Memorandum submitted by Save the Children
UK
RECOMMENDATIONS
— The UK Government should ensure that
the UN Peacebuilding Commission succeeds in its mission in each
country programme by establishing mechanisms for meaningful engagement
with NGOs and Civil Society groups.
— Peacebuilding must integrate development
programming with post-conflict assistance to ensure that the populations
are served with basic services and market opportunities in the
immediate and medium-term.
— Education programming is vital for
children and must be integrated into humanitarian response as
well as peacebuildign and reconstruction programmes.
— In demobilisation programmes, the
reintegration phase must be planned and resourced beforehand in
order to avoid the dangers of shortfalls and dissatisfaction at
the end of the process.
— All post-conflict work should take
measures to prevent the voluntary and forced recruitment of children
into armed forces, and work with communities to reintegrate children.
— A special pool of funding should
be established to meet girl's specific needs during demobilisation
and reintegration.
INTRODUCTION
1. Save the Children welcomes the invitation
to contribute evidence to the International Development Select
Committee in their inquiry on peacebuilding and post-conflict
reconstruction. The evidence from below is mainly from our original
research in West and Central Africa, as well as from around the
world.
2. In the UK Secretary of State's recent
remarks made on 23 January 2006, we appreciate the emphasis on
conflict prevention, and disaster risk reduction and we welcome
his personal dedication and engagement in this area. He is right
to highlight some of the successes of last year, as well as the
changes that are needed. However, the international community's
failure to protect children and their communities in Darfur, in
DRC, in North Uganda, in Colombia, and in Afghanistan are glaring.[140]
If post-conflict peacebuilding fails to address the specific vulnerabilities
of children, it fails to serve more than 50% of most refugee and
displaced populations.
3. The Peacebuilding Commission (PBC)
and the role of the UK
We endorse DFID's commitment to be a leader
in post-conflict peace building and to promote the security of
the poor. The UN High Level Panel in 2004 identified inadequate
peacebuilding as a major weakness in the international system.
The World Summit in 2005 committed world leaders to the establishment
of a new Peacebuilding Commission (PBC) and Peace Support Office
(PSO) to address this, an initiative which was partly driven by
the UK Government. In order to be able to promote lasting change,
there are a number of issues around the PBC that must be clarified.
4. NGO and civil society engagement
The PBC aims to bring together international
organisations such as the UN, the World Bank, and regional actors
with key roles to play in order to co-ordinate on peacebuilding.
However, the PBC shouldn't overlook the strategic role that local,
national and international NGOs play in supporting locally-owned
peace processes. Thus far NGOs have had little opportunity to
feed into discussions for the establishment for the Peacebuilding
Commission. Now that the UN General Assembly Resolution outlining
the modalities of the Commission has been passed, and the countries
for its implementation chosen, a UN-NGO forum must be set up in
each of the countries of implementation (Liberia, DRC and Sierra
Leone) to discuss function, modalities, and information exchange.
As yet there has been no indication as to how this will work.
5. The PBC has avoided articulating the
extent of the involvement of local civil society actors. This
is counterproductive; civil society involvement in conflict prevention
and peacebuilding is critical to its success, as no peacebuilding
work can be sustainable without substantial participation and
local ownership from the range of civil society groups. Mechanisms
should be set up at the local level to ensure civil society groups
are able to meaningfully shape the agenda of the PBC working in
their country so that community-led, livelihood-driven solutions
are arrived at.
6. Financing of peacebuilding
One of the expected outcomes of the PBC is that
more money will be leveraged to fund peacebuilding activities,
including DDRR programmes. As such, the PSO should ensure that
past mistakes are not repeated—for instance that DD is funded
to the neglect of RR. The full financial requirements of the PBC
and PSO must be realistically estimated if the bodies are not
merely being set up to fail.
7. Political Pressure for political problems
Conflict-related humanitarian crises are never
just about aid effectiveness, they are fundamentally political.
While prevention of conflict is the responsibility of national
governments, when this fails and conflict leads to serious violation
of human rights, the UK and other members of the UN Security Council
must not merely apply a "humanitarian aid plaster" but
must apply political pressure—both unilaterally and through
multilateral channels such as the UN—to hold governments
to account for the protection of children and vulnerable groups.
