Treat kids as peace zones’ — UN

KATHMANDU, MAY 15: The United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF) proposed todaythat children should be treated as zones of peace''.The UNICE...

KATHMANDU, MAY 15: The United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF) proposed todaythat children should be treated as “zones of peace”.

The UNICEF regional director for South Asia, Nigel Fisher, made the proposalas an Asian regional conference got underway in the Nepalese capital todaymorning aimed at preventing the use of children as soldiers.

The conference hosted by the Nepalese government is being organised by thecoalition to stop the use of child soldiers and the regional and countryoffices of the unicef.

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Elaborating on the proposal, Nigel Fisher said, “This has many possibleelements but the basic idea is that children will, under no circumstances,be targetted, abused, raped, or deployed in conflict environments.”

The “zones of peace” is one of the nine proposals put forward by theUNICEF for discussion at the four-day conference being attended by delegatesof 14 Asian governments, military officials and some 70 non-governmentalorganisations dealing with human and child rights.

Government observers have also come from the Republic of Korea and Japan aswell as a number of European countries. The UNICEF proposals are expected toform the core areas ofdiscussions during the conference.

The Nepalese foreign minister, Chakra Prasas Banstola who opened theconference said, “We are fully committed not to recruit anyone under 18into our Army. We wish that other governments will do the same.”The conference is expected to deliberate on how to prevent the induction ofchildren into armies or rebel groups, how to demobilise those already in theArmy and how to rehabilitate and re-integrate them.