Machel Study 10-year Strategic Review: Children and Conflict in a Changing World

The seeds of this publication were planted in October 1992, in a special discussion on children and armed conflict initiated by the Committee on the Rights of the Child. The following year, the UN General Assembly adopted a resolution calling for the Secretary-General to appoint an independent expert to lead a study on the impact of armed conflict on children. Graça Machel, a Mozambican educator and international advocate for children, was chosen to lead that study. Her groundbreaking report, the ‘Impact of Armed Conflict on Children’, was presented to the General Assembly in 1996,1 which led to the creation of the Office of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict (OSRSG-CAAC) in September 1997. It was unanimously endorsed and has continued to move the world ever since. In September 2000, following a recommendation of the Machel report, the Government of Canada hosted the International Conference on War-Affected Children in Winnipeg. The timing of the conference was well planned, coinciding with the 10th anniversary of the World Summit for Children. In preparation for the event, the Governments of Canada and Norway supported a UNICEF team to work with Mrs. Machel on a review of progress since her previous report. The resulting document, ‘The Machel Review 1996–2000’, was presented to representatives of more than 100 countries at the Winnipeg conference. Several months later the report was circulated to the General Assembly and made into a book, The Impact of War on Children. In 2006, work got under way on a 10-year strategic review of progress since the original Machel study. This ambitious undertaking, financed by the Governments of Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, France, Germany, Norway and Sweden, was co-convened by the Office of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict and UNICEF. In addition to these two UN bodies, more than 40 UN agencies, nongovernmental organizations and academic institutions contributed to the report, along with children from nearly 100 countries. The initial findings were presented to the General Assembly in October 2007, as part of the annual report of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict.3 This publication is a more in-depth look at progress and remaining gaps. It is part of an ongoing advocacy effort to develop a common platform and to keep the cause of children in conflict in the conscience of citizens everywhere.