President of the Swiss Confederation, Didier Burkhalter, presents new action plan to protect child soldiers

Bern, 14.10.2014 - Youth was very much to the fore at today's annual conference of the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs’ (FDFA) Human Security Division (HSD). Young people from Switzerland and abroad had an opportunity to talk about their experiences as victims and perpetrators in conflicts as well as their visions of and commitment to peace, democracy and human rights. The President of the Swiss Confederation, Didier Burkhalter, presented the new action plan to protect children in armed conflict; he wants Switzerland to play a more active role in this area. Around 600 interested parties attended the conference, which also featured contributions from eminent international experts such as Fatou Bensouda, chief prosecutor at the International Criminal Court in The Hague.

Approximately 250,000 children under the age of 18 are currently estimated to be serving in armed groups, 40% of them girls. One such girl was Victoria Nyanjura from Uganda, now aged 32. Speaking at the HSD annual conference, she recounted how she had been kidnapped, abused and forced into marriage by the Lord's Resistance Army, a Ugandan armed group, finally managing to escape eight years later, in 2004. In Uganda alone, between 24,000 and 38,000 young people and children are estimated to have been exploited as fighters, assistants and sex slaves since 1984. “It is a human scandal,” said President Burkhalter and stressed: “It is up to us to defend human dignity through the dignity of these children, who did not choose their fates themselves.” He praised Victoria Nyanjura for her courage and strength, held out the prospect of stronger engagement by Switzerland and presented an action plan focusing on the following areas:

1. Ensuring better compliance by states and non-state groups with existing international legal norms on child protection.
2. Strengthening the commitment to child protection at the multilateral level, for example in the UN.
3. Offering psychological and physical recovery and social integration programmes to former child soldiers in conflict areas and fragile contexts, in collaboration with partner organisations, and providing young people with education and training to give them better prospects in life.


Switzerland's commitment also involves tackling impunity, to ensure that perpetrators stand trial for their crimes. The current situation with regard to combating and prosecuting offences against children was among the issues discussed at the conference by Fatou Bensuda, chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, and Juvénal Munubo Mubi, a member of parliament in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. They wished to see more effective and systematic enforcement of existing laws. To achieve this goal, both are working to bring about cooperation between public prosecutors, civil society and the United Nations, with the aim of raising awareness of crimes against girls and boys.

A broader range of issues was addressed in the afternoon. In a short film, politically engaged young people from around the world expressed their understanding of human security and gave an insight into their views and expectations of life in a secure and peaceful world. In another discussion, a young man from Haiti shared his experiences as a member of a criminal gang and exchanged thoughts with politically engaged youngsters from Serbia and Egypt.

Young Swiss people then reflected on their impressions of the day, before Ambassador Claude Wild, head of the Human Security Division, gave his concluding remarks.


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