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Explosive weapons highlighted at Security Council debate on children and armed conflict

Explosive weapons highlighted at Security Council debate on children and armed conflict

UNICEF and Save the Children highlighted the use of explosive weapons in populated areas as a key area of concern during the United Nations Security Council open debate on children and armed conflict on 17 June 2013.

The statement by Yoka Brandt, UNICEF Deputy Executive Director, included the use of explosive weapons in populated areas as one of two alarming trends, the other being the use of schools in military operations. UNICEF noted that:

“Armed conflicts frequently occur in urban settings. When explosive weapons such as artillery, mortars, rockets, improvised explosive devices and aircraft bombs are used in those areas, they kill or injure large numbers of children. Those attacks not only have a long-term emotional and psychological impact on children, but also destroy vital social infrastructure such as roads and power supplies. They deprive children of access to essential basic services, such as schools and hospitals, and, in the absence of immediate medical care, injuries can turn into life-long disabilities. We therefore urge all parties to conflict to adopt different tactics and rules of engagement. We urge that they neither position their troops among civilians nor target each other in the middle of villages, towns and cities. We urge that they adopt rules to guide how and where explosive weapons can be used.”

The statement by Gregory Ramm, Associate Vice-President of Save the Children, drew attention to the use of explosive weapons in populated areas as one of three areas of concern. Save the Children, a founding member of the International Network on Explosive Weapons, noted that:

“The use of explosive weapons in conflict has devastating consequences for children, who are killed and maimed in greater numbers as a result of such weapons. They are left with deep physical and psychological scars and are denied access to education and health care, owing to damaged infrastructure, and they end up displaced from their homes as families flee insecurity. In Syria, we witness those effects at first hand. As one little girl told us:

“At the beginning … there was no shelling at my school, but after some time the shelling started. I stopped going to school … It was not safe. I feel sad that my school was burned.”

Save the Children calls on States to refrain from the use of explosive weapons with wide area effects by revising and strengthening military policies and procedures; supporting the collection and sharing of data with the United Nations on the impact of such weapons on children; and holding to account those who use such weapons.”

During the debate Togo urged states not to forget the growing number of child victims from attacks with explosives, indiscriminate bombings, and the use of materials and other methods of warfare prohibited by international humanitarian law”.

For its part, the United Kingdom noted that the Secretary-General’s report “documents hideous violations — thousands of children killed and maimed by explosive weapons and continuous shelling…”.

The use of explosive weapons in populated areas has been raised consistently as a key concern for the protection of children in armed conflict. The UN Secretary-General and the UN Special Representative to the Secretary General for Children and Armed Conflict have raised the issue, calling on parties to refrain from using explosive weapons with wide area effects in populated areas and for systematic data collection on the use and impact of explosive weapons and analysis of the human cost.

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