(MENAFN- Kuwait News Agency (KUNA)) By Nawab Khan BRUSSELS, April 12 (KUNA) -- A top United Nation's official praised Kuwait as a "strong and positive force" in the world body.
"Kuwait is a very strong and a very positive force in the UN Security Council.
Kuwait is also a member of the working group on children and armed conflict of the Security Council in New York and they are very active and positive member," the Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict, Ms. Virginia Gamba told KUNA, in an interview in Brussels.
"On the other hand Kuwait is also a member of the coalition in support of the legitimate government in Yemen.
It is one of the 12 countries that have supported the government of Yemen," she noted.
Kuwait was elected in 2017 as a non-permanent member of the UNSC for a two-year term, which started in January 2018.
Gamba was in Brussels to launch a global campaign called "Act to protect children affected by conflict" in the European Parliament on Wednesday.
It was launched in New York last week and now the launch for the Asia region will be done soon.
This campaign aims to call attention to the six grave violations against children in times of armed conflict: recruitment of children, killing and maiming of children, sexual violence against children, abductions of children, attacks on schools and hospitals at times of war and denial of humanitarian assistance to children at times of war.
"A better understanding will lead to action at national, regional and international levels.
More actions are needed to protect children and to ensure that programmes are put in place to prevent their victimization in the first place," said Gamba from Argentina who brings more than 30 years of experience and professional leadership on issues relative to disarmament, peace and human security.
She described the problem of children affected by armed conflict as "very acute." Last year alone there have been over 24,000 violations against children.
She said an armed conflict could mean military clashes but also involvement of armed groups like in Nigeria where the Boko Haram is abducting and killing children although there is no war in the country.
In the Middle East, her office covers the situation in Iraq, Syria, Yemen, Lebanon, and Palestine, Israel.
In Syria there has been a huge number of children suffering because the conflict that began in 2011 has a lot of international actors and many armed groups, which use extreme violence, she said.
"In Yemen there has been a lot of child violations. I would say that since 2014 till today there have been 7,300 verified killing and maiming of children and a huge number of children recruited," the UN diplomat told KUNA.
"The recruitment of children in Yemen has been overwhelmingly responsibility of the Houthis who have recruited hundreds of children.
The situation in Iraq was very hard and had a huge number of children casualties mostly when Daesh (so-called Islamic State IS) was strongly operative in the country especially in Mosul.
Daesh (IS) specialized in the recruitment of children. After their defeat there has been a drop in the number of figures of child recruitment, she said.
According to UN standard, a person below 18 years of age is considered to be a child solider.
The UN official said she has visited Saudi capital Riyadh twice where the Coalition military headquarters is based.
She concluded by saying that until the end of 2022, the ACT to protect campaign will advocate for more tangible actions and commitments ranging from how to provide justice and to ensure proper reintegration programming is put in place for children released from armed groups and armed forces. (end) nk.mb
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