Mr. President,

It is an honour for me to address the Security Council once again on an issue of great significance to international peace and security, as well as of great moral responsibility. I should like to begin my remarks to the Council by first expressing my profound appreciation and respect for the work undertaken by the Secretary-General's Special Representative for Children in Armed Conflict, Mr. Olara Otunnu, who has travelled extensively, meeting with representatives of many countries to discuss the situation of children in armed conflict underscoring the need to respect the rights of children and to take resolute action to ensure that those rights are fully respected. Indeed, the international community should undertake to pursue such respect with all determination and perseverance, both in words and through action.

The nature of armed conflict has clearly changed over the past years, as civilian populations have now become targets and now approximately 90 percent of casualties of war are civilians, mainly women and children. The numbers of civilian casualties in any given conflict are astounding and compel a response from the international community. One of the most alarming trends relating to children and armed conflicts is their participation as active soldiers. Children as young as 8 years of age are being forcibly recruited, coerced and induced to become combatants. Manipulated by adults, children have been drawn into violence that they are too young to resist and with consequences they cannot imagine.

Child soldiers are recruited in many different ways. Some are conscripted, others are press-ganged or kidnapped, and still others are forced to join armed groups to defend their families. Sometimes, children become soldiers simply in order to survive. Indeed, a military unit can be something of a refuge, serving as a kind of surrogate family. Children may join if they believe that this is the only way to guarantee regular meals, clothing or medical attention.

In this regard, Indonesia believes that the international community must commit itself to undertaking the necessary effective measures for the prevention of armed conflict. This essentially calls for a serious and sustained commitment to address the socio-economic factors which in the first instance prompt armed conflict and exacerbate ethnic and other social divisions.

In those instances where the international community has proved unsuccessful in preventing violence and armed conflict from erupting, all nations should commit themselves to strengthening international efforts to ensure that the rights of children, as guaranteed under various international commitments and humanitarian law, are fully respected. We should be clear in understanding that the protection of children is the responsibility of each government. At the same time, we must recognize that it is also a legitimate concern of the international community.

We see it fit therefore to incorporate the aspect of children in armed conflicts in peacekeeping, peace-building and humanitarian undertakings. In this context, the situation of children should be better addressed in the establishment and implementation of peace agreements and in relief and protection measures. All peace agreements should include specific measures to demobilize and reintegrate child soldiers into society. There is an urgent need for the international community to support programmes, including advocacy and social services, for the demobilization and community reintegration of child soldiers. However, Indonesia would caution that we must avoid politicization for extraneous motives in the international endeavours to protect children, which would jeopardize effective action on their behalf.

At national levels, the conscription of children as actors in war should be condemned, and the immediate demobilization of children ensured. To that end, governments should enact legislation to prohibit the recruitment of minors in armed conflict and together launch a global campaign that would bring an end to such practices, and to rehabilitate and reintegrate children into society.

As near universal ratification of the Convention on the Rights of the Child has been achieved, we nevertheless should continue to call on all States to become a party and for all States Party to implement the Convention fully, to cooperate closely with the Committee on the Rights of the Child and to comply in a timely manner with their reporting obligations under the Convention. I would underline that when implementing the Convention on the Rights of the Child, special attention should be given to policies for health, nutrition, education, the improvement of family income and the creation of employment. Thus, we can simultaneously address the root causes which hamper the genuine enjoyment of rights, namely poverty, economic constraints and underdevelopment.

I would recall that the Commission on Human Rights did, inter alia, urge all governments to promote gender and age-appropriate mine awareness programmes and child-centred rehabilitation, which would reduce the numbers and plight of child victims. Today, children in at least 68 countries live amid the threat of more than 110 million landmines still lodged in the ground, awaiting an unwary step. Added to this are millions of unexploded ordnance (UXO) - bombs, shells, grenades that failed to detonate. Like landmines, UXOs are indiscriminate weapons that are triggered by innocent and unsuspecting passers-by. I would, therefore, like to encourage the UN Mine Action Service to continue to take into account the specific situation of children and child victims. In this connection, Governments should immediately enact comprehensive national legislation to ban the production, use, trade and stockpiling of landmines and support the campaign for a worldwide ban.

Indonesia believes that states should contribute constructively in the negotiations on an optional protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child, with a view to strengthening the convention. As the landmark report prepared by Ms. Graca Machel so pointedly illustrated, for too long the consequences for children have been tolerated as an unfortunate side-effect of war, whereas the reality has become children are increasingly targets and not incidental victims. The specific recommendations made in that report on sexual exploitation and gender-based violence, should be realized. For its part, the Security Council has a specific responsibility to address issues pertaining to the protection of civilian populations, and in particular children in armed conflict. Likewise, refugee and displaced persons camps, sought as havens from conflict and strife, should be made secure and designed to improve the security of women and girls in particular.

Mr. President,

The Security Council is in a good position to address this fundamental challenge to the response of the Organization to situations of armed conflict, by endorsing the recommendations made in the report issued by Graca Machel, in extending its full support to the Special Representative for Children in Armed Conflict, and by committing itself to incorporating the concerns of children in all future resolutions on situations of armed conflict.

In so doing, the Security Council would lend force and meaningful action to the moral voice of the United Nations, while at the same time moving in furtherance of its noble goals, namely the maintenance of international peace and security. Thank you.