16 Jan

Union Minister for Social Welfare, Relief and Resettlement Dr Win Myat Aye welcomed Ms Virginia Gamba, the UN Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict, and party at his office in Nay Pyi Taw yesterday.

At the meeting, the Union Minister discussed improvement of issue in children and armed conflict, compared with the situations before May 2018 when the Special Representative made a visit to Myanmar. Myanmar enacted the Child Rights’ Law in 2019, which includes one chapter to protect children in armed conflicts, ratified the Optional Protocol to the CRC on the involvement of children in armed conflict on 27 September 2019, and formed the Inter-Ministerial Committee for the Prevention of the Six Grave Violations during Armed Conflict on 7 January 2019.

The Union Minister also talked on rehabilitation works for children and youth, education and healthcare services for them and future programmes for their roles in building a Democratic Federal Union.

The UN Special Representative discussed to make the world know these improvements, to seek assistance from international communities as these works required financial, manpower and technical resources, and to adopt long term plans for rehabilitation works.

She also advised to discuss the issues of children in the ongoing peace talks to prevent them from child labour and human trafficking cases and from the risks of landmines.

She also asked for accelerating these works to meet the target of 2030 UN Sustainable Development Goals.

The Union Minister and the UN Secretary-General’s Special Representative also discussed the future plans for protection of children.—MNA (Translated by Aung Khin)