H.E. Ambassador Cho Tae-yul

Permanent Representative

Consultation Meeting with Former Child Soldiers and

Former Children Affected by Armed Conflict

11 June 2019

Hunter College, New York

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Mme. Virginia Gamba, SRSG for Children and Armed Conflict,

Mr. Omar Abdi, Deputy Executive Director of UNICEF

Distinguished Guests, Ladies and Gentlemen, 

Let me start by warmly welcoming the former child soldiers and children affected by armed conflict who are here with us today.  

I would also like to thank the members of the Expert Advisory Group, the staff of the Office of the Special Representative of the SG for Children and Armed Conflict, UNICEF, and Hunter College for their hard work and dedication in making today’s special event possible.

Distinguished Guests, Ladies and Gentlemen,

Last month, I had the opportunity to travel to Colombia in my capacity as President of the Executive Board of UNDP/UNFPA/UNOPS. While I was there, I visited a local community in Meta, the region that suffered the fiercest of fighting prior to the signing of the peace agreement in 2016. This was a community where ex-combatants and ordinary citizens, including victims and the families of victims of the armed conflict were living together, and yet, I felt no tension. All seemed so “normal.” I even enjoyed the warm hospitality of a nice lunch, gifts, and smiles.

Through my conversations with them, I learned a lot about the reintegration process that had been underway in Colombia, the key challenges that they had faced, and how the community came together to overcome such challenges. We also discussed how the UN could play a better role in supporting the efforts to further strengthen this process.

At one point in the conversation, I asked the ex-combatants and victims, “Are you all confident that the state of peace you are now enjoying is sustainable?” And their answer was, “That’s our hope. We will work together.” They said that getting this far had not been easy and they knew there would continue to be difficulties down the road, but they intended to do their best as one community.

I was so impressed by their commitment to peace and development. But it was with a heavy heart that I came back to New York, because I know all too well that peacebuilding, post-conflict reconstruction, and reintegration cannot succeed through the sole effort of the local community. There have been too many cases where external factors beyond their control obstruct peace and development efforts, irrespective of their will and desire.

The main objective of the Global Coalition for the Reintegration of Child Soldiers is to ensure that the hope of people in need such as those I met in Meta, Colombia is transformed into reality. It is also to make sure that there are many more agents of hope, just like yourselves here today, who have not only survived armed conflict, but who can go one big step further to help others and foster critical efforts towards peace and socio-economic development.

It was with its commitment to these objectives that the Republic of Korea has recently joined the Steering Committee of the Global Coalition for the Reintegration of Child Soldiers. We will work closely with other members of the Committee to achieve our shared goals. Our efforts will focus on the Coalition’s activities for, among others, strengthening the peace-development-humanitarian nexus through reintegration programs, identifying the key principles and elements of a successful reintegration program, the challenges we face and ways to overcome them, calculating the number of children in need of reintegration services, and improving and enhancing the sustainability and predictability of funding.

The Republic of Korea is very proud to sponsor this two-day event and will remain committed to playing its due part in addressing this important issue. Through the meetings of today and tomorrow, we aim to learn from your unique experience and insight, and to feed that into the two briefing papers that the Expert Advisory Group is preparing. These consultations are all the more important because our recommendations on how to improve reintegration programs need to be specific and implementable, while accurately reflecting the realities on the ground.

I look forward to an in-depth and open discussion on the many useful topics laid out by the Expert Advisory Group, and I am confident that the next two days of consultations will move us one step closer to realizing our goal of transforming hope into reality.

Thank you. /END/