The United Nations has long campaigned against recruiters of child soldiers, urging their prosecution as war criminals. But the first break came only last week when the International Criminal Court decided to arrest a founder and leader of the Union des Patriotes Congolais, on charges of conscripting children in the current insurgency against the government of the Democratic Republic of Congo.
The United Nations has reacted angrily to a decision by the Eritrean government to restrict all UN helicopter flights monitoring a fragile ceasefire in the politically volatile Horn of Africa. The expressions of ”grave concern” came both from UN Secretary General Kofi Annan and the 15-member Security Council.
After nearly six months of political dilly-dallying, the United Nations Security Council has taken the first ”major” step to protect children in armed conflicts — but has stopped short of penalising member states and rebel groups guilty of recruiting and abusing them.
United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan’s radical blueprint to restructure the world body has received mixed reviews from diplomats, human rights activists and NGOs. ”Millions of people are dying because of conflict and poverty while rich countries are busy jostling for Security Council seats,” said an Oxfam representative. The ”fingerprints” of the superpower are visible in the secretary general’s report, say critics.
As the 15-member United Nations Security Council keeps dragging its feet over a proposed military and economic embargo aimed at punishing Sudan for mass killings in Darfur, the 53-member African Group has expressed reservations over ”the increasing trend in the application of UN sanctions — especially on African countries”.
The United Nations is trying to transform one of the most politically unstable countries in Africa, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), into a multiparty democracy with elections scheduled for 2005. But to do so, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan wants to more than double the number of UN peacekeepers in the DRC.
The United Nations has earmarked nearly 60% of its just-approved 2003/2004 peacekeeping budget for Africa. Of the ,17-billion the world body plans to spend on peacekeeping in the new financial year beginning July 1, more than ,3-billion has been set aside for five peacekeeping operations in Africa.