Worldview International Foundation

Commission on Human Rights, 57th Session,
March-April 2001

Oral Intervention by Dr. Thaung Htun
Agenda Item (13) Rights of the Child

Thank you, Madame Chair,

Let me begin by expressing our appreciation for the adoption of the Optional Protocol to the Convention of the Rights of the Child on the involvement of children in armed conflict at the 10th Anniversary of the Convention last year. Increasing the minimum age of recruitment for soldiers in time of armed conflict is indeed a significant achievement and a milestone in the international efforts to protect the Rights of the Child. Without such conscientious efforts, the alarming problem of child victims globally can only worsen.

Children, as the Secretary General had correctly pointed out, have increasingly been victimized both as targets and perpetrators of violence in the armed conflicts of recent years. Children are the most affected when they are internally displaced or become refugees as a result of war. They are coerced into taking up arms as soldiers and sent to the battlefields to get killed in action or become victims of landmines. Horrible experiences of war have traumatized children and affected their childhood development. Millions of children today are also being deprived of access to food, health and education and are dying because of starvation and even from preventable diseases.

In the past, the doctrine of "non-interference in the internal affairs of a sovereign nation" was a stumbling block to the attempts by international humanitarian agencies to protect and provide humanitarian assistance to children caught in the midst of conflict. We are happy to note, however, that the right to intervene for humanitarian ends and the protection of human rights has gained ground since a few years back. A new ethic that places human rights at the center of development and makes a first call for children is emerging. We are encouraged to see UN agencies pioneering the practice of convincing parties in a conflict to designate certain periods of tranquility, to respect humanitarian or security zones and to open safe corridors to permit humanitarian workers to reach pockets of children in war zones.

My country, Burma, has a young demographic structure with an estimated 36% of the population under 15 years of age. Recent World Bank and UNICEF reports reveal the situation of silent emergency for Burmese children. Let me highlight that with a few statistics:

· A slightly higher infant mortality rate (71 compared to an average of 68) and a significantly higher child mortality rate (113 compared to an average of 77 in four other economies)

· About 175,000 children under five die each year, mostly from readily preventable or treatable diseases–mainly due to lack of even 40 most essential drugs

· An appallingly high 10% of children under three suffer from severe malnutrition. This primarily is the result of untreated infections and infestations; progressively eroding purchasing power and forced resettlements.

· Less than 20% of primary school children complete all five years.

· Out of 120,000 Burmese refugees living along the Thai-Burma border and 2 millions internally displaced population, at least one-fourths are children. Refugees and displaced children are most vulnerable to sexual abuses, trafficking, conscription as military porters, human shields or human mine sweepers and forced recruitment as soldiers.

· Safe water supply in rural and urban areas (31% and 38%, respectively) is half that of the developing world as a whole. Even urban water supplies remain untreated.

· Many children are orphaned, abandoned, trafficked, exploited in the labor force, institutionalized or jailed. Some are used in drug running, while others are targets of ethnic discrimination.

All these problems are linked to one common factor, chronic and malignant failure by the State to provide the survival, protection, and development needs of children. This failure is directly linked to the ongoing more than 50 years of civil war between the military regime and armed ethnic groups demanding greater autonomy. These problems also reflect the authorities' persistent refusal to allocate any part of foreign exchange earnings to the non-military social sector. The published budgetary figures show that military spending per capita exceeds that spent on health by nine times, and that on education by more than two times. (Source: IMF Report 1998, Table 33)

What all key players on the Burmese political stage have to keep in mind is that humanitarian consequences arising from the failure to address the emergency needs of children are grave and they threaten the nation’s future. The talks that are going on between Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, leader of the National League for Democracy, and the ruling authorities are a hopeful sign for change to the Burmese society. In the context of this new development, the Commission should encourage all leaders of parties involved in conflict in Burma:

(1) To design a nationwide humanitarian ceasefire or days of tranquility in the conflict zones so that UN agencies and international NGOs can initiate a massive immunization program and deliver emergency food aid and other emergency humanitarian assistance to the children in conflict zones, and

(2) To integrate agenda of children in peace making and peace building process.

Thank you.