Towards 2000: The Rights of the Child
How can Amnesty international effectively fight human rights abuses against children? Representatives from Al working groups on children's rights issues, the International Secretarial, and numerous governmental organizations recently gathered to discuss this question at "Towards 2000: The Rights of the Child," an international conference sponsored hy Amnesty's Irish section. Julia Chill, Chair of AlUSA's Children's Rights Network, attended the conference and has provided this report.
This was the fourth in a series of conferences on children's issues that have been held over the past nine years. Since the first conference in 1987 in London, members of AI working groups have attempted to develop links with other sections to enhance their ability to work effectively on children's human rights. Approximately 25 working groups around the world focus on children.
At "Towards 2000," working group members had the opportunity to meet their counterparts in other countries and talk with representatives from a number of child-oriented NGOs, such as Oxfam, Trocaire, and Casa Alianza They focused on techniques to improve their effectiveness in dealing with children's issues. They also learned about topics relatively new to Amnesty, such as land mines and female genital mutilation, and about methods to work on these problems while staying within Al's mandate.
The issue of land mines, in fact, was particularly important to many of the working group members because of the weapon's devastating effects on children and its increasing use in contemporary conflicts. A workshop, moderated hy Al's Swiss section member Christine Sutter, helped to describe the current status of land mine use in the world. The international Committee of the Red Cross estimates that there are currently more than 110 million active mines in 64 countries. Although originally defensive weapons, land mines are now used to deliberately target civilian and refugee populations, including children. A mine that is meant to injure an adult's limbs will often kill a child. For children who manage to survive their injuries, the cost of treatment may be prohibitively expensive.
Although Amnesty International does not have an official position on land mines as a specific weapon, it operates under two other policies which bear on this issue. AI does focus on indiscriminate killings--killings where no distinction is made between military and civilian targets. Because of their current use, land mines fall under this category. Al also works to prevent the technical transfer of weapons from one country to another, when the weapons are to be used in a manner that contravenes international standards.
In addition to the workshops, numerous other events were scheduled during the conference. One of the highlights was a special address by Mary Robinson, President of Ireland. Robinson, who has used her presidency to help women and children around the world, emphasized the importance of action by all sectors of society to empower children and bolster their sense of self-worth. The conference received coverage in the print and broadcast media, and will be featured in a documentary film about President Robinson.