Lanka faces challenges in protecting young
Speech by Mahinda Samarasinghe, Minister of Disaster Management
and Human Rights at the ‘Promotion and Protection of the Rights of
Children’, held at the 62nd Session of the General Assembly of the
Untied Nations, New York on October 17, 2007.
Since Independence, Sri Lankan Governments have consistently accorded
priority to investment in a better future for our children. Sound social
policies and legal measures have been introduced for the promotion and
protection of the rights of our children.
Our aim has been, and continues to be, to assure that all children in
Sri Lanka have access to the full range of opportunities needed to
maximise their potential; and to provide them a safe, secure and
protective environment during every stage of their development, from
early childhood, through learning years and adolescence.
Consistent investment in universal access to education from primary
school through university has resulted
Innocent minds : LTTE’s baby brigade |
in high rates of enrolment and literacy in Sri Lanka. We are
already on par with the Millennium Development Goals for primary
education, school gender parity, and reproductive health services.
Net primary school enrolment ratio for both boys and girls is over 95
per cent the proportion reaching grade five has exceeded 95 per cent the
literacy rate for 15 to 24 year olds is over 95 per cent for both males
and females. Sri Lanka is on track in reaching the target of universal
primary education well before 2015.
Sri Lanka has already eliminated gender disparity in both primary and
junior secondary education, the parity index being nearly 100 per cent.
In senior secondary and tertiary levels, the share of girls is even
higher than that of boys. There is no disparity in literacy between men
and women, the parity being 100.9 per cent.
Child mortality and maternal mortality in Sri Lanka have recorded
reductions to levels that are considerably low and comparable with those
in some developed countries. Immunization coverage has been sustained
over 80 per cent. About 96 per cent of births occur in health
institutions and are attended by skilled personnel.
The system of free education and an effective public health system
introduced in the 1940s have resulted in Sri Lanka continuing to record
considerable progress in social development during the post independence
years, and despite being a lower middle income country, Sri Lanka ranks
above most countries in HDI ranking at similar levels of income.
Although we have made significant strides in improving the lives of
our children, our achievements have been undermined by the forced
recruitment of children by a terrorist group which has been banned by
several member States of the UN including the member States of the
European Union, USA, Canada, and India. More recently, breakaway
factions of this terrorist group have also reportedly engaged in this
shameful practice.
We are appreciative of the efforts of the Secretary-General’s Special
Representative on Children and Armed Conflict, Radhika Coomaraswamy, and
UNICEF, for their efforts in helping children in Sri Lanka, and for
their Reports and Recommendations in relation to the recruitment of
children.
We continue to work closely with the Office of the Special
Representative of the Secretary-General on Children and Armed Conflict,
as well as the Working Group of the Security Council established
pursuant to Security Council Resolution 1612 in addressing the issue of
the recruitment of children.
The Government, in keeping with its commitment to the zero-tolerance
policy on child recruitment, is taking all possible measures to stop
this practice in accordance with the recommendations made by the Working
Group of the Security Council on Children and Armed Conflict. We are
fully committed to the rehabilitation and reintegration of former child
combatants who have escaped from the captivity of armed groups.
A Committee under the leadership of a senior Government official has
been established to take measures to initiate inquiries on, and monitor
investigations into, allegations regarding the recruitment and abduction
of children.
The Committee, which reports to me, is also mandated to recommend
measures necessary to ensure the smooth functioning and timely
completion of any investigations, and monitor and recommend steps to
assure that released children have access to facilities and procedures
aimed at their protection, rehabilitation and reintegration.
In addition, the Committee will make recommendations relating to
educational programmes for members of the Security Forces on the
domestic implementation of Sri Lanka’s international obligations under
the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on
the involvement of Children in Armed Conflict. I am pleased to report
that this Committee has already met three times and its work is well
under way.
Terrorist groups operating in my country, however, have not ceased
recruitment of children; nor have they taken steps to release children
held in their custody despite commitments given to the Special
Representative of the Secretary-General on Children and Armed Conflict,
and to UNICEF.
Moreover, some children who are released by these groups are
re-recruited by them once again. We have often seen the main terrorist
group promising to release child combatants only to find that these
promises are without substance and merely cynical attempts aimed to
appease the international community and to gain positive media exposure.
Sri Lanka has a strict legal framework to protect children from
forced recruitment, but as you will appreciate, terrorist groups
function outside this framework in blatant disregard of national and
international norms. The key challenge for us, therefore, is to ensure
that all children of Sri Lanka are protected from predation by armed
terrorist groups.
Sri Lanka’s children have suffered for long years due to this
detestable practice. Recruitment of children for use in armed combat
undermines our best efforts towards the welfare and protection of
children.
We urge the international community to initiate a process to find
ways and means of taking resolute action to arrest the practice of
recruitment of children for use in armed conflict. We also call upon the
international community to seek ways to assist initiatives taken at
national level by countries like mine to rehabilitate and reintegrate
children who are released from the clutches of terrorist groups.
The Government of Sri Lanka is fully committed to rehabilitate and
reintegrate these children. A legal regime has been introduced in this
regard, and pursuant to these regulations, a rehabilitation camp has
been established. However, the rehabilitation and reintegration of
children whose innocent minds have been abused and brainwashed for years
by ruthless terrorists, is indeed a challenge for us.
The task becomes even more challenging as it also entails ensuring a
protective environment for the reintegration of children through
successful family reunification, access to health, education, vocational
training, income generating activities and psycho-social care.
This also involves livelihood support and the upliftment of the
standard of living of people who live in areas afflicted by conflict.
Towards this end, the Government has launched several projects, in
particular in the Eastern Province.
The situation in Sri Lanka presents us with a great deal of
challenges, but at the same time provides us with an opportunity to
guarantee the protection of all our children from all forms of violence
and exploitation, wherever it may occur. |