UNICEF reports that two and a half million Afghan girls have been denied secondary education since the Taliban returned to power. A generation of doctors, teachers, and leaders are being lost. And Afghanistan is not alone, warned U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Mike Waltz.
In 1999, the UN Security Council adopted Resolution 1261, condemning the targeting and unlawful recruitment of children in war.
The UN has verified more than 38,000 grave violations against 24,000 children, the highest number of children affected since the Security Council took up the issue three decades ago, noted Ambassador Waltz.
“We have ... a responsibility to change this trajectory.” But we also have a responsibility to ask ourselves why the measures the UN has taken aren’t working.
“After 30 years, we cannot settle for an approach that measures success by reports produced, the numbers of reports, or the numbers of meetings held.”
“We need to look at the resources we have and whether they’re being used as effectively as they should be,” advised Ambassador Waltz.
“Our view is that our actions must match our words.” First Lady Melania Trump’s response is a case in point. She recently learned of the desperate plight of dozens and dozens of families, including children, trapped in Oleshky, Ukraine. Without reliable access to food, medicine, or electricity, these people were slowly dying, trapped in a war zone. And rather than calling on organizations to pay attention to it, she got to work. As a result, she secured an agreement between Russia and Ukraine for a local ceasefire to allow life-saving aid into the city and for the civilians to be evacuated safely.
The First Lady has also forged a coalition of 60 nations, together with American technology leaders, including Adobe, Amazon, Google, Intel, and others, to expand digital educational opportunities for children. These private sector partners have already announced more than $23 million in commitments towards a mission that the First Lady has called Fostering the Future Together.
While technology used responsibly can bring education and opportunity to children, noted Ambassador Waltz, it can also present new dangers. Terrorists and armed groups exploit digital platforms to recruit and abuse children. Fostering the Future Together is working with these same technology providers to ensure that they’re used safely.
The world’s children deserve programs that produce results, and international organizations like the UN must do more to provide them.