Günter Gloser, the Minister of State for Europe, will represent the German EU Presidency at the multilateral "Free Children from War" conference in Paris, which commences on 5 February. The conference has been organized at the initiative of France and UNICEF, and brings together representatives from over 60 countries, NGOs and civil society.
Conference participants will look at the situation of children in armed conflicts. The purpose of the conference is the adoption of a political declaration in which participating states commit themselves to give more protection to children who are involved in armed conflict. A comprehensive catalogue of measures and recommendations to prevent the forced recruitment of child soldiers and to promote their demobilization and reintegration into society will also be presented at the conference.
Minister of State Gloser has stated that "We welcome and support this initiative to protect children in armed conflicts. It is important in that it gives additional momentum to efforts already being undertaken in this area, especially at the United Nations level. It also raises public awareness for this widespread and blatant abuse of children's human rights which currently affects up to 300,000 children worldwide."
In the past, the Federal Government has also repeatedly supported, both politically and financially, the fight against the deployment of child soldiers. Recently, it reaffirmed this commitment by helping finance the update to the Machel report. Ten years ago, this report was to give the issue of child soldiers a prominent place on the United Nations' agenda for the first time.
In 2003, the European Union adopted its own guidelines on children and armed conflict. These guidelines define the promotion and respect of children's rights as a priority of the EU's international human rights policy and contain proposals for practical measures. In 2006, the guidelines were supplemented by an implementation strategy. As holder of the EU Presidency, Germany will make every effort to ensure that this strategy is put into practice as quickly as possible.
