EU — UN Convention on the Rights of the Child on the involvement of children in armed conflicts

State­ment by High Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Cather­ine Ash­ton on the 10th anniver­sary of the Option­al Pro­to­cols to the UN Con­ven­tion on the Rights of the Child on the involve­ment of chil­dren in armed con­flicts and on the sale of chil­dren, child pros­ti­tu­tion and child pornog­ra­phy Cather­ine Ash­ton, the High Rep­re­sen­ta­tive of the Union for For­eign Affairs and Secu­ri­ty Pol­i­cy and Vice-Pres­i­dent of the Com­mis­sion, made the fol­low­ing statement:

“While mark­ing the 10th anniver­sary of the Option­al Pro­to­cols to the UN Con­ven­tion on the Rights of the Child, I would like to high­light the utmost impor­tance of these legal­ly bind­ing inter­na­tion­al instru­ments that affirm human rights for all chil­dren. The UN Con­ven­tion of the Rights of the Child and its two Option­al Pro­to­cols form the core of the EU’s exter­nal action on the rights of the child. The Lis­bon Treaty fur­ther rein­forces our com­mit­ment by includ­ing spe­cif­ic pro­vi­sions on chil­dren. We will con­tin­ue to trans­late our com­mit­ments into con­crete actions, par­tic­u­lar­ly through the imple­men­ta­tion of the EU human rights guide­lines on the rights of the child and on chil­dren affect­ed by armed con­flict, as well as the Euro­pean Com­mis­sion Com­mu­ni­ca­tion “A Spe­cial Place for Chil­dren in EU Exter­nal Action”. We will con­tin­ue to sys­tem­at­i­cal­ly bring up children’s rights issues with our part­ner coun­tries and with­in the Unit­ed Nations, to seek to respond to children’s rights and needs in our devel­op­ment coop­er­a­tion and to coop­er­ate with civ­il society. 

I would like to reit­er­ate the EU’s full sup­port to the work of the UN Spe­cial Rep­re­sen­ta­tive for Chil­dren and Armed Con­flict and the UN Spe­cial Rap­por­teur on the sale of chil­dren, child pros­ti­tu­tion and child pornog­ra­phy. I would also like to seize this occa­sion to call on part­ner coun­tries to rat­i­fy the two Option­al Pro­to­cols, if they have not yet done so, so we can all join our efforts to suc­cess­ful­ly respond to the chal­lenge of pro­tect­ing all chil­dren world­wide and with no exception.” 

Source:
Coun­cil of the Euro­pean Union