The  former Mozambican President Joaquim Chissano will give his final briefing to the United Nations Security Council on July 15  in his role as the secretary-general's special envoy for the areas of east and central Africa affected by the Lord's Resistance Army and their  two-decade campaign of violence. Although Chissano's mandate was suspended as of June 30, abuses by the LRA - ruthless rebels whose actions have had a devastating effect on civilians in four countries - continue. 

The United Nations Security Council should impose sanctions on governments and armed groups for using child soldiers, sexual violence against children, and attacks on schools, and should promote effective prosecution of the commanders responsible.

Parents from eastern Democratic Republic of Congo plead with the UN Security Council to help end the suffering of a generation of Congolese children.

Although the Security Council has identified six grave violations against children in armed conflict, to date it has focused primarily on the recruitment and use of child soldiers. Other violations affect much larger numbers of children, and result in terrible and long-lasting consequences, but have not received the same focused international response.

The US Department of Justice should expedite the review and provide education and other rehabilitation assistance for five detainees at Guantanamo who have been held there since they were children. The detainees were brought to Guantanamo between the ages of 15 and 17, and have now been in detention there for more than six years.

As the United States government conducts its review of the detainees currently held at Guantanamo, we urge you to expedite and give special consideration to five detainees who were apprehended and transferred to Guantanamo while still juveniles.

The United Nations Security Council should act with urgency to send additional peacekeepers to northern Democratic Republic of Congo, where the rebel Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) continues its brutal attacks on civilians.

Yesterday UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon described the forced recruitment and use of child soldiers as “one of the most appalling human rights abuses in the world today,” and stated that “the entire United Nations system and I are determined to stamp out such abuse.”