An Open Letter from 41 NGOs to Secretary-General Antonio Guterres

An Open Letter to UN Secretary-General António Guterres

As organizations working to protect the rights of children in armed conflict, we are dismayed by your reported decision to “freeze” any new additions of parties to conflict that commit grave violations of children’s rights to the annexes to your 2017 annual report to the United Nations Security Council on children and armed conflict. We urge you to reconsider, and issue an updated list with your report, including all perpetrators responsible for patterns of grave violations against children in 2016.

Since the Secretary-General’s list was first instituted in 2002, it has been an invaluable tool in efforts to curb grave violations against children in armed conflict. By stigmatizing perpetrators, whether governments or non-state armed groups, the list creates pressure on parties to armed conflict to comply with international law, which has yielded many positive results. Over 25 governments and non-state armed groups have signed UN action plans and taken steps to end grave violations against children in order to be considered for “de-listing,” and more than 100,000 children have been released by armed forces or groups.

Politicization of the list is something the international community must collectively guard against. Such pressure undermines the basic principle that a party to conflict is listed for one reason alone, i.e., a pattern of documented, UN-verified evidence of grave violations against children. In response to this worrying trend, civil society organizations have called on you to put children’s rights up front and ensure a credible and accurate listing of perpetrators in 2017.

We understand that you are considering a “freeze” in part to have more time to engage with parties that are listed or may be listed. We support full engagement by the UN with parties of concern, but believe that a freeze sets a damaging precedent and undermines the list’s credibility. After fifteen years of annual lists, parties to armed conflict should be well aware that if they commit grave violations against children, they may be listed. Allowing extra time for them to make “commitments” that may or may not be fulfilled will only make the process vulnerable to additional politicization.

We believe firmly that the list should be impartial, based on UN-verified evidence, and with all parties held to the same standard. Once parties have been listed, they should have every opportunity to engage in action plans to end their violations and, once these plans are successfully implemented, be de-listed.

The evidence of grave violations against children continues to be overwhelming, and in some countries is only growing. In the face of widespread impunity, now is not the time to “freeze” new additions to the list, but to ensure that it includes all perpetrators, with no exceptions. To do otherwise would undermine your Human Rights up Front initiative, and efforts to achieve accountability.

We urge you to place all perpetrators on the 2017 list annexed to your report, and state publicly that your office is committed to an impartial list, based on evidence, not politics. Children whose lives are devastated by armed conflict deserve nothing less.

Sincerely yours,

1. 11.11.11   
2. Alkarama           
3. Amnesty International                                
4. Association Nationale pour la Promotion de l'Education et la Culture (ANPEC Mauretanie)
5. Center for Civilians in Conflict
6. The Center for Public Health and Human Rights at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
7. Child Fund Alliance                                              
8. Child Rights International Network (CRIN)                  
9. Child Soldiers International                                       
10. Coalition Ivorienne pour la Cour Penale Internationale (CI CPI)
11. The Coalition for the International Criminal Court (CICC)    
12. Colombian Campaign Against Landmines (CCCM)    
13. Defenders for Medical Impartiality 
14. Defense for Children International          
15. East Africa Law Society
16. Global Centre for the Responsibility to Protect 
17. The Global Justice Center       
18. Human Rights Watch  
19. InterAction                                         
20. International Bureau for Children's Rights 
21. International Coalition for the Responsibility to Protect
22. International Fellowship of Reconciliation – Austria    
23. International Justice Project
24. The International Rescue Commitee
25. The Middle East and North Africa Partnership for Preventing of Armed Conflict 
26. Norwegian Refugee Council     
27. Nonviolent Peaceforce                                 
28. Permanent Peace Movement
29. Pakistan NGOs Forum
30. Physicians for Human Rights     
31. Protection against armaments
32. The Roméo Dallaire Child Soldiers Initiative
33. Save the Children    
34. Saferworld   
35. Terre des Hommes International Federation
36. United Nations Association Democratic Republic of Congo (UNA-DRC)
37. Vision GRAM – International 
38. War Child   
39. Women’s Initiatives for Gender Justice
40. World Federalist Movement – Institute for Global Policy
41. World Voice Uganda