The Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict, Leila Zerrougui, today welcomed the adoption of the United Nations Security Council’s Resolution 2225, following the 15-member Council’s unanimous approval of the draft, which the Permanent Mission of Malaysia to the United Nations sponsored, along with 55 co-sponsors.
The measure adds “abduction” to the “trigger” violations that, if committed against children by a Government armed force or non-State armed group, would lead to that party’s inclusion in the annexes of the Secretary-General’s Annual Report on Children and Armed Conflict. The annexes contain a list of parties that are found to have committed one or more of the now-five trigger violations. The Security Council has identified a total of six grave violations. The annexes supplement the body of the annual report, which details information gathered by experts in the field on the grave violations against children in conflict situations around the world.
Commenting on the adoption of resolution 2225, SRSG Zerrougui said:
“I would like to thank the members of the Security Council for expanding the toolbox, thereby allowing us to better address the incidence of rising abductions of children in conflict zones.
“Abduction of children in large numbers was a growing and prevalent feature of conflict in 2014. We will need to scale-up our response to this increasing threat, and resolution 2225 is a vital step in that direction.”
Note to editors: Click here for text in English of SRSG Zerrougui’s address before the Security Council today.
Click here for the Secretary-General’s Annual Report on Children and Armed Conflict, released June 2015
For further information, please contact:
Steven Edwards
Office of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict
Tel: +1 212 963-2383
edwards@un.org
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