Position Paper
Delegates: Wu Yarui
School: University of International Business and Economy
Country: Kenya
Committee: General Assembly the Third Committee
Topic: Rehabilitation of Children of Military Use
International concern over the child soldiers has increased steadily and is not to be neglected. Young boys and even the girls are widely involved in military campaigns and it does great harm to them both physically and psychologically. And now Kenya holds the view that we have reached the time when we must be responsible for these affairs so we cannot just sit back and let it go from bad to worse.
The United Nations and the related committees have spared no effort to improve this situation for the past years. Many international actions had already been done. Besides, the International Law that addresses this issue had been carried out like the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. Red Hand Day is also set up by UN to draw public attention the military use children.
The condition of military use of children in Kenya is not as bad as many other countries in Africa. However, Kenya has spared no effort to seek a way to completely eradicate it and has joined many organizations (such as the Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers) both formally and informally to save the children who are in danger.
Therefore, it’s essential for us to take effective measures to address those problems:
a)Measures shall incorporate establishing a law of a minimum age of recruitment of 18 globally as well as pinpointing the responsibilities that the government and the committee should take.
b)To ensure the law could be carried out, a supervision system should be established to supervise the illegal use of the recruitment of children. Severe sanctions are imposed to any countries that disobey the rules.
c)Media is also an effective measure to propaganda the harm of the military use of children.
d)Schools, meanwhile, should also let children be fully aware of the seriousness and illegality of child soldier. For those children who have been the member of it, governments as well as NGOs should provide timely assistance to those children both psychically and physically to ensure them to forget the painful past and become normal as soon as possible.
e)Orphanages should be built to those children victims who are homeless or no longer accepted by families.
Kenya holds the view that UN must put emphasis on the rehabilitation of children of military use. Considering the fact that most child soldiers are in conditions of extreme poverty, Kenya is willing to provide humanistic aiding and educational assistance to those children who have been ill-treated during the war. Kenya is firmly convinced that children of military use can be eliminated or even eradicated through our joint efforts.