In this vein, the PBC must make formal links with the UN Human
Rights Council to ensure that evidence is acted upon.
8. For example, the conflict in Northern
Uganda has continued for nearly 20 years with almost total neglect
from the international community. Over 1.7 million people are
currently confined to internally displaced persons camps. Up to
40,000 children are forced to commute nightly from their villages
to sleep in centres of town to avoid abduction by the Lord's Resistance
Army (LRA). In 2002 the Government of Uganda launched Operation
Iron Fist, arguing that the only way to end the conflict was to
defeat the LRA militarily. The military solution focuses on the
physical eradication of the LRA, whose ranks are made up of at
least 80% abducted children. Typically the newest abductees and
the youngest children are the most likely to be killed during
military action.
9. In a recent manifesto produced by Save
the Children in Uganda and the Ugandan Parliamentary Forum for
Children, children were asked for their priorities for the country's
political candidates campaigning for the elections due to take
place in February 2006. The children's priorities were overwhelmingly
to allow for free and compulsory education for all children in
the country, and to end the war in the North.
10. There are common misconceptions that
the conflict in Northern Uganda is an internal problem for the
Government of Uganda. However, this is not just an internal conflict
but one with serious consequences for peace and security in the
region. The UK Government must push the Security Council to acknowledge
the fact that the conflict in Northern Uganda is a threat to regional
and international peace and security, endangering Southern Sudan's
peace and further destabilising Eastern DRC. Bringing the situation
to the agenda of the UN Security Council would allow for transparent
scrutiny and reporting on the political, military and humanitarian
situation in that country, and promote responsibility for action
rather than ignoring the problems any longer.
11. Applying lessons learned outside
of the country and across a region
The UK Government must more assertive about
ensuring continuity of learning from one DDRR process to another,
and developing mechanisms to ensure that all actors involved—Donors,
the UN Department of Peacekeeping, the World Bank, UN agencies,
International NGOs, local NGOs and community groups—learn
from previous mistakes. In West Africa, for example, a region
where the control of national borders is weak, and there is a
strong history of covert transport of arms, ammunition and mercenaries,
demobilisation and post-conflict reconstruction must be designed
with a regional perspective. If lessons from one process are not
applied, the problems will just keep shifting across borders but
conflict will remain ever-present. One of the reasons for this
lack of coherence is the carving up of West Africa donor by donor,
so that if the UK leads in Sierra Leone lessons will not be transferred
to the US who lead in Liberia.
12. Best practice for peacebuilding
The lessons from West Africa should also be
shared with planing for peacebuilding in other parts of Africa
and across the world. For decades there has been a large gap in
what constitutes best practice in post-conflict peacebuilding,
and what would maximise the chances for success. This is the role
of the Peace Support Office, which is set up partly to translate
best practice to the different actors involved, including donors,
the World Bank, and UN security, humanitarian and human rights
agencies. Donor governments must improve the joint analysis and
lesson learned amongst each other in-region. Meanwhile, the UK
government for its part, should also work to ensure that it is
better joined up between DFID, the Foreign Office, the Ministry
of Defence and the Post-Conflict Reconstruction Unit.
13. Responsibility to Protect
Learning the lessons from failures in Rwanda,
the Balkans and elsewhere over the past decade, the Responsibility
to Protect principles were endorsed at the World Summit in September
2005. This has the potential to be real milestone in terms of
International Community being accountable for the protection of
civilians against war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide.
At present, it is still unknown how the Responsibility to Protect
principles will apply in practice. It is clear that the international
community has significant responsibility to engage with strong
diplomatic and political pressure to any situation where there
have been gross violation of human rights, or where large numbers
of children face an imminent threat of serious harm or deprivation.
There is a range of options the UN Security Council is obliged
to explore, and the appropriate response will vary according to
the situation. However, the declaration at the end of the World
Summit was that these crises should be ignored no longer.
