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The Security Council Working Group on Children and Armed Conflict, in connection with the examination of the fourth report of the Secretary-General on children and armed conflict in Mali (S/2022/856), agreed to address the following messages through a public statement by the Chair of the Working Group:

To all parties to armed conflict in Mali, including the Malian armed forces, Ansar Eddine, as part of Jama’a Nusrat ul-Islam wa al-Muslimin (JNIM), Mouvement national de libération de l’Azawad (MNLA), as part of the Coordination des mouvements de l’Azawad (CMA), as well as the Platform coalition, including affiliated groups:

• Strongly condemning all violations and abuses that continue to be committed against children by parties to the conflict in Mali, noting with grave concern the considerable increase in verified violations and abuses throughout the reporting period; urging all parties concerned to immediately end and prevent all violations and abuses involving the recruitment and use of children, killing and maiming of children, rape and other forms of sexual violence against children, abductions, attacks on schools and hospitals and denial of humanitarian access, and to comply with their obligations under applicable international law, including international humanitarian law and international human rights law;
• Calling on all the parties to the conflict to further implement the previous conclusions of the Working Group on Children and Armed Conflict in Mali (S/AC.51/2020/11);
• Expressing serious concern about the security challenges facing the United Nations country task force on monitoring and reporting in Mali, which presented challenges to the verification of violations and abuses against children, and that as noted in the report of the Secretary-General the information contained in the report does not reflect the full impact of armed conflict on children in Mali during the reporting period, and in this regard urging parties to the conflict to ensure United Nations personnel safe and unhindered access to territories under their control, including for monitoring and reporting purposes;
• Commending the continued collaboration between the CMA and the United Nations to accelerate the implementation by CMA of its action plan; welcoming the adoption in August 2021 by the two factions of the Platform coalition of armed groups of an action plan to end and prevent child recruitment and use; calling upon CMA and the Platform coalition to swiftly and fully implement the action plan and to facilitate safe, timely and unhindered access for humanitarian actors and medical personnel to the areas under their control for the purpose of delivering assistance to children, monitoring progress in the implementation of the action plan and verifying allegations;
• Stressing the importance of accountability for all violations and abuses against children in armed conflict; stressing that all perpetrators of the six grave violations must be brought to justice and held accountable without undue delay, including through timely and systematic investigations and, as appropriate, prosecution and conviction; and underscoring that all victims and survivors have access to justice, as well as that all children have access to gender-sensitive, age-appropriate, disability-inclusive, non-discriminatory and comprehensive child protection services;
• Noting that, on 13 July 2012, the transitional authorities of Mali referred the situation in Mali since January 2012 to the International Criminal Court, to which Mali is a State party;
• Underscoring that child protection provisions should be fully taken into account by all stakeholders engaged in the implementation of the Agreement on Peace and Reconciliation in Mali, as appropriate; and calling for enhanced efforts with regard to the implementation of the national disarmament, demobilization and reintegration programme required by the Agreement;
• Expressing deep concern at, and condemnation of, the considerable increase in the verified recruitment and use of children to fulfil various roles, noting that signatory armed groups were the main perpetrators of the recruitment and use of children; and strongly urging all parties to immediately release, without preconditions, all children from their ranks, hand them over to the relevant civilian child protection actors, and end and prevent further recruitment and use of children in line with their obligations as set out in the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the involvement of children in armed conflict;
• Expressing grave concern at the deprivation of liberty of children for their association or alleged association with armed groups; noting that some children lacked valid civil documentation to prove their age; emphasising that children who have been recruited or used by parties to the conflict, including groups designated as terrorists, and are accused of having committed crimes during armed conflicts, should be treated primarily as victims, and that detention should be used only as a measure of last resort and for the shortest appropriate period of time; and urging the Transition Government of Mali to comply with its obligations under the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the Optional Protocol thereto on the involvement of children in armed conflict and calling for continued implementation of the Protocol on the Release and Handover of Children Associated with Armed Forces and Groups signed by the United Nations and the Government of Mali in 2013, as well as guided by the Principles and Guidelines on Children Associated with Armed Forces or Armed Groups (the Paris Principles) signed by Mali;
