The ambassador Nguyen Phuong Nga affirms that Viet Nam and ASEAN countries welcomed the progress in implementing the UN Security Council's resolutions on children and armed conflict.  Photo: Vietnamnet.vn

(VOVworld) – The UN opened a debate on “Child protection in armed conflict” in New York on Wednesday to call on international organizations to intensify efforts to protect children during armed conflict.

Speaking on behalf of the ASEAN, Viet Nam's Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Ambassador Nguyen Phuong Nga, strongly condemned the increasing number of child abductions and attacks targeting schools and hospitals made by non-state armed groups.

She highlighted ASEAN efforts in child protection, including the participation in the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the approval of the ASEAN Declaration on the Elimination of Violence against Women and Children in ASEAN in 2013.

Ambassador Nguyen Phuong Nga emphasised that the variety of non-state armed groups in their nature, form and motive, means that different measures of engagement are required to defeat them, and this should be undertaken within a broader strategy of conflict prevention and response.