14. Development must be integral in successful
post-conflict and peacebuilding work
One of the key roles in the work of a conflict
prevention or peacebuilding forum should be to build sustainable
livelihoods for the whole community. In research supported by
Save the Children, carried out by the Tufts Feinstein International
Famine Center (2005) in Afghanistan, Sierra Leone, and Kosovo,
local perceptions of peace and security highlighted the importance
of development in the building of peace. "There is no peace
on an empty stomach", a respondent from Kosovo stated. Another
participant in Afghanistan echoed the perception to say "Peace
is jobs and electricity." Successful peacebuilding—and
local acceptance of the process—goes hand in hand with building
up basic services such as health, education, and infrastructure—and
ensuring people have access to them.
15. Youth unemployment, particularly among
people aged 15-35s, and the disaffection of youth was an important
contributing cause to the momentum of war in Sierra Leone, as
it has been in Liberia and Cote d'Ivoire and around the world.
A meaningful approach to post-conflict peacebuilding will go beyond
limited exercises in military disarmament to address some of the
critical issues of structural poverty in order to ensure that
the populations—especially vulnerable groups such as children—are
served with basic services and market opportunities to improve
their lives.
16. In the case of Sierra Leone, DFID's
work has recently changed to also look at social development,
anti-corruption, private sector regulations, and justice reform.
This longer-term support to systems to protect people's rights
is welcomed. This kind of approach should be part and parcel of
any DDRR planning process in the initial stages, in any future
peacebuilding work.
17. Take a long-term approach to reintegration
Roughly half of the countries that emerge from
war fall back into violence within the first five years. The successful
demobilisation of fighters has emerged as one of the most important
aspects to secure post-conflict peace. However, as of yet, the
international community's approach to disarmament, demobilisation,
rehabilitation and reintegration (DDRR) has been ad-hoc, and at
times so disorganised and underfunded as to be counter-productive.
Reintegration requires long-term planning and a minimum five-year
investment on the part of donors. As of 2005 the DDRR programme
in Liberia faced a 63% shortfall, in Afghanistan this was 51%
and in DRC a shocking 88%.[141]
The gap is particularly apparent when it comes to the demobilisation
of children associated with fighting forces.
18. Do not overlook children in reintegration
processes
300,000 children have been identified as child
soldiers.[142]
The number is probably far higher—in at least 60 countries
children have been recruited into armies, militias and rebel factions
between 2001 and 2004.[143]
Children associated with armed forces serve not only as active
combatants (often in front-line/pawn roles) but also as porters,
cleaners, cooks, mine-layers or used for sexual exploitation .
Nearly half of these children—some 120,000—are girls,
who face atrocious abuse and intense stigmatisation. Many are
killed in fighting; most are raped and sexually abused.[144]
19. The importance of education
In addition, nearly all of these children miss
out on education, which serves both as a risk factor and as an
incentive to fight. Hundreds of thousands of children who miss
out on education in the first year of conflict will never go back
to school. This leaves them without access to the protection and
sense of normality that school affords and severely limits their
options for the future. Education must be integral to initiatives
for resolution and prevention of armed conflict, post-conflict
resolution, peacebuilding and the promotion of security. The UK
government should commit to providing education for children as
an integral component of every humanitarian response and use the
minimum standards for education in emergencies as the framework
for ensuring quality.
20. Education programmes should benefit
the whole community. Donor's strategy on education should addressing
the educational needs of younger children as well as building
livelihoods for adolescents, particularly girls with babies, in
order to prevent exploitation and re-recruitment of children either
nationally or across regional borders. Rather than targeting education
of individual children from particular groups, implementers should
take measures that will benefit a wider range of children in the
community for instance by re-building school infrastructure, initiating
teacher training and providing free school meals. Accelerated
learning programmes must be set up for children who have missed
out on schooling, and educational options provided for girls with
childcare responsibilities. Skills training meanwhile can be used
to improve household livelihoods. However it's vital while doing
this that a wide range of skills training is addressed and such
programmes are founded on sound market research on the demand
for the skills developed. Start-up kits should be followed-up
with continued support.
