Topic: Children and Armed Conflict
Country: Iran
Delegate Name: Eric Brichetto
School: Forest Hills Central High School
Topic page: background guide and all position papers All Iran position papers GLIMUN 2009 committees
Children are not meant to be exposed to armed conflict. By their very nature of innocence and immaturity as human beings, it is often extremely traumatic for children who have experienced armed conflict, which in itself is a very chaotic and difficult thing to cope with even for mature adults. In addition, the issue of children and armed conflict is a complicated and multifaceted problem. Child soldiers, forced laborers, refugees, orphans, and victims of homicide or exploitation are all victims of armed conflict. Heartbreakingly, children have increasingly become the prime victims and, disturbingly, the instruments of armed conflict. For example, child soldiers are children forcefully recruited into the military (in direct violation of international law, and which is defined as a war crime) who are subsequently brainwashed and utilized in such roles as informers, cannon fodder, clearers of minefields, hostage-takers, assassins, messengers, spotters, human shields, and the less exotic role of a soldier. Many armed groups have found that children are easier and cheaper to recruit, manipulate, indoctrinate, etc. due to their vulnerability and immaturity. Children are abducted, terrorized, forced to murder family members or other children, and sometimes even manipulated into becoming severely addicted to hard drugs and dependent on their supplying fighting group; these brutal methods and several others are used as efficient techniques for recruitment and maintaining loyalty. In addition, children across the globe are arrested and arbitrarily held in detention, sometimes for long periods of time and sometimes without trial, simply because they were in the wrong place at the wrong time. For example, Omar Ahmed Khadr, the only Western citizen still in the facility and the youngest person held there, has been held in the United States’ Guantanamo Bay concentration camps for 7 years, allegedly due to his throwing of a grenade that killed an American soldier (which occurred when he was fifteen years of age); however, as shown by documents accidentally released by the Pentagon in 2008, there has been no evidence whatsoever that he threw the grenade save for the fact that he was in the building at the time. Furthermore, girls are often prime targets for exploitation in armed conflicts; they are often abducted and raped (which subsequently results in their being stigmatized by their communities for being “tainted”), held as “wives” of combatants, and are increasingly and disturbingly used as soldiers. The Office of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict has defined the following war crimes as the most severe and grave violations against children in conflict:killing or maiming of children; recruitment or use of children as soldiers; attacks against schools or hospitals; denial of humanitarian access for children; abduction of children; and rape and other grave sexual abuse of children.
The Islamic Republic of Iran is relieved to say that it has no problems with child soldiers. Iran is a very stable and peaceful country, with a close and friendly relationship between government and citizenry. Iran therefore has no need for child soldiers in any case. It should be noted, however, that the Iranian definition of a minor and the definition of a child is different from that of countries in the West. In Iran, there is no specific definition of a child, but the age where a boy becomes a man is known as the age of maturity, involving both physical and mental growth, and is commonly understood to be fifteen lunar years. In any case, the Islamic Republic of Iran is a member state of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, and willingly follows the obligations detailed therein, though it reserves the right not to adhere to the Convention if it comes into conflict with domestic or Islamic law.
Iran wishes to have good relations with all countries, even the United States, and hopes that the international community is understanding and accepting of Iran’s policies on the matter. Iran would be particularly appreciative of support from Bangladesh, India, Japan, People’s Republic of China, Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, Georgia, Sudan, Senegal, and Uzbekistan.
Iran is in firm opposition to the tyrannical and illegal Zionist regime of Israel. It also expects opposition from the United States, although Iran would _always_ be happy to have peaceful and friendly talks with the United States once it ceases its hypocrisy and resolves to commit itself to its own ideals of peace, freedom, and justice.
