Director General/Executive Director
Distinguished participants,
Good morning, and welcome to the Vienna International Centre.
Improving justice system responses to the recruitment and exploitation of young girls and boys by terrorists and violent extremist groups is a major priority.
We are happy to welcome here the Justices of the Residual Court for this meeting.
The UN Office on Drugs and Crime, as always, stands ready to support your work to protect children.
Child recruitment is not specific to any particular ideology, religion, or ethnic group. Nor is it a new phenomenon.
However, nowadays terrorist groups have broader reach and more comprehensive strategies than ever before to abuse and recruit children.
We all remember the brutal abduction of the Chibok girls by Boko Haram, or the propaganda by ISIL showing children being used as executioners.
Despite the limitations to data collection in conflict-affected areas, in the past years the UN has verified thousands of instances of child recruitment.
While in the hands of these groups, children are exposed to continuous, often extreme, violence. They are enslaved, sexually exploited, indoctrinated, forced to serve as soldiers and human shields, or to detonate bombs.
State authorities and practitioners face a number of complex challenges in dealing with these children, who are often perceived as serious security threats by governments and communities.
In view of UNODC's mandates addressing terrorism and violence against children, many Member States have requested specialized technical assistance.
In response, our Office has provided targeted support to more than twenty countries, and we have organized training in the Sahel, East Africa and the Middle East, as well as South and South-East Asia.
Recognizing the need for comprehensive, holistic approaches that address human rights and security concerns, we developed the UNODC Handbook on "Children recruited and exploited by terrorist and violent extremist groups: the Role of the Justice System".
Launched at the start of this year, the Handbook aims to provide sound, consistent guidance, covering recruitment methods and their prevention, responses by the justice system, rehabilitation and reintegration.
The Handbook draws on evidence-based practices and international legal frameworks, including jurisprudence from international and special courts.
The important jurisprudence provided by the Special Court for Sierra Leone, as it relates to the exploitation of children, must be mentioned.
I would also like to take the opportunity to thank Austria for your invaluable support to UNODC and our programme to stop violence against children.
In particular, I would like to note your leadership with Thailand, which led to the adoption by the General Assembly of the UN Model Strategies and Practical Measures on the Elimination of Violence against Children in the Field of Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice.
I would also like to highlight the work of the Committee on the Rights of the Child under the leadership of Justice Renate Winter.
Ladies and gentlemen,
The recruitment and exploitation of children by terrorist groups is a serious form of violence, profoundly affecting the children in question and society as a whole.
Today's meeting can help to address this grave challenge, and further promote comprehensive strategies to strengthen prevention and protection, and uphold human rights and the rule of law.
I thank you for being here, and I wish you a fruitful meeting.