Dubai: The UN’s Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict, Laila Zerrougui, has requested leaders in countries neighbouring Syria to try their best to bring the fighting parties to the negotiating table.
In a special interview with Gulf News she talks about her last visit to Syria and warns that the consequences of this war will be dire if the violence, hate and hunger in the country continue.
What was the reaction from Syria, after releasing the report on the status of innocent children as victims of the conflict?
I think that the most important thing for us is to engage with them and let them understand that children are paying a very high price in this war. We have invited government officials and members of opposition groups to have a discussion with the UN to facilitate access and work to eliminate the suffering of the children. We have succeeded in getting them engaged with the UN. We are not expecting a ceasefire announcement soon to see an end to the bombardments. But we have raised these grave violations committed against civilians, especially innocent children. Still, unfortunately, the war is going on.
Although opposition groups are listed for recruiting children to fight in the war front, they made it clear that they would like to engage with us and stop recruiting minors.
The Syrian government recently adopted a law forbidding the recruitment and use of children under 18; the UN encourages authorities to enforce the law and protect children.
How difficult was it to collect the information for your report? Did the fact that you belong to the United Nations help you to get it?
[Being the] UN representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict gives you the legitimacy to address very sensitive issues with the parties of conflicts and also to allow those who are working on the ground, the UN and other partners, to have an open forum where they can engage with the government and the armed groups that are fighting.
I think it was a good opportunity and my interaction with people on the ground made this visit helpful and allowed us to list the problems that affect the people and engage both parties to end them.
If you ask whether being from UN helps in collecting information? It depends. Yes it could help — sometimes people misunderstand the role of the UN.
They consider that we have the power to end the suffering, to end the war, to find a solution. It is not the case. We are mediators but we are not the one who can just push the button and it will be solved.
Yes! We have the UN legitimacy to engage with the parties to the conflict and try to eliminate the suffering of those who are paying the high price in this war.
In your last press conference you said that, even for Syrian officials who are responsible for humanitarian issues in their own country, it is difficult to get access and help Syrian children. If it is difficult for them, how can the UN do it?
The UN considers particularly those who are working on humanitarian issues, the major merit is that they are neutral. They try to help those who are in need on both sides and that is why they sometimes have more access to the parties that agree to work with them in good faith. Their intervention is accepted on both sides.
Of course, if you send people to an area under the control of a [rebel] group and if those people are seen as a part of the government, they will not be welcomed and vice versa.
That is why the UN and humanitarian groups have a role to play in this kind of polarised situation, where people are fighting each other. The UN has more legitimacy to work and possibility to have access, but it is very complicated and very difficult. It is difficult because you are operating in a war zone, inside the conflict, where everyone would like to weaken the others. And it is complicated on both sides because it is being controlled by the government or by armed groups.
Isn’t it the responsibility of each country to pass laws to protect its own children?
It is the responsibility of everyone fighting. Of course, the primary responsibility of the government is to protect civilians and children. The government is the first to take the precautionary measures to ensure that even in a very difficult situation the civilian aspect will be respected. When it comes to the belligerents fighting also, it is their responsibility to ensure that their modus operandi, their interventions and the fight they are involved in, do not affect children or at least they ensure they take the precautionary measures to reduce the impact on civilians and of course primary the children.
Does the UN have a team in Syria to follow the situation closely?
When the Security Council decides to take a mandate under their umbrella, it gives us the responsibility to report to the Security Council any violations, to list parties that are committing these violations, particularly killing or maiming, recruitment and use, abduction, sexual violence, attacks on schools and hospitals and denial of humanitarian access.
The Security Council also put in place tools and one of those tools is the Task Force of the UN working in every country under the actionable agenda.
The Task Force is the country team, and particularly if you have a mission, the head of mission, Unicef, UNHCR and other agencies working on the ground. We are not only in Syria but also in neighbouring countries, with teams that provide the information to the UN. The Security Council insists that before taking any sanctions, if necessary, there must be UN verified information.
How can other countries help out?
First of all by providing the necessary support to the humanitarian assistance to those who are working to help all affected by the conflict, And children are the majority in every camp, they are more than 50 per cent.
Second is to provide financial support. I also raise the issue of education of children and explain that children in camps need a system that would allow them to go to schools to continue education, to follow the curricula that allows them to be reintegrated when they return to their country. The international community can play a role in supporting Unicef and other humanitarian groups working in the camps to ensure education for the children.
Another request is that all the countries in the region try to do their best to influence the parties that are fighting and bring them to the negotiating. This war is happening in a populated area, affecting the majority of the population and destabilising the regional countries such as Lebanon, Jordan and Turkey.
Certainly, the consequence of this war will go beyond what we see now and if we continue to see this violence and the [prevailing] level of hate and hunger in the community.
