Children Advocates Welcome UN Envoy on Children In Armed Conflict:
GROUPS TO SUBMIT REPORTS OF CHILD RIGHTS VIOLATIONS BY ARROYO REGIME

Manila, Philippines, 7 December 2008 - Child rights advocates led by Salinlahi and Children’s Rehabilitation Center (CRC) welcome the arrival today of United Nations Special Representative to the Secretary General on the Working Group on Children and Armed Conflict, Ms. Radhika Coomaraswamy.

Coomaraswamy is in the Philippines to monitor the situation of children associated with armed forces or armed groups according to the Paris Principles, a set of guidelines on children associated with armed conflict.

According to CRC Executive Director Esmeralda Macaspac, child rights activists will submit to Coomaraswamy its report on rights violations against children perpetrated by the Arroyo regime’s state forces from the Philippine National Police (PNP) and the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) since 2001.

“We monitored 66 children victims of extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary killings since 2001, 49 children victims of frustrated killings, 50 documented cases of torture, 55 children illegally arrested and detained, and 63 victims of physical assault and injury by the AFP since 2001,” said Macaspac.

“From January to October 2008 alone, the number of internally displaced children has reached to an estimated 258,000. This is a result of the aggressive military operations in the countryside, where military practices such as hamletting, food blockades, house-to-house campaigns, etc. have forced families to flee their homes in fear,” Macaspac continued.

“Together with our report, we will also submit recommendations to Ms. Radhika Coomaraswamy and present our critique on the Paris Principles and its broadened definition of “child combatants”. We hope that this will shed light and elicit discourse on the plight of Filipino children in armed conflict communities.”

For its part, Salinlahi Alliance for Children’s Concerns spokesperson Alphonse Rivera pointed out that ”amid all these violations perpetuated by the military, the AFP has increasingly been using the propaganda line that children victims of human rights violations are “child-soldiers” recruited by rebel groups. This line is being used by the AFP to escape accountability over their human rights abuses, as well as a malicious justification for more open attacks on communities and children.”

CRC, Salinlahi, and other child-focused groups welcome the efforts of Coomaraswamy to reach out not only to the government but also to child rights advocates. “We are eager to share with her the children’s experiences and views in armed conflict communities. Hopefully through the children’s voices, she will understand the real situation of children in armed conflict in the Philippine context.” (end)