May 29, 2001

Speech of Mrs. Suzanne Mubarak to the special
session on children  in situations of
armed conflicts

    We welcomed the request of the government of Uganda that this special session on Children in Armed Conflict be held in Cairo. We stand before you humbled by this request, and thus are all the more determined to help provide the platform where the cry of Africans to protect our children may be heard.

    Egypt has been blessed for many years now where the majority of women and families may raise their children without the fear of violence, loss and destruction caused by war. But the plight of our neighbours is ever with us.

    Borders insulate none of us from the distress of our sisters and bothers. It is thus with a sense of obligation to our children and women in Africa, and to children of the Arab world that we welcomed the proposal to hold the latest deliberations of the commission.

    In the Arab sphere, two pressing issues are having dreadful adverse effects on children. The first is the embargo imposed on Iraq for which Iraqi children have paid an untold of punishment in death, disease, malnutrition and other forms of suffering for no action of theirs.

    The other is the state of siege imposed on Palestinian territories and the use of excessive force by the Israeli occupation forces against civilian Palestinians exercising their just right.

    Ladies and Gentlemen,

    Africa’s efforts to protect children in armed conflict promise in the words of Olara Otunnu special representative of the Secretary General for children in armed conflict, an “ethical renewal” for the protection of children everywhere.

    Without the leadership exercised by Madam Graca Machel born from the personal hardship of a woman’s experience with conflict, the world would not have placed the question of children in armed conflict on the international security and peace agendas. It is firmly there to stay.

    Let us each draw from this experience the personal strength to speak our hearts and convince others. We must take courage in the progress made since Africa first brought the issues of children caught in armed conflict onto the international platform. Civilians, especially children are now recognized as the main victims of conflict, everywhere. Madam Machel's report to the secretary general just five years ago, on the Impact of Armed Conflict on Children has not gone unnoticed or unheard. Warring states are made to listen . We know our voices can be heard. And here you will raise yours again together we can make a difference.

    Children are not in control of their lives. But there are many tragedies that go unreported each day. These are the tragedies that mount from one day to the next, each tiny witness to the vulnerability of his or her parents, even if physically uninjured loses capacity to trust in others in the future. And the perpetrators of these crimes often as not acting outside of the confines of nation states escape accountability. They are abducted.

    The Convention on the Rights of the Child has been ratified by 191states; making it the most widely ratified international treaty. But it cannot reach out and bring such perpetrators to justice. They are not bound by the Convention .

    The African Charter on the Rights, and Welfare of the Child, in Article 22, calls for the rules of protection to also apply to “children in situations of internal armed conflicts, tension and strife.” As the world experiences more and more internal conflicts, we must find ways to protect children from not only the life-threatening physical dangers but also from long-term psychological trauma. A child’s separation from his or her mother, loss of family, loss of cultural identity, loss of opportunities to go to school all leave deep scars that rehabilitation, no matter how effective , can never really smooth away.

    We have whole generations in some countries of Africa and in the Arab world and elsewhere, who today know only a deeply engraved fear of others. The roar of bulldozers in the night destroying the safety of a home while others sleep, a childhood friend blown up on the way home, the tension of a child sleeping caught in expectation of another explosion, all are images of damaging instructions that disrupt normal growth patterns, forever.

    Building a new generation, one of compassion and of tolerance, will require dedication and immense efforts, especially from mothers. We have a dream of an Africa, where the children are free of the danger of armed conflicts, free to enjoy an environment of peace and stability, free to learn and contribute to a world of dialogue and understanding.

    Each of you has been struggling for this vision. May your work here today take us one step closer to the future. We have much to gain, and nothing to loose by walking forward where others have feared to tread.

May God bless each of you, your children and their children.