9th February, 2007

Representatives of 58 countries have committed themselves to ending the unlawful recruitment and use of children in armed conflicts.

The commitment was made in Paris this week at a two-day conference hosted by the French Government and international agency for children, UNICEF.

The conference heard that an estimated 250,000 children are involved in armed conflicts globally where they are used as combatants, messengers, spies, porters, cooks and to perform sexual services.

Reports said that signatories to the commitments included 10 of the 12 nations where children are known to bear arms including the African nations of Burundi, Chad, Ivory Coast, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Somalia, Sudan and Uganda, the South American nation of Colombia and Nepal and Sri Lanka in Asia. According to reports, two other nations on a UN blacklist of nations where children bear arms - the Philippines and Burma - did not take part.

Alongside the commitment to end the recruitment of child ‘soldiers’, the conference also saw the unveiling of the Paris Principles, a set of detailed guidelines for protecting children from recruitment and for providing assistance to those already involved with armed forces or groups.

~ www.unicef.org

- DAVID ADAMS