…in anticipation of a visit from the UN chief Ban Ki-moon scheduled to arrive in Nepal on October 31. According to this article by the Thaindian News:
…there was growing speculation that the Maoists would free their disqualified combatants before the UN chief’s arrival…
UNMIN (United Nations Mission in Nepal) has been overseeing verification of the PLA (People’s Liberation Army, the armed wing of the Communist Party of Nepal) soldiers and reported that of 30,000 registered fighters, only 19,600 were qualified. Of the soldiers deemed ineligible, the majority were reported to be child soldiers. In 2006, the United Nations reported that there were over 512 cases of child recruitment by the PLA.
According to the 2008 Global Report by the Coalition Against the Use of Child Soldiers:
In March 2007 UNICEF and the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) called on all political parties to develop codes of conduct to prevent the misuse and manipulation of children during political activity.7 As of October 2007, no political party was known to have developed one.
The UN has offered to take an active role in the process, with the article noting that:
Unicef has volunteered to oversee the rehabilitation of the child soldiers. However, the government still needs to formulate a policy to safeguard the future of the other combatants, who have to be discharged because they were recruited after the peace pact.
Filed under: Nepal, United Nations , child soldiers, children, conflict, nepal, UNICEF, United Nations, War
