Brussels, 09/12/2004 (Agence Europe) - The European Union should appoint "a full-time special representative" with responsibility for defending the rights of children and, in particular, propose effective responses to the problem of child soldiers in the world, states a press release by MEP Glenys Kinnock (the British Labour member who is co-president of the ACP/EU joint parliamentary assembly). Ms Kinnock also states that every time the EU negotiates with countries which use child soldiers, it should bring pressure to bear to put an end to the impunity enjoyed by many who exploit children in this way. "Children are having to cut other children up alive (…), kill members of their family (…), as a kind of punishment for some misdemeanour", said Ms Kinnock.
The Brussels coalition on Children and Armed Conflict and the Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers point out in a press release that according to UNICEF figures, 1.6 million children have been killed and over 20 million kidnapped since 1990. Human Rights Watch notes that 35 to 45% of new recruits to the army of Burma/Myanmar are children (this country has one of the highest numbers of child soldiers, fighting for the national army and the opposition alike), and that in Uganda, thousands of children "known as 'night commuters', have to walk many kilometres every night (…) to avoid being abducted by the Lords Resistance Army".