de prévenir le recrutement et l’utilisation d’enfants dans les conflits et de promouvoir la réintégrationensociété.

Informations supplémentaires
La Coalition contre l’Utilisation des Enfants Soldats travaille à prévenir le recrutement et l’utilisation d’enfants âgés de moins de 18 ans comme soldats, d’assurer leur démobilisation et de veiller à leur réintégration et réhabilitation en société. Le nouveau rapport 1379 de la Coalition, lancé aujourd’hui à New York, est disponible sur le site internet de la coalitionà:www.child-soldiers.org

Pour  obtenir plus d’informations ou des entrevues à Nairobi, s’il vous plaît contacter Christina Clark, Responsable du Programme de la Coalition contre l’Utilisation des Enfants Soldats, c/o Save the Children Sweden au (257 2) 2711 282/272 0938, ANPPCAN au (257 2) 573 990 ou Kenya School of Monetary Studies au (254 2) 861177/802225. De l’extérieur du Kenya, vous pouvez rejoindre le Secrétariat International de la Coalition au :

+44(0)2077132761.

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WORKSHOP ON CHILD SOLDIERS IN THE GREAT LAKES OPENS IN NAIROBI AS
INTERNATIONAL REPORT LAUNCHED ON WORLD-WIDE USE OF CHILD SOLDIERS

Nairobi –

The Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers today opened a three-days workshop on the recruitment and use of children as soldiers in th Great Lakesregion.
This coincided with the Coalition’s international launch of their 195-page"naming and shaming" list of child soldier recruitment from New York in advance of a Security Council debate on children and armed conflict. Illegal recruitment and use of child soldiers in the Great Lakes region figures
prominently in the Coalition’s "1379 Report".

"While recognising that child soldiering is not simply an African issue, it is significant that our workshop brings together participants from countries
that have been identified as having a serious child soldier problem," said Coalition Programme Officer for Africa, Christina Clark.

Over forty representatives of local, regional and international organisations from Uganda, Burundi, Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda and Kenya have come together to discuss the problem of child soldiers in their respective countries and develop prevention strategies at national, regional and internationallevels.

"Preliminary conclusions from our first day indicate that some specific dynamics of the child soldier problem differ from country to country, but
that there are also cross-border dimensions that must be addressed at the regional level. We therefore look forward to proposing concerted strategies
and mechanisms to deal more holistically with the issue," said Espérance Musirimu, workshop facilitator and representative of International Human
Rights Law Group in Burundi.

Honourable Lady Justice Aluoch, Chair of the African Committee on the Rights
and Welfare of the Child, opened the workshop with reference to continental legal standards for the protection of children. Africa is the only region
in the world with its own regional standard that prohibits the use of all children as soldiers, as laid out in the African Charter on the Rights and
Welfare of the Child. However, preliminary conclusions from the on-going workshop echo concerns raised in the Coalition’s 1379 report that this policy is not yet applied in practice in the Great Lakesregion.

In order to promote greater implementation, the Coalition is coupling its "naming and shaming" report with a practical workshop to mobilize national
and regional networks to prevent the recruitment and use of children in conflict and promote their reintegration into societies.


BACKGROUND
The Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers works to prevent the recruitment and use of children under 18 as soldiers, to secure their demobilisation and to ensure their rehabilitation and reintegration into society. The Coalition’s new 1379 report, launched today in New York, is available on the coalition website at: www.child-soldiers.org.
For more information or interviews in Nairobi, please contact Christina Clark, Programme Officer for the Coalition to Stop the Use of Child
Soldiers, c/o Save the Children Sweden at - or the Kenya School of Monetary
Studies at 254 2 861177/802225. Outside Kenya, one can call the Coalition’s
International Secretariat at the above contact numbers.
Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers - InternationalSecretariat:
2-12 Pentonville Road, 2nd floor, London N1 9HF; Tel:+442077132761
Fax: +442077132794;

Email:info@child-soldiers.org;Web:www.child soldiers.org

PRESS RELEASE
7NOVEMBER2002
REPORT SHOWS WORLD-WIDE USE OF CHILD SOLDIERS - CALLS FOR UN ACTION

New York City –

The Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers today
released a 195-page report listing those governments and groups that use and recruit child soldiers, in advance of an coming United Nations Security Council debate on children and armed conflict.
"This report is a 'list of shame' for the armed groups and governments using boys and girls in their conflicts in defiance of international standards," said Casey Kelso, Coalition Coordinator.

The Coalition's "1379 Report" lists some 72 parties to armed conflict that are using children as soldiers and more than 25 others that have recruited children in the past and should be monitored. Twelve governments are named as recruiting or using children under 18 years old.

The report takes its title from UN Security Council Resolution 1379 of November 2001, which among other things requested Secretary-General Kofi Annan to compile a first-ever list of those governments and non-state armed groups that are using children in warfare. In the next few days, the UN Security Council will receive the Secretary-General's report and list, which will be the focus of the UN Security Council's debate about protecting children affected by armed conflicts. The debate is tentatively

scheduled for 20 November.
The Coalition's own report urges the Secretary-General and the Security
Council to ensure that Resolution 1379 is used to its maximum potential - recognising that some of the countries with the most severe child soldie problems, such as Myanmar, Colombia and Sri Lanka, are at serious risk of being excluded from the Secretary-General'sreport.
Children as young as eleven are forcibly recruited into Myanmar's national army. With an estimated 70,000 children in its ranks, it is the world's largest single user of child soldiers. In Colombia, there are an estimated 6,000 to 14,000 child soldiers.

