UN votes to monitor child soldiers, abuses in war

UNITED NATIONS, (Reuters) The U.N. Security Council unanimously adopted a resolution on Tuesday to monitor nations or rebel groups that kill, maim and sexually abuse children in war zones or recruit them as soldiers.

The name-and-shame measure aimed at protecting millions of children had been delayed since February, with China and others arguing that countries not yet on the 15-member body's agenda could not be monitored, council members said.

In a compromise, the resolution this year would monitor nations or rebel groups operating in Burundi, Ivory Coast, Congo Republic, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Somalia and Sudan. In 2006, the monitoring would expand to Colombia, Myanmar, Nepal, Philippines, Sri Lanka and Uganda.

"The Security Council is deeply concerned over the lack of overall progress on the ground, where parties to conflict continue to violate with impunity ... international law relating to the rights and protection of children in armed conflict," the resolution says.

Olara Otunnu, the U.N. official in charge of tracking children in war zones, who proposed the system, foresees a U.N.-led task force, to be established in phases, that would encourage the council to take action against the perpetrators. "Today, as never before, we have the necessary norms, institutions and means to realize the 'era of application' for the protection of all children exposed to armed conflict," he said in a statement.

A council working group would review how well the monitoring and reporting would work but no additional resolution is needed to expand the survey next year to countries and rebel groups not on the council's agenda. In the last decade 2 million children have been killed during an armed conflict and another 6 million have been disabled or injured, Otunnu said.

"Abductions are becoming widespread and brazen, as we have witnessed, for example, in northern Uganda, Nepal and Burundi," he said. Unusual for the United Nations, Otunnu in February drew up a report of child combatants with a list of offenders, both government and insurgent rebel groups. Among them are the LTTE in Sri Lanka, the Janjaweed of Sudan and the Communist Party of Nepal.

His report reviewed developments in a dozen countries where children were killed, maimed, attacked in schools and hospitals, raped and abducted during an armed conflict.