21. Prevention of Recruitment
As the Secretary of State has rightly emphasised,
the prevention of conflict is much more cost effective than putting
off the engagement until after the fighting has erupted. The UK
Government should build on the investments made to date on early
warning functions and focus on how to prevent the conditions for
recruitment of children, particularly child soldiers. In Save
the Children's research from West and Central Africa, addressing
both voluntary and forced recruitment, hundreds of children and
associated adults identified the strategies for preventing this
recruitment. Six priority areas for the UK government and international
community should be:
— Ensuring children remain with their
families where possible.
— Ensuring children have proper care
and protection at a national level.
— Reducing the household poverty that
pushes many children into armed forces or groups.
— Giving children viable options such
as schooling or skills-training.
— Provide adequate assistance and security
to lessen people's vulnerability to attacks and forced recruitment.
— Develop community and household-level
emergency preparedness plans so that strategies are in place for
responding to attacks and safely escaping if necessary.
22. In places where children are at risk
of forced recruitment, the International Community has responsibility
on two levels. First, any international interventions in development
or humanitarian aid must be designed to ensure that they build
upon the children's and the community's established coping strategies.
One example of this would be assistance to radio broadcasts and
other means to establish good information networks; this would
allow prior knowledge of troop movements or attacks to be quickly
shared with communities, enabling them to plan departures if necessary.
Here, involvement of community leaders, teachers, parents and
the children themselves are key. Another example is to develop
programming to reinforce the security in places to which people
flee, such as funding child rights training for local police enforcers
and peacekeepers charged with securing camps for displaced people,
or ensuring peacekeeping mandates address civilian protection
from the point of view of human security. The provision of adequate
levels and standards of humanitarian aid are key to these efforts
to avoid putting people in a position where they are vulnerable
to exploitation.
23. National governments in particular have
the responsibility to ensure the safety of all children in their
country, particularly those who might become vulnerable due to
displacement, separation, marginalisation or extreme poverty.
In the case of a national government being unable or unwilling
to protect their populations from forced recruitment and attacks—or
when the government is complicit in the abuses—then the
international community, led by the members of the UN Security
Council, has the responsibility to protect the most vulnerable.
Strong political pressure in a range of forms must come to bear
on governments or armed groups who continue to engage in tactics
that violate humanitarian law or trample on the rights of children.
24. Demobilisation: Reintegration must
be planned and resourced beforehand
The success of current DDRR programmes is still
often measured by the number of weapons collected rather than
the successful reintegration of former combatants. The reintegration
of children is usually left to NGOs and UNICEF, and is invariably
underfunded. Donors tend to fund "DD" but by the time
that the "RR" phase comes along, the money has run out.
This is counterproductive, as ex-combatant's dissatisfaction with
the process and their economic marginalisation are two key reasons
why conflict flares up once again.
25. It is important for Donors to recognise
that children need reintegration regardless of formal DDRR processes.
Children leave armed forces all the time—whether or not
a formal international DDRR process is underway. In Northern Uganda
for instance, children are continually trying to escape the clutches
of the LRA. Donors must invest in long-term reintegration activities,
regardless of a formal DDRR process.
26. Differentiate DDRR: particularly
addressing the special need of girls
Children's needs will vary according to factors
such as gender, age, disability, ethnicity, and experiences during
the war. DDRR programmes must recognise that different groups
of children have particular needs that must be addressed in the
reintegration process, including the different needs of boys and
girls. Despite research showing that girls make up to 40% of all
children involved with armed groups, only a few girls participate
in formal DDRR processes. For example, in Save the Children's
child reintegration programme in the Democratic Republic of Congo
(DRC) fewer that 2% of the participants have been girls. In Sierra
Leone, just 4.2% of the girls known to have been in fighting forces
went through the formal DDRR process. In interviews, girls said
that they were put off by the military orientation of the DDRR
process. Moreover, they believed that involvement in the process
would highlight the fact that they were in an armed groups and
increases the chance that they will be stigmatised. With little
support and intense resentment from the communities, many girls
are forced to turn to sex work, making them even more stigmatised
and isolated.[145]
27. Girls in interviews have identified
a number of ways that the international community can better help
them. At the top of the list is mediation with their communities
and families to explain that the girls were coerced into joining
the group; this understanding would greatly help reunification
with the community. Close behind in priorities were assistance
in establishing and maintaining livelihoods, based on an analysis
of local markets, and access to schools and skills training. Medical
tests and assistance—especially related to reproductive
health and sexually transmitted diseases were also considered
very important. Few of these services are currently provided for
girls in standard DDRR projects. A special pool of funding should
be established to meet girls' specific needs during demobilisation
and reintegration. Such funds must be independent of any formal
DDRR or political processes.
