India has cautioned that the UN should not give "political legitimacy" to non-state actors by bypassing national governments, saying the access to non-state armed groups should be through a cooperation framework between the UN and the concerned government.
"It is important that access of the United Nations to non-state armed groups be through the cooperation framework between the United Nations and the concerned national government," India's Deputy Permanent Representative to the UN Bhagwant Bishnoi said yesterday.
"We must be cautious that the UN's actions should not be such as to bypass national governments and give political legitimacy to non-state actors. It is this legitimacy that they seek the most and which may also, to some extent, be a motivating factor," Mr Bishnoi said.
He said it is "most distressing" that the pattern continues. "Children are innocent and they should not be victims of what is not of their making," he said.
He said India notes the need for military operations, including peace operations against non-state armed groups, to integrate child protection issues into their operational planning in order to minimise and prevent child casualties.
The concept note circulated for the debate referred to the need to encourage states to adopt legal measures to prohibit and criminalize the use of children under the age of 18.
Mr Bishnoi further said that the possibility of sanctions and questions of accountability should not lead the international community to be "blindsided".
He stressed that the world community should strive to address the broader issue of the economic and social marginalisation that drives millions of children into a childhood that makes them part of the problem rather than tomorrow's solution.
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