FNs generalsekretær Ban Ki-moon har netop lanceret en storstilet kampagne for at få medlemslandene til at ratificere FN-traktater, der beskytter børn mod trafficking, prostitution, pornografi og væbnet konflikt.
Traktaterne har været på plads i FN-systemet i 10 år, men kun 2/3 af medlemslandene har ratificeret (statsretligt tiltrådt) dem. Nu skal resten følge trop inden 2012.
Desværre er ratificeringen langt fra nok til at vende udviklingen, men det er et nødvendigt skridt på vejen til at sikre børns menneskerettigheder og sender et klart signal til FNs medlemslande om, at børnesoldater, prostitution og trafficking er aldeles uacceptabelt i det internationale samfunds øjne.
VERDENS BØRN LIDER
“The sad truth is that too many children in today’s world suffer appal-ling abuse,” he told a ceremony at the headquarters of the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) in New York.
The ceremony marked the tenth anniversary of the adoption of the two optional protocols strengthening the Convention on the Rights of the Child by providing a moral and legal shield for youngsters vulnerable to prostitution and pornography or caught up in armed conflict.
BØRN I KRIG
Mr. Ban cited recent advances: the release three months ago by the Maoist army in Nepal, under UN supervision, of more than 2.000 soldiers who had been recruited as children; the UN-assisted freeing of children from the ranks of armed groups in Ivory Coast; the prosecution by the International Criminal Court (ICC) of former Congolese militia leader Thomas Lubanga for war crimes against children.
He noted, too, that fewer and fewer States now permit children to join the armed forces and reiterated his previous calls to the Security Council to consider tough measures on those States and insurgent groups that still recruit children.
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