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II. Recommendations
- Immediately stop all recruitment of children, including
efforts to re-register or re-recruit child ex-combatants from Karunas
forces;
- Release all children from LTTE forces and give those
recruited before age eighteen the option to leave:
- Inform families throughout the North and East of Sri Lanka
of the LTTEs commitment not to recruit children under the age of eighteen
through public announcements and use of the local media, including the
LTTEs own media channels, and ensure that all recruitment materials
clearly identify eighteen as the minimum age for recruitment;
- Take all appropriate steps to ensure LTTE commanders and
other cadres do not recruit children under the age of eighteen into LTTE
forces, voluntarily or otherwise and provide the international community
(through UNICEF) with documentation of disciplinary actions taken against
LTTE cadre responsible for such recruitment;
- Fulfill all commitments agreed under the Action Plan for
Children Affected by War;
- Approve for immediate dissemination the child rights
awareness campaign messages submitted to the LTTE by UNICEF in January of
2004;
- Allow UNICEF access to all military training camps to
assess the age of recruits, and identify children for demobilization;
- Create a high-level task force to resolve outstanding
cases of under-age recruitment;
- Establish a hotline or rapid response mechanism to act on
reports of new recruitment and designate focal points in each district who
will be accountable for acting on any complaints;
- Publish the status of inquiries into cases raised by
UNICEF on a routine basis.
- Ensure that an end to child recruitment and immediate
demobilization of children from the LTTE are part of any new peace
agreement with the LTTE ;
- Take all appropriate measures in areas under its control
to protect children from LTTE recruitment, including increasing a
government presence near schools, temple festivals and other places where
children are likely to be abducted;
- Improve relations between the Sri Lankan army and police
with the Tamil population, including by increasing the number of Tamil
speakers within the security forces and providing language training to
non-Tamil speakers;
- Grant a formal amnesty to all former child soldiers for
their participation in the LTTE;
- Ensure that all eligible persons (including former child
soldiers without discrimination) are issued national identity cards;
- Waive traditional entry requirements for state-run
vocational colleges for former child soldiers in order to encourage their
enrolment;
- Support the deployment of international human rights
monitors under the auspices of the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka,
as envisioned in the Hakone talks;
- Ratify the Rome statute for the International Criminal
Court.
- Set firm benchmarks and deadlines for LTTE compliance with
its commitments to end child recruitment and release children from its
forces; if the LTTE fails to meet the benchmarks by the specified
deadline, suspend operations at the transit centers, including any funds
going to the TRO for center operations;
- Continue and strengthen efforts to prevent child
recruitment, including re-recruitment of former child soldiers;
- Strengthen communication and working relationships with
local communities and local nongovernmental organizations in order to
effectively monitor child recruitment, put in place effective prevention
strategies, and better support affected families, including their efforts
to resist child recruitment;
- Intervene rapidly in cases of child recruitment by raising
cases with the LTTE as quickly as possible and accompanying families, when
possible, in requesting the return of their children;
- Publish recruitment and release statistics on a regular
basis, together with the status of LTTE responses.
- As the lead implementing partner for vocational training
programs for former child soldiers, create vocational training
opportunities, when appropriate, that utilize former soldiers
non-military training in the LTTE (e.g. medical training).
- Issue a public statement condemning child recruitment and
develop with UNICEF and the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka
complementary strategies to prevent the recruitment of children and to
secure the release of children from the LTTE.
- As a facilitator of the peace process, ensure that an end
to child recruitment and immediate demobilization of children in the LTTE
are part of any new peace agreement.
- Negotiate a clear understanding with the parties that
political work conducted under the cease-fire agreement may not include
any form of child recruitment.
To the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM):
- Actively and consistently monitor and report on child
recruitment, in accordance with the cease-fire agreements prohibition on
intimidation, abduction, extortion, and harassment of the civilian
population;
- Regularly and consistently raise issues of child
recruitment with the LTTE, including specific cases;
- Establish a human rights unit, dedicated to systematically
monitoring the violations of international law stipulated in the
cease-fire agreement and staff it with trained human rights monitors.
To Donors (including Japan, the United States, the European Union, and
Scandinavian countries):
- Create a donor task force for close liaison with UNICEF and
other local actors and to make urgent interventions with the LTTE in cases
of new recruitment;
- Provide financial and logistical support for the
deployment of international human rights monitors in support of the Human
Rights Commission of Sri Lanka as envisioned in the Hakone talks;
- Consider the appropriateness of channeling economic
assistance through agencies, such as the Tamil Rehabilitation
Organization, that are linked to the LTTE;
- Use economic leverage to pressure the LTTE to put an end
to all child recruitment by the LTTE and to promote the release of all
children currently in the LTTEs ranks.
- Express public opposition to the recruitment and use of
children in armed conflict by the LTTE and other serious violations of international
human rights and humanitarian law in Sri Lanka.
- Ensure that funds provided to organizations in Sri Lanka
do not directly or indirectly benefit the LTTE so long as it recruits and
uses child soldiers or otherwise commits serious rights violations;
- Clearly communicate condemnation of the LTTEs child
recruitment practices to members of the Tamil diaspora through both the
Tamil and mainstream media and meetings with leaders of the Tamil
diaspora.
- In accordance with Security Council Resolution 1539 on
children and armed conflict (April 22, 2004), paragraph 6, adopt targeted measures to address the LTTEs failure to end child recruitment. Such
measures could include the imposition of travel restrictions on leaders
and their exclusion from any governance structures and amnesty provisions,
a ban on the supply of small arms, a ban on military assistance, and
restriction on the flow of financial resources;
- Local Colombo missions of the Security Council should meet
with the LTTE to insist on progress in the release of children, in
accordance with Security Council resolutions on children and armed
conflict.
To All United Nations Member States:
- In accordance with Security Council resolution 1379 on
children and armed conflict (November 20, 2001), paragraph 9, use all
legal, political, diplomatic, financial, and material measures to ensure
respect for international norms for the protection of children by the
parties to the conflict. In particular, states should unequivocally
condemn the LTTEs continued recruitment and use of child soldiers and
withhold any financial, political, or military support to the LTTE until
it ends all child recruitment and releases all children currently in its
ranks.
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