International Workshop/Symposium on Children and Armed Conflict - Reintegration for Former Child Soldiers in the Post-conflict Community

October 27, 2000

1. The International Workshop/Symposium on Children and Armed Conflict - Reintegration for Former Child Soldiers in the Post-conflict Community will be held in Tokyo from 19 (Sun) to 21 (Tue) November. This Workshop/Symposium is co-sponsored by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Foundation for Advanced Studies on International Development (FASID), and Search for Common Ground (a US NGO), and supported by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), Asahi Shimbun, NHK (Japan Broadcasting Corporation), and the Japan Committee for the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF).

2. The Workshop will be participated in by those concerned from the United Nations, UNICEF, academic circles including universities, and NGOs engaged in the reintegration for former child soldiers in Africa.

3. The participants in the Workshop will raise questions on assistance for the reintegration of former child soldiers, which is considered to be an important agenda from the standpoint of long-term development and the prevention of reoccurrence of conflict in such a conflict-prone region as Africa, formulate guidelines to be taken into consideration in carrying out the reintegration assistance, and study concrete proposals for the assistance in accordance with these guidelines. In the afternoon of the 21st November, an open symposium will be held to present the outcome of the Workshop to explain the present situation of the issue, its controversial points, and the efforts to be made by the international community.

4. The reintegration for former child soldiers was a priority issue at the Tokyo Agenda for Action adopted at the Second Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD-II), held in Tokyo in 1998.
      The issue of children under conflict was also taken up as an important agenda item at the G8 Kyushu-Okinawa Summit in July this year. At the G8 Foreign Ministers' Meeting, it was agreed in the "G8 Miyazaki Initiatives for Conflict Prevention", adopted at the Meeting, that the issue should be tackled as one of the priority fields.
      This Workshop/Symposium is an initiative taken by Japan in the field of conflict prevention as well as protection and assistance of war affected children, and is also a follow up activity of TICAD-II and the G8 Kyushu-Okinawa Summit.

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