28. DDRR benefits must be inclusive
All children associated with armed conflict
should be made eligible for DDRR, whether they have served as
combatants or not. Boys and girls suffering similar deprivation
to children who have served as combatants must receive comparable
benefits. In some communities, ex-child soldiers are treated with
a degree of hostility, often enhanced by resentment about benefits
from the DDRR process. Reintegration should be as inclusive as
possible, building on children's strong desire to be reunited
with their families once more. Donor's programmes should be carefully
designed at the reintegration phase to ensure that ex-child soldiers
are not favoured to the extent that they are resented by others
in the community. It is essential that any reintegration programmes
are seen to benefit the community as a whole.
29. Involve communities and children
in planning
Research undertaken in Sierra Leone in 2004
indicated that children defined reintegration as being loved and
cared for by their families, being accepted and welcomed by the
community, living in peace and unity with others, having their
basic needs, such as food, shelter and water, met, and being able
to make productive contributions through skills training, school
or work.[146]
Family and community support are vital to ensure children get
the necessary help to reintegrate after conflict. Research suggests
that particularly girls are better reached by addressing community
needs for reasons related to their testimonies above—for
establishing community protection networks, reintegration into
schools, skills training, and avoiding stigmatisation. Save the
Children's research into children who resist recruitment highlighted
the essential role played by parents and community leaders on
many levels. Donors such as the UK Government should ensure that
reintegration packages engage a range of stakeholders in shaping
and supporting them, including the children themselves, community
leaders and teachers. Children's views should be taken into consideration
at all times. Community leaders and teachers should become positive
forces in shaping attitudes towards ex-child soldiers and single
mothers. Donors should also support NGOs in work with communities
in order to address social stigmatisation.
30. Follow-up protection for demobilised
or separated children
Children face a number of problems in the reintegration
into their communities. Save the Children's experience has highlighted
the need for children to be provided with follow-up protection
and monitoring in the months and years following reintegration.
All efforts should be made to reunite a separated child with one
or both of their biological parents. Where this is not possible
there needs to be careful placement and follow-up support for
children in extended family care, including assistance with livelihoods
and schooling. However, assumptions should not be made that reunification
with relatives means that children are automatically protected.
Boys and girls who return to live with extended families can still
be highly vulnerable to neglect and abuse. Meanwhile in the case
of children who have been fostered by other families, they risk
being marginalised or abandoned if the household experiences a
change of circumstances or economic hardship. Children who are
separated from their families may have lost their registration
papers, their birth certificates, their access to school, with
few defenders in the face of increased risks. This can leave them
vulnerable to street gangs, trafficking, and to exploitative labour
practices.
31. Public Information Campaigns
In a precarious post-conflict situation, rumours
and misinformation can set off riots, population movements, or
even spark new violence. Donors should do more to support public
information campaigns that creatively and directly transmit key
information, such as outlining all of the steps involved in rehabilitation
and reintegration. The provision of accurate and timely information
about reintegration programmes would help to ensure that children
receive the benefits they are eligible for, and avoid engendering
disappointment. Donors and implementing agencies must be honest
about the limitations in service provision; they must not make
promises that can't be kept, as this can feed cynicism and resentment,
possibly contributing to attitudes towards re-recruitment of child
soldiers.
Save the Children Emergencies Section
January 2006
140 Save the Children defines "child" as
any person below the age of 18 years. Back
141
Save the Children UK: Forgotten Casualties of War: Girls in
armed conflict, 2005. Back
142
UN Office of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict. Back
143
Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers. Back
144
Save the Children UK: Forgotten Casualties of War: Girls in
armed conflict, 2005. Back
145
Save the Children UK: Forgotten Casualties of War: Girls in
armed conflict, 2005. Back
146
Save the Children UK: Forgotten Casualties of War: Girls in
armed conflict, 2005. Back
| 
