On
Children &
Conflict, Some
on SC Say
Stick to
Agenda, Cite
US Afghan
Shooting
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
September 18
-- On the eve
of the big
Children and
Armed
Conflict
session of
Germany's
presidency of
the UN
Security
Council,
some Council
members were
still
questioning
the draft
resolution to
be adopted.
This is their
story.
Colombia,
which
has long
resisted the
UN engaging
with the FARC
rebels on this
issue and
thereby
legitimating
them, told
Inner City
Press that the
phrase
"persistent
perpetrators"
must be
limited to
situations on
Annex 1 of the
report, on the
agenda of the
Security
Council: that
is, not
Colombia.
Other
opponents
point to the
March 2012
shooting -- by
the U.S. -- in
Afghanistan in
which of 16
killed, nine
were children,
and note that
the Special
Representative
of the
Secretary
General on
Children and
Armed
Conflict,
Radhika
Coomaraswamy,
did not speak
out against
it.
The opponents
charge double
standards.
NGOs
are, not
surprisingly,
sounding the
alarm that for
the first time
the
eight years of
the mandate, a
resolution
might not be
unanimous.
They might
also want to
consider the
push back from
last week when
Gerard Araud
of France said
in closed
consultations
that he is
proud
to be able to
denigrate
religion, as
quoted by one
of the
opponents.
The
way one put it
to Inner City
Press, with
three Asian,
perhaps an
honorary Asian
in
Azerbaijan and
one of the two
Latinos - that
would be
Colombia, not
Guatemala --
do they have
enough?
On
the other
hand, the CAAC
mandate was
NOT merged
with Sexual
Violence
and Conflict,
as some
wanted. Watch
this site.
, 
