As my country has indicated on several occasions, crucial to addressing this problem and the issue of sexual violence against children in conflict is the possession of information that makes it possible to adopt preventive measures that allow for a rapid and effective response.
It is important to remember that, as we sit in the Chamber today, children are still being forced out of classrooms and playgrounds and onto battlefields. They are suffering the vilest forms of sexual abuse and rape. They are being disfigured, maimed and even murdered.
Allow me briefly to dwell on the issue of attacks against schools. As is clear from the report of the Secretary-General, we are witnessing on an increasingly frequent basis the destruction of schools and attacks on students and their teachers. In certain cases, girls' schools are specifically targeted. Insecurity prevents parents from sending their children to school for fear that their health or even life might be at risk.
Targeting schools also has far-reaching and damaging repercussions on development. Indeed, the World Bank, in its report on education in the Middle East and North Africa, argued that the provision of education, particularly for girls, is the single most effective intervention that countries can make to improve human development and to tackle conditions of fragility
In a more comprehensive manner, we believe that the six grave violations enumerated in resolution 1612 (2005) are of equal gravity and should be accorded the same attention by the Working Group. These are: killing and maiming of children, recruitment and use of child soldiers, rape and other forms of sexual violence against children, abduction of children, attacks against schools or hospitals, and denial of humanitarian access to children.
Kyrgyzstan welcomes the signing of the new plans of action mentioned in the report. We join the call of the Secretary-General to the parties involved in the recruitment, use, killing and maiming of children, as well as in committing sexual violence against them, to finalize plans of actions as soon as possible, in close cooperation with the relevant United Nations country task forces.
First, Japan is deeply concerned about the reported trend of an increasing number of attacks on schools and hospitals during conflicts. We strongly condemn the perpetrators of such attacks, in particular those who target female students and girls' schools.
Special attention should be paid to the scars that the experience of violence has left them with, and of course even more attention and care are needed if they have been subject to sexual violence.
Moreover, the increased interaction between the latter and the Office of the Special Representative on Sexual Violence in Conflict should be emphasized, since they deal with two sides of the same coin.
