Foreign Affairs | The extent to which child soldiers are being used

To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs the extent to which at international level, he continues to highlight the degree to which child soldiers, if any, continue to be used in combat; their respective locations; and if he will make a statement on the matter.

REPLY

I thank the Deputy for his question and am pleased to refer him to my previous response to a closely related parliamentary question no 4181/22 dated the 27th  of January 2022 which included information from the most recent annual report by the UN Secretary General.

We look forward to shortly receiving the next annual report from the UN Secretary General on Children and Armed Conflict (CAAC), which will provide an updated analysis of both trends and specific country situations, listing all armed groups that recruit and use children.

The UN Secretary General’s Special Representative on Children and Armed Conflict also presented her most recent report at the 49th Session of the UN Human Rights Council, painting a disturbing picture of the plight of children in conflict situations around the world. As Ireland noted in our National Statement at the 49th Session of the Human Rights Council, the killing and maiming of children; the recruitment and use of children; and the denial of humanitarian access, are appalling violations and have no place in our society.