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ENGLISH B - IB 2018

POSITION PAPER
Model of the United Nations.

Committee name: Committee on the Rights of the child


Topic Area: Action implementation of DRC. Government to protect
children from internal war
Country delegation: Lebanon
Names of members: Jantzen Denis & JoseMara Checa
Class: 4th D
Position Statement
The democratic republic of Congo is a country located in Central-Africa. For many years of conflict there,
children have been recruited and used by the National Army the Armed Forces of the Democratic
Republic of the Congo, and several different rebel armed groups In which was verified 2,549 violations
against children, the recruitment of 488 children and the murder of at least 80 children.

Response to key further questions


Is the Democratic Republic of Congo providing sufficient protection and relief to children affected by
armed conflict? What should the UN do about it?

Children in the Democratic Republic of Congo have seen their lives threatened, their families torn apart,
their schools destroyed, and their futures compromised. Many are homelessabandoned street children,
some accused of witchcraft, others born of rape or orphaned by war.

The UN peacekeeping force that has been stationed in the Democratic Republic of Congo since 2000.2013
brought hints of change. A new Security Council resolution authorized targeted offensive operations to
neutralize and disarm the dozens of armed militias that have chopped eastern Congo into a patchwork of
warring fiefdoms. In June deployments began for a new Force Intervention Brigade3,000 troops in
total from Tanzania, South Africa and Malawi. The brigade, and the larger MONUSCO force of which it
is part, were charged with making the Security Councils strengthened mandate real.

The Congolese Law on Protection of the Child sets the minimum working age at 16 and prohibits all
hazardous forms of child labour and sexual exploitation. However, according to the Mines Ministry
Government, the decline of government-regulated mines in the area is a large part of the reason almost all
of the countrys diamond production has become more and more artisanal, thus more difficult to regulate.

UNICEF Child Protection Officer Diane Kimboko explains the expression children of the mines, saying
that it encompasses not only children working the mines, but also those caring for younger siblings at
home to allow their parents to work and those engaging in enterprises surrounding the mines, such as
selling food, water and sexual favors along the perimeter of the sites.

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Mypoi Nyambu, member of a community management committee in Bakwa Tshimuna that is working
with UNICEF on the ground, says, Adult vendors employ children, especially girls, in their peripheral
enterprises to entice workers to come buy green beans or fufu, for example. Then, many have sexual
relations with the young helpers as part of the transaction.

That is why UNICEF is focusing on prevention and support of cases of violence and child abuse through
the establishment and capacity reinforcement of community-based child protection committees. We also
realize the importance of creating income-generating activities for the families of these children, as well,
says Ms. Kimboko.

From our point of view, the UN should establish a new plan of progress, based on the alliances of
countries directly immersed in the conflict, in order to solve trade and therefore the social crisis.

How much progress is there about the Action Plan?

The Action Plan signed in 2012 by the Government of DR Congo to end the recruitment and use of
children and sexual violence by the national army (Forces armes de la RDC) has led to the release of
hundreds of children.

Has the Children, Not Soldiers Campaign been applied effectively?

According to the Security Council childrens rights Violations during armed conflicts continue despite the
national action plans to end the abuse. In addition the Secretary-General's fifth report on the situation of
children affected by armed conflict in the Democratic Republic of the Congo concluded that The
recruitment and use of children by armed groups remained endemic in the Democratic Republic of the
Congo between 2010 and 2013. Children were severely affected by several waves of conflicts, especially
in the eastern provinces of the country.

They were murdered, mutilated, victims of sexual violence and kidnappings by all the parties involved in
the conflict . However, last March, the Government of the Democratic Republic of the Congo approved
the campaign "Children, not soldiers" and pledged to make its army child-free by 2016.

Should the United Nations intervene? How?

To solve this problem this delegation proposes to Support for the justice system to respond to grave
childrens rights violations without affecting the legal status of any of the parties to an armed conflict for
which States Parties shall take all possible measures to ensure that members of their armed forces who

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have not attained the age of 18 do not participate directly in hostilities and shall ensure that persons who
have not attained the age of 18 are not compulsorily recruited into their hostilities. armed forces.

Also do a identification and legal action against members of the security forces who obstruct screening
and separation of children for which is required additional support to operationalize the road map and to
increase the capacity of the judiciary to fight impunity and hold perpetrators accountable and that the
country adopt the Standard operating procedures on age assessment, validated at technical level in April
2016, to help the FARDC identify minors countrywide and without assistance. For this will be necessary a
Reintegration Family tracing, reunification and reintegration of children are long-term challenges in DR
Congo to provide adequate.

Sources :
https://pulitzercenter.atavist.com/webcongoschildren
https://www.unicef.org/infobycountry/drcongo_67998.html
http://www.ohchr.org/EN/ProfessionalInterest/Pages/OPACCRC.aspx
https://childrenandarmedconflict.un.org/press-release/5th-report-on-caac-rdc/7
Unicef Book 05/03/02 CHILDREN AFFECTED BY ARMED CONFLICTS

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