EU Council Conclusions on the Review of the EU Guidelines on Children and Armed Conflict

The Council adopted the following conclusions:

"The Council welcomes the review of the Guidelines on Children and Armed Conflict and adopts the updated version of these guidelines as set out in doc. 10019/08.

The Council reaffirms its strong commitment to the promotion and protection of the rights of the child, and in particular those of children affected by armed conflict, who are among the most frequent victims of serious human rights violations and abuses. The Council reconfirms the close link between the Guidelines on Children's Rights adopted in December 2007 and the updated Guidelines on Children and Armed Conflict in terms of their jointly reinforcing implementation.

The EU recognizes the importance of ensuring coherence, complementarity and coordination between the various policies and actions targeting the situation of children affected by armed conflict in the various policy areas, including CFSP/ESDP, development cooperation and humanitarian aid.

The Council recalls its conclusions of May 2008 on the promotion and protection of the rights of the child in the EU's external action - the development and humanitarian dimensions, and on the Checklist for the integration of protection of children affected by armed conflict into ESDP operations. The Council also considers it of critical importance to raise awareness of this issue by giving more prominence to EU actions in this field worldwide.

The Council underlines the importance of further strengthening the implementation of the Guidelines on Children affected by Armed Conflict in particular through further mainstreaming of this issue throughout the EU. The Council invites all instances of its decision-making, civilian and military missions and all other offices, agencies, the special and personal representatives of the SG/HR, other bodies of the EU to redouble their efforts to implement the Guidelines. In this sense the Council welcomes the Handbook with Compilation of relevant documents on Mainstreaming Human Rights and Gender into European Security and Defence Policy. The Council looks forward to continued close co-operation with the Commission, Member States and civil society on this important issue.

The Council also stresses that EU actions should support and complement the work of the United Nations, including inter alia the implementation of UN Security Council resolution 1612 on children and armed conflict."

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• EU Council Conclusions on General Affairs (16/6/2008)
• Follow-up to the EU strategy on the rights of the child (26/5/2008)
• "Europe as the guardian angel of all children" - Speech by EU Commissioner Frattini (4/3/2008)
• "Keep children out of the firing line" (12/2/2008)
• European Community Statement- United Nations Commemorative High-Level Plenary Meeting devoted to the follow-up to the outcome of the Special Session on Children (13/12/2007)