• Encouraging the Transition Government to develop a national strategy to prevent instances of the six grave violations against children to focus on long-term and sustainable reintegration and rehabilitation opportunities for children affected by armed conflict that are gender-and age-sensitive, and inclusive for children with disabilities, including access to health care, psychosocial support, and education programmes, as well as raising awareness and working with communities to avoid stigmatisation of these children and facilitate their return and reintegration, while taking into account the specific needs of girls and boys, including children with disabilities, to contribute to the well-being of children through inter-alia education provided in a safe environment and to sustainable peace and security; encouraging efforts towards the implementation of the national disarmament, demobilisation and reintegration programme required by the Agreement on Peace and Reconciliation in Mali; in that regard encouraging the Transition Government to ensure the implementation of the required national disarmament, demobilisation and reintegration programmes, which is required by the Agreement on Peace and Reconciliation, and that all programmes and justice and security sector reforms take into account the specific needs of girls and boys, including through the development of a gender-sensitive and age-sensitive process;
• Expressing deep concern at the continued high number of children killed or maimed, including as a direct or indirect result of reported attacks, rising intercommunal violence, crossfire during clashes among parties to conflict and incidents with explosive remnants of war or improvised explosive devices; and calling upon parties to respect their obligations under international humanitarian law, in particular the principles of distinction and proportionality enshrined therein;
• Expressing grave concern about incidents of rape and other forms of sexual violence perpetrated against children; noting that such acts often occurred after abduction and during association with armed groups and included forced marriage; urging all parties to take immediate and specific measures to put an end to and prevent the perpetration of rape and other forms of sexual violence against children, including by other members to the conflict in Mali, and stressing the importance of accountability for those who commit sexual violence against children; noting with concern the difficulty to track, document and verify such violations and abuses owing to several factors, including prevailing insecurity, lack of protection for victims and survivors and witnesses, impunity, stigma, fear of reprisals, limited access to justice and sociocultural barriers, resulting in an underreporting of the prevalence of cases of sexual violence against children that may have occurred in Mali during the reporting period, and stressing the importance of providing non-discriminatory, age appropriate, and comprehensive specialised services, including psychosocial, health, legal and livelihood support and services, for victims and survivors of sexual violence;
• Strongly condemning attacks on schools and hospitals in violation of international law, including the destruction of infrastructure and related facilities and attacks on personnel; expressing concern at the increase in verified attacks during the reporting period; calling upon all parties to the armed conflict to comply with applicable international law and to respect the civilian character of schools and hospitals, including their personnel, as such, and to immediately end and prevent attacks or threats of attacks against those institutions and their personnel, as well as the military use of schools and hospitals in violation of applicable international law, as guided by the Safe Schools Declaration, which was endorsed by the Government of Mali in February 2018; and noting that the education and health systems remained deeply affected by the conflict, intercommunal violence and overall insecurity, depriving 519,300 children of their fundamental rights to education and basic health care;
• Strongly condemning instances of abduction of children related to growing insecurity and intensification of armed groups’ activities, including for the purposes of the recruitment and use of children, and rape and other forms of sexual violence against children; noting with concern the fourfold increase in verified cases of abduction; urging all relevant parties to immediately release without preconditions all abducted children;
• Expressing grave concern at incidents of denial of humanitarian access, including attacks on humanitarian personnel and facilities that have significantly constrained humanitarian response, and restrictions on the delivery of humanitarian aid to children, and calling upon all parties to conflict to allow and facilitate, in accordance with international humanitarian law, safe, timely and unhindered humanitarian access, consistent with the United Nations guiding principles of humanitarian assistance, adopted in General Assembly resolution 46/182, as well as the humanitarian principles of humanity, neutrality, impartiality and independence, to respect the exclusively humanitarian nature and impartiality of humanitarian aid and to respect the work of all United Nations agencies and humanitarian actors without adverse distinction;

To community and religious leaders:

• Emphasising the important role of community and religious leaders in strengthening the protection of children affected by armed conflict;
• Urging them to publicly condemn and continue to advocate ending and preventing violations and abuses against children, in particular those involving the recruitment and use of children, the killing and maiming of children, rape and other forms of sexual violence against children, abductions and attacks and threats of attacks against schools and hospitals, and to engage with the Transition Government, the United Nations, and other relevant stakeholders to support the reintegration of children affected by armed conflict in their communities, including by raising awareness to avoid the stigmatisation of these children.