OSG - Office of the SecretaryGeneral

Published purpose

This grant represents Canada’s institutional support to the Office of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Children and Armed Conflict (SRSG-CAAC). The SRSG-CAAC uses these funds, along with other donors’ funding, to achieve its mandate to promote and protect the rights and welfare of children in armed conflict. The United Nations Security Council, in successive resolutions, called upon the Secretary-General to take measures for the protection of children in armed conflict and has called for annual reports on the implementation of such measures. The Office of the SRSG-CAAC has been given the lead responsibility for monitoring and mainstreaming the implementation of these Security Council resolutions. The SRSG-CAAC is charged with drafting, in consultation with relevant partners, the Secretary-General’s annual reports to the Security Council on Children and Armed Conflict and the reports to the Council’s working group on Children and Armed Conflict. The SRSG-CAAC prepares and presents an annual report to the Human Rights Council in Geneva and contributes to its respective tools and mechanisms. As the convenor of the UN Headquarters Task Force on Children and Armed Conflict, the SRSG-CAAC ensures that there is a consultative process in the compilation of the Secretary-General’s reports and that timely, reliable and high-quality reports are prepared. Since 2006, the Working Group of the Security Council on Children and Armed Conflict has received 50 reports (as at December 2014) on children and armed conflict in situations of concern, and has issued 45 conclusions and recommendations emanating from the review of these reports. Activities include: (1) monitoring the situation of children affected by armed conflict and reporting to the General Assembly, the Security Council, the Human Rights Council and other destinations for action; (2) engaging in high-level advocacy to promote awareness of, and support for global initiatives to end grave violations against children affected by armed conflict; (3) working in consultation and partnership with key stakeholders, including member states, regional and sub-regional organizations, UN system partners, civil society and NGOs to mainstream the issue into policy and strategic planning, and to strengthen engagement with regional, political & military organizations; (4) making children and armed conflict concerns an integral part of peacemaking, peacekeeping and peacebuilding; (5) creating awareness about other protection issues related to children and armed conflict, including post-conflict situations and the specific needs of internally displaced and refugee children, and the girl child, and the deliberate targeting of children by extremists groups; and (6) mobilizing support for immediate and sustained monitoring to action plans signed with parties to conflict and the United Nations with a view to the timely delisting of parties that have fully complied with action plans from the Secretary-General's annual report to the Security Council on Children and Armed Conflict. The SRSG-CAAC also produces targeted publications and puts special emphasis on key issues for advocacy and monitoring.