Office of the Honorable Roméo Dallaire

1- My office in partnership with Search for Common Ground, the Displaced Children and Orphan’s Fund (USAID), UNICEF Canada and University of Winnipeg are collaborating on a project entitled Reframing the Dialogue: Eliminating the Use of Children as Soldiers.

The overarching goal is to develop an integrated set of tools that can be used to eliminate the use of children in war.

The distinctive aspect of our initiative is the military analysis. We will examine how and why children are brought into fighting forces and how the strategic advantages that armed groups gain from using children in combat and support roles can be eliminated. This military analysis constitutes the focus of our call for papers and is the leading thread to the overall initiative.

2- Senator Dallaire is the Chair of the federal Committee Against Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children. During the 1996 Stockholm Congress, Canada supported the Draft Declaration and Plan of Action to combat the commercial sexual exploitation of children and youth. A Committee, which meets four times yearly, was then created. Since, it has expanded from the original federal delegation to include representatives from municipalities and the non-governmental sector to help develop a Canadian strategy in response to the 1996 Declaration and Agenda for Action.

The Committee agreed that the Canadian follow-up strategy to the Stockholm Congress should fit the orientations set out in the report presented at the end of the Congress by Professor Vitit Muntarbhorn, former UN Special Rapporteur on the Sale of Children, Child Prostitution and Child Pornography.

The seven orientations are: (i) child participation; (ii) prevention; (iii) protection; (iv)recovery/ reintegration; (v) information collection and dissemination; (vi) international cooperation; and (vii) follow-up.

At the next meeting, child and youth participation will be examined and discussed.