Vancouver summit to set sights on combating use of child soldiers
Vancouver is poised to become a symbol for protecting children and preventing the use of child soldiers when a series of commitments bearing the city’s name is rolled out at this week’s peacekeeping summit.
The international community has been quietly working on the so-called Vancouver Principles for some time, which a senior UN official hoped would give a shot in the arm to efforts to protect children in conflict.
“It’s a way of re-energizing the mobilization of the international community, and I think this is very important,” said Jean-Pierre Lacroix, the UN’s undersecretary general of peacekeeping operations.
“The notion of having states committing to a set of principles to do certain things and not to do certain things is also very important.”