Intervention by the Permanent Representative of the Argentine Republic, Amb. Martín García Moritán

July 22

 

• Argentina would like to congratulate the Global Coalition for Reintegration of Children Soldiers on this important initiative and express a strong support for its hard work.

• We highly value the work of the Expert Advisory Group in drafting the two briefing papers which offer us a renewed understanding of reintegration not only as immediate humanitarian assistance but also as a long-term commitment to make children’s reintegration programs sustainable as we face programmatic and financial constraints.

•  As highlighted in the Gaps and Need briefing paper, we fully agree that “a key challenge to any reintegration program is short-term funding for a long term process”. We can´t ignore the strong and detrimental impact that lack of funding for reintegration programs has on children and their future. It is of utmost importance to find ways to best address these costing challenges. In this regard, we look forward to constructively engaging in fruitful discussions with all relevant stakeholders to overcome these constraints and ensure successful and sustainable reintegration programs for all children.

• We welcome the long-term approach towards reintegration in the understanding that in order to have a positive impact on the child´s physical and psychological health the process should be restorative, future oriented and focused on the child´s specific needs.

• Given Argentina´s long standing history of working together with other States, civil society, UN Agencies and any other relevant stakeholders on global initiatives, we support the “all-of-society” approach presented in the Reframing briefing paper. We understand that the engagement and coordinated efforts of all actors are key elements not only to the immediate humanitarian aid but also to a comprehensive, restorative and sustainable reintegration.

• We greatly appreciate the valuable information shared by the speakers. We would also like to highlight the importance of these meetings, which serve as a platform for all the relevant stakeholders to exchange experiences, good practices and innovative ideas  regarding the reintegration processes of children who were involved in armed conflict.

• There is an urgent need to think of concrete actions to comply with the cross-cutting principle of “Leaving No One Behind from the 2030 Agenda”. And this initiative can prove to be a very important step towards our goal. Only by working towards achieving a humanitarian-development-peace approach will there be a sustainable outcome to ensure the successful reintegration of all children.