Boys and girls as young as 8 years old
are recruited into armed groups, paramilitaries and militias. In Sri Lanka, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) has a long record of using child soldiers as well as a record of breaking commitments to end their recruitment and use. "We welcome the Security Council's initiative to review parties
recruiting and using child soldiers," said Coalition Coordinator Kelso. "But grave situations of children being pressed into the frontlines of war may
escape international scrutiny if ignored by the Security Council."

The Coalition's key recommendations to the Security Council are that: · The Security Council should make this debate an annual event, but wid the criteria for next year's list to encompass all situations in which children are used as soldiers. · The Security Council should take immediate action to make children's
rights a reality in the specific conflict situations that ithasexamined.

The Coalition makes a series of detailed recommendations on each of the 25 country situations examined in its report.
The Security Council should commit itself to follow up in 2003 on the parties named in this year's discussion, inviting these governments and groups as well as others, to explain their use of child soldiers and engage in a dialogue about how to end it.
The Security Council should evaluate progress made on these situations, ask for a six-month interim report, and commit itself to considering appropriate actions next year if progress has not been made. This could include the appointment of independent experts toexaminesituations.

The Security Council should make field visits to the gravest situations threatening children.The red-jacketed "1379 Report" is being launched one day before a major symposium involving governments, non-governmental organizations and academic experts concerned about children's rights during war. The event is hosted at UNICEF headquarters in New York and is sponsored by the Coalition, the Watchlist on Children in Armed Conflict and Harvard's
Program on Humanitarian Policy and Conflict Research. The symposium is supported by the Human Security Network grouping of nations, currently chaired by the Austrian government.

BACKGROUND
At the end of its debate on Children and Armed Conflict on 20 November
2001, the Security Council unanimously adopted Resolution 1379. That resolution contains far-reaching and comprehensive provisions for the inclusion of child protection concerns in the work of the Council, as well as in the work of peacekeeping and peace-building missions, UN agencies, international financial institutions and regional organisations.

Resolution 1379 requests the Secretary-General in paragraph 16 to attach to his future report on children and armed conflict, due 31 October 2002,
"...a list of parties to armed conflict that recruit or use children in violation of the international obligations applicable to them, in situations that are on the Security Council's agenda or that may be
brought to the attention of the Security Council by the Secretary-General, in accordance with Article 99 of the Charter of the United Nations, which in his opinion may threaten the maintenance of international peace and security".

The Coalition produced a methodology and detailed report on parties to conflict that recruit or use children as soldiers, interpreting "situations that are on the Security Council agenda" as including
current and recent situations on the agenda as well as long-standing issues and situations that are the subject of President's statements and letters.
In September 2002 the report was submitted to the Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Children and Armed Conflict (SRSG-CAC), who was
given the responsibility of compiling the list.
Extensive research was done on more than 180 countries and territories between 1999 and September 2002, building upon the country entries
contained in its 2001 Child Soldiers Global Report.

In preparing the alternative "1379 List", the Coalition asked national, regional and international organisations to provide information and check draft
entries in its research. The information in the report is current as of
September 2002. For more information or interviews in New York, please call the Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers at +44-7900-892552 or at the Amnesty International UN Office in New York at (212) 867-8878. Outside the USA,
one can call the Coalition's International Secretariat at the above contact numbers.

*The Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers recommended list for inclusion in the Security Council debate on Resolution 1379:
AFGHANISTAN(Taliban)
ANGOLA (Government armed forces, UNITA) BURUNDI (Government armed forces; CNDD-FDD; PALIPEHUTU-FNL;FROLINA)
COLOMBIA (AUC; AUSC; ACCU; ELN; FARC)
DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO (Government armed forces; Mai-Mai;RCD-ML;
RCD-Goma; MLC; RPA; UPDF)
ERITREA (Government armed forces)
GUINEA-BISSAU (Government armed forces)
INDIA (Lashkar-e-Taiba; BLTF; BSF; ULFA; PLA; UNLF;KNF;KNA;ZRO;NCSN;
TNVF; ATTF; NLFT; PWG; Sangh Parivar; Kanglei Yawol Kanna Lup (Oken
Faction); PGA)

INDONESIA (Government armed forces; government-allied paramilitaries ;
Indonesian pro-integration armed groups; GAM)
IRAQ (Government armed forces; KADAK / PKK)
LIBERIA (Government armed forces; government-organised militia; LURD)
MYANMAR (Government armed forces; DKBA; UWSA; SSA-South; KNLA; KnA;KIA; MNLA)
NEPAL (CPN-Maoist)
PAKISTAN (Taliban remaining in Afghanistan)
RUSSIAN FEDERATION (Armed groups in Chechnya)
RWANDA (Government armed forces; Interhamwe)
SIERRALEONE(RUF;AFRC)SRILANKA (LTTE)
SUDAN (Government armed forces; SSDF; pro-government militia; SPLM/A; LRA)
UGANDA (Government armed forces; LRA; ADF; Karamojong)
Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers - InternationalSecretariat:
2-12 Pentonville Road, 2nd floor, London N1 9HF; Tel:+442077132761
Fax: +442077132794;