The Liechtenstein Institute on Self-Determination's Project on Gender in the Global Community and the NGO Watchlist on Children and Armed Conflict will convene a workshop, "Addressing Child Protection in Conflict Mediation: Charting a Way Forward," on Tuesday, July 15, 2014, at the Princeton Club of New York. The objective of this workshop is to bring together international policy makers and actors engaged in mediation and peacemaking and UN member states and entities engaged with the UN’s Children and Armed Conflict agenda in order to discuss and identify specific, concrete, and targeted actions that can be taken to promote child protection in ceasefire and peace agreements.

Since it adopted its first thematic resolution on children and armed conflict, S/RES/1261 (1999), the UN Security Council has repeatedly called on parties to ensure that the protection of children is taken into account during peace negotiations. As recently as March 2014, the Council unanimously reconfirmed this notion with resolution 2143, which urges member states, United Nations entities, and other concerned parties to ensure that child protection provisions, including those relating to the release and reintegration of children formerly associated with armed forces or armed groups, are integrated into all peace negotiations and peace agreements.

In her 2013 report to the UN General Assembly, Leila Zerrougui, Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General on Children and Armed Conflict, also highlighted the need to mainstream children’s concerns in the peacemaking process, but problems of implementation persist and the mainstreaming of children's issues in peace processes have not effectively been translated into practice. The 15 July workshop intends to build on and complement the Security Council’s efforts towards the mainstreaming of child protection in mediation by charting a way forward; identifying specific and concrete actions; and promoting the issue in ongoing ceasefire and peace agreement negotiations. The workshop will consist of two working sessions devoted to (1) the identification of child protection language in peace agreements, and (2) finding an innovative and targeted approach to address child protection in ceasefire and peace agreements.

This is the third Children and Armed Conflict workshop convened by LISD's Project on Gender in the Global Community and Watchlist since February 2013, and will serve as the launch of a multi-year LISD-Watchlist project on promoting child protection in conflict mediation.

Participation in the workshop is by invitation only.