WOMEN'S COMMISSION RESPONDS TO UN OFFICIAL'S REMARKS

February 21, 2003 – (Women’s Commission for Refugee Women and Children-press release) The Women's Commission for Refugee Women and Children in New York has sent a letter to Olara Otunnu, the SRSG on Children and Armed Conflict, in response to his praise of the Sierra Leone DDR, describing it as a model for African nations present at the recent ECOWAS meeting. The letter details the gaps in the DDR and recommends that countries affected by conflict should look to the DDR program in Sierra Leone as an imperfect model for the demobilization and reintegration of child soldiers and should incorporate the lessons learned from the DDR process in Sierra Leone into all future demobilization policies and programs affecting children and youth. The letter was copied to UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, senior UN officials and fifteen ECOWAS presidents.

February 21, 2003

Mr. Olara Otunnu
Special Representative of the Secretary-
General for Children and Armed Conflict
United Nations, Room S-3161
New York, NY 10017

Dear Mr. Otunnu:

On behalf of the Women's Commission for Refugee Women and Children, I would like to thank you for your recent trip to West Africa to examine the issues of child protection and participation in region. News sources describing your remarks at the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) meeting on January 31 in Dakar report your having promoted the Disarmament, Demobilization and Reintegration (DDR) program in Sierra Leone as a model for child soldier demobilization in Africa. I would like to take the opportunity to highlight some serious concerns the Women's Commission recently raised with your office about the DDR in Sierra Leone, which we believe serve as important lessons learned for future demobilization efforts.

In April and May 2002, the Women's Commission carried out a participatory action research project with war-affected young people in Sierra Leone. The findings of this study were published in our report, Precious Resources: Adolescents in the Reconstruction of Sierra Leone, released in October 2002. In November, four Sierra Leonean adolescent researchers and Women's Commission staff met with your staff to discuss findings and recommendations from the study, which represented the views andexperiences of over 200 former child and youth soldiers. Among the four young people visiting were two who had been forced into the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) rebel group, including one girl. They pointed out serious gaps in the DDR that have contributed to further child protection problems in post-conflict Sierra Leone.

In some respects, the DDR in Sierra Leone was a success. It accomplished its principal goals of disarming and demobilizing thousands of ex-combatants on all sides of the conflict, including children; it quickly increased security in Sierra Leone; and, in the face of limited resources, a fluctuating security situation and destroyed infrastructure, the government of Sierra Leone and many child protection agencies were able to provide some important demobilization services to approximately 6,900 children and adolescents. The limited number of former child soldiers who were able to enter formal education appear to have fared particularly well.

However, young Sierra Leoneans said specifically that:

· The initial "cash for weapons" approach to DDR rendered many young people and women ineligible for formal demobilization. The young woman who visited your office told how she could not initially formally demobilize without turning in a gun and that weapons had been taken from girls by commanders, who were then left out of the DDR.

· DDR was largely gender-blind and did not take into sufficient consideration the varied roles women and girls played among fighting forces and thus did not adequately provide for their specific DDR-related concerns and rights. The percentage of girls and women who formally demobilized is far lower than the number we know were recruited.

· Reintegration programs for children and adolescents were under-funded and incomplete. Many young people complained that even if they entered programs, they were poorly resourced and did not provide them with what was promised, creating a particular sense of betrayal among former RUF child combatants some of whom threatened further violence.

· Reintegration programs were not in sync with the overwhelming economic and social recovery needs of Sierra Leone and of individual families. Livelihood skills acquired through DDR were often useless, hindering family reunification and community acceptance processes, and other child victims of the war resented what they saw as the prioritization of support to former combatants, creating further divisions among young people.

· Youth roughly between 18 and 25, who may have been forced into the fighting as children, entered the adult DDR track and did not receive sufficient support for return to their home communities, reunification with family or local integration, leaving many still marginalized from society.

· Some young people, particularly girls, remain with their commanders, unable to leave without additional support.

· Other young people failed by the DDR have become "street kids" and commercial sex workers. Some are turning to drugs and crime.
The Report of the Secretary-General on the United Nations Mission in Sierra Leone states, "The successful reintegration of former child combatants and other children separated from their families requires a long-term approach and commitment," with particular attention "given to children bypassed by the formal disarmament process." For many young Sierra Leoneans formerly with fighting forces, the enticement to demobilize and try peace came largely through the promise of acceptance and support in reintegration. All young people feel reintegration should not be considered accomplished with the completion of the DDR and that more holistic reintegration support is still urgently needed.

We believe countries affected by conflict should look to the DDR program in Sierra Leone as an imperfect model for the demobilization and reintegration of child soldiers and should incorporate the lessons learned from the DDR process in Sierra Leone into all future demobilization policies and programs affecting children and youth.

I would welcome the opportunity to discuss our detailed recommendations related to the DDR as laid out in Precious Resources with you further. The Women's Commission's Children and Adolescents Project has been in contact with your staff about you meeting youth organizations and others during your current mission to Sierra Leone. I hope you have had opportunities to do so. Thank you again, as always, for your ongoing leadership in supporting the rights of children in armed conflict.

Sincerely,

Jane Lowicki
Senior Coordinator
Children and Adolescents Project

Cc: Mr. Kofi Annan, Secretary-General of the United Nations
Ms. Carol Bellamy, Executive Director of UNICEF
Mr. Boubacar Diallo, Permanent Mission of the Republic of Guinea to the UN
Mr. Djessan Philippe Djangone-Bi, Ambassador of Côte D'Ivoire to the UN
Mr. Nana Effah-Apentang, Ambassador of Ghana to the UN
Mr. Jean-Marie Guéhenno, Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations
Mr. Ibrahim M'baba Kamara, Ambassador of the Republic of Sierra Leone to the UN
Mr. Nils Katsberg, Office of Emergency Programs, UNICEF
Mr. Lami Kawah, Ambassador of the Republic of Liberia to the UN
Ms. Michelle Morris, OSRSG for Children and Armed Conflict
Mrs. Luzéria dos Santos Jaló, Ambassador of the Republic of Guinea-Bissau to the UN
President Blaise Compaore, Burkina Faso
President Lansana Conte, Republic of Guinea
President General Gnassingbe Eyadema, Togolese Republic
President Laurent Gbagbo, Republic of Côte D'Ivoire
President Yahya A. J. J. Jammeh, Republic of the Gambia
President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah, Republic of Sierra Leone
President Mathieu Kerekou, Republic of Benin
President John Agyekum Kufuor, Republic of Ghana
President Olusegun Obasanjo, Federal Republic of Nigeria
President Pedro Pires, Republic of Cape Verde
President Mamadou Tandja, Republic of Niger
President Charles Ghankay Taylor, Republic of Liberia
President Amadou Toumani Toure, Republic of Mali
President Abdoulaye Wade, Republic of Senegal
President Kumba Yala, Republic of Guinea-Bissau

From: http://allafrica.com/stories/200302210592.html