Children and Armed Conflict Monthly Update – October 2023 – Haiti

Recommendations to the Security Council

COLOMBIA

Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia-Ejército del Pueblo (FARC-EP) dissident groups and Ejército de Liberación Nacional (ELN) are listed in the annexes of the Secretary-General’s (SG) 2023 annual report (S/2023/363) on children and armed conflict (CAAC) for recruiting and using children in Colombia. In October, the mandate of the UN’s Verification Mission is up for renewal, per SCR 2655 (2022). According to the SG’s July report on the Verification Mission (S/2023/477), the Investigation and Accusation Unit of the Special Jurisdiction for Peace reported a “48 percent reduction in confrontations between illegal armed groups and the public security forces between January and 30 April, compared with the same period in 2022.” However, the Unit also reported an increase of child recruitment and use in the first four months of 2023. The SG’s report also noted that the National Reintegration Council’s technical working group on children resumed implementation of the action plan for the program “A different path of life,” and is working on the inclusion of a child protection approach within the comprehensive reintegration program. The Security Council should:

• Demand that all armed groups, in particular the ELN and FARC-EP dissidents, immediately release all children under 18 from their ranks and prevent and end all child recruitment, use, and abductions, as well as other grave violations;

• Call on the Government to include child protection in peace discussions with the ELN and the FARC-EP dissident groups, including ceasefires, and to enable the UN to engage with listed armed groups to develop action plans to end and prevent grave violations against children;

• Encourage the Government to continue strengthening efforts to prevent the recruitment and use of Colombian, Venezuelan, and refugee and migrant children, as well as other grave violations, paying particular attention to the most vulnerable, including girls and indigenous and AfroColombian children, and noting vulnerability to recruitment at informal border crossings;

• Call on all parties to cease attacks and threats of attack on schools and education personnel, as well as to refrain from the military use of schools and educational facilities; and encourage the Government to implement commitments made under the Safe Schools Declaration, which it has endorsed;

• Call on all parties to swiftly and fully implement the recommendations of the SCWG-CAAC, as elaborated in its fifth conclusions on Colombia.

The United Kingdom is the Security Council penholder on Colombia