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Nepalese Vow To Release Former Child Soldiers
Monday, December 8, 2008
United Nations
Nepal’s Prime Minister, Pushpa Kamal Dahal, has agreed to release the remaining 3,000 former child soldiers from Maoist army cantonment camps, a senior United Nations official announced today.
The Nepalese Government has committed to discharging the children by February next year and for the process to be managed in cooperation with the UN Mission in Nepal (UNMIN) and the UN country team, which includes the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the UN Development Program and the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR).
The comprehensive peace agreement, which ended the conflict between forces loyal to the former King of Nepal and Maoists in 2006, called for the immediate release of the children once they entered the cantonments, the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict Radhika Coomaraswamy told UN radio today at the conclusion of her six-day visit to the South Asian country.
UNICEF and UNDP have created reintegration packages for the children with about 64 options of various vocational and other skills tailored to their needs.
