In recent weeks hundreds of young men and boys from the Dadaab refugee camps have been secretly recruited for the force, lured with false promises of lavish pay and claims of backing from the United Nations and the United States.

The Kenyan government should immediately stop the recruitment of Somalis in refugee camps to fight for an armed force in Somalia. Kenyan authorities have directly supported the drive, which has recruited hundreds of Somali men and boys in the sprawling Dadaab refugee camps as well as Kenyan citizens from nearby towns.

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.