11 February 2021 – Despite global commitments and efforts, children around the world continue to suffer from the consequences of conflicts and are still being used as expendable fuel of war. Armed forces and armed groups continue to recruit and use children, tearing them away from their families and communities, cruelly stripping away their dignity and destroying their lives and their future. Only a fraction of those released are benefiting from reintegration programmes.
As we approach the 25th Anniversary of the mandate of the UN Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict, the EU expresses its continued strong support for the Special Representative, her Office and the children and armed conflict mandate.