International Day of Innocent Children Victims of Aggression
The United Nations General Assembly decided to commemorate 4 June of each year as the International Day of Innocent Children Victims of Aggression. Resolution 51/77 built on existing General Assembly efforts to protect the rights of children, including through the Convention on the Rights of the Child and its Optional Protocol, and the annual Rights of the Child resolutions. And it established the mandate of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict. The purpose of the day is to acknowledge the pain suffered by children throughout the world who are the victims of physical, mental and emotional abuse. This day affirms the UN's commitment to protect the rights of children. Its work is guided by the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the most rapidly and widely ratified international human rights treaty in history.
FORUM: International Day of Children Victims of Aggression 2020 '' ACT to protect children affected by conflict.''
In recent years, the number of violations perpetrated against children have, in many conflict zones, increased. More needs to be done to protect the 250 million children living in countries and areas affected by conflict. More must be done to protect children from targeting by violent extremists, to promote international humanitarian and human rights law, and to ensure accountability for violations of the rights of children. The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development provides us with the universal master plan to secure a better future for children. The new agenda includes for the first time a specific target (16.2) to end all forms of violence against children, and ending the abuse, neglect and exploitation of children is mainstreamed across several other violence-related targets.
Protecting Children in Situations of Armed Conflict.
Launch of the Practical guidance for mediators to protect children in situations of armed conflict . The Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict (SRSG CAAC) and the Permanent Missions of Belgium and Sweden to the United Nations are hosting a high-level event to launch the Practical guidance for mediators to protect children in situations of armed conflict. Member States, UN representatives as well as child protection and mediation experts will discuss the importance of including child protection measures into peace negotiations and mediation efforts from the start. They will share concrete examples of situations in which child protection issues were successfully integrated into peace processes, with a tangible positive impact for children.
The event will serve to launch the practical guidelines for mediators for the wider public, highlighting the added value of including child protection issues in peace processes with a view to sustainable and long-term peace and security. The tool provides practical guidance to mediators in order to take these issues into consideration at the early stages of peace negotiations and processes of peace consolidation.
Remarks by Virginia Gamba, Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict and Under-Secretary-General, on children in armed conflict.
Remarks by Henrietta Fore, Executive Director of UNICEF, on children in armed conflict.