The Liechtenstein Institute on Self-Determination's Project on Gender in the Global Community will co-sponsor a one-day workshop, "Priorities for the UN's Children and Armed Conflict Agenda in 2019," on Thursday, February 14, 2019, at the Princeton Club of New York. The workshop is co-sponsored with the NGO Watchlist on Children and Armed Conflict and will discuss specific, concrete, and targeted actions that can be taken within the framework of the UN’s Children and Armed Conflict (CAC) agenda to improve and strengthen the CAC agenda, and UN responses to grave violations against children. This is the fifth annual policy workshop co-sponsored by LISD and Watchlist bringing together Security Council members, other UN Member States, relevant UN departments and offices, civil society representatives, and other key constitutents to consider key priorities of the CAC agenda for the upcoming year. The workshop sessions are private and by invitation only. Faculty and students interested in attending the workshop should contact GGC Project Director, Beth English.

The workshop will include three working sessions. The first session will focus on the Security Council Working Group. The session will open with remarks by H.E. Ambassador Olof Skoog, Permanent Representative of the Permanent Mission of Sweden and previous Working Group Chair, and H.E. Ambassador Karen Van Vlierberge, Deputy Permanent Representative of the Permanent Mission of Belgium, the current chair of the Working Group. Participants will reflect on the challenges and opportunities for the work of the Group to be carried out effectively, and will discuss and identify concrete actions for the Working Group to take forward in 2019 to ensure the CAAC mandate is fully supported by the Security Council. The second session will focus on the Monitoring and Reporting Mechanism (MRM) and Engagement with Listed and Non-Listed Parties. Participants will hear from UNICEF and the OSRSG-CAAC on their experiences with the MRM, including successes, challenges, and opportunities to strengthen. The third working session will focus on the status of child protection in relevant UN peacekeeping missions with respect to the implementation of the CAAC mandate. In this context, participants will engage with these timely topics to develop concrete proposals for how to support implementation and advocacy in the near term.

In a closing wrap-up session, based on the recommendations from the previous sessions, participants will provide input for priorities and exchange views on how to best to take forward key workshop findings in 2019.