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For all media enquiries please contact our National Publicity Coordinator:
Email: media@warchild.org.au
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War Child UK wins international award
2 November 2006
War Child UK's campaigning work over the last year has been recognised by the International Public Relations Association and the United Nations.
Along with PR partner, Weber Shandwick, War Child is being awarded the 'PR on a Shoestring' award and the United Nations Grand Award for the success of our campaign to raise the profile of those children most severely marginalised by conflict: street children, child prisoners and child soldiers.
The campaign was launched with our hard-hitting 2005 report Your War is Not with Me which highlighted not only the problems facing children in Bosnia, Iraq, Afghanistan and Democratic Republic of Congo but the reactions of UK schoolchilren to them.
The publicity surrounding the report helped us to launch the now legendary Help: A Day in the Life album. The stellar line up (Coldplay, Radiohead, Keane, Hard Fi and Kaiser Chiefs amongst others) helped it become the fastest download album ever and an almost instant number 1 in the album charts. As well as making War Child over £450,000, the album helped us to put the story of children affected by conflict in front of millions of people in the UK and around the world.
War Child’s CEO Mark Waddington commented, "Raising awareness of the situations faced by the children War Child works with is absolutely crucial to changing the lives of many millions of young people all over the world. In Weber Shandwick, War Child has found a true ally in campaigning on behalf of these children, and helping make their futures something to be excited about, and not full of dread. It is exciting – and thoroughly deserved – that Weber’s work with War Child over the past two years has been recognised in the winning of these two prestigious awards.
"Of course, War Child's work to raise awareness of the effects of war on children will not stop here. We continue to develop our ground-breaking projects in the countries where we work and we could not succeed in this without the public and governmental backing that campaigning brings us."
To support us and become part of a movement that utterly rejects the prosecution of war against children, contact your War Child Australia State Coordinator and ask to join our mailing list, make a donation, shop for products that raise money for War Child, including music at warchildmusic.com.
Lubanga war crimes trial begins
12 October 2006
The leader of one of DRC's most notorious militia goes on trial at the International Criminal Court this week accused of recruiting child soldiers.
Thomas Lubanga is the leader of Union dees Patriotes Congalaise (UPC) a militia group operating in the Ituri region of northern DRC. The group has been implicated in a number of violent attacks on civilians but it was after the murder of nine MONUC peacekeepers in 2005 that Lubanga was arrested by Congolese authorities.
He was transfered to ICC custody on 17 March and has been awaiting trial since then.
War Child and other campaigners against the use of child soldiers will be following the trial carefully. That the ICC is beginning to take action on the child soldiers issue is a positive step forward in the campaign to rid the world of this disgraceful activity.
We hope others suspected of conscripting children into armed forces will face an ICC trial sooner rather than later.
You can follow the progress of the trial on the ICC website.
Find out more about our work in DRC.
Child soldier crisis in the Democratic Republic of Congo
October 2006
11 October 2006—Amnesty International today released a report which indicates that 11,000 children are still caught up in armed groups, or remain unaccounted for, in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
War Child is one of the organisations working closely with children formerly associated with fighting forces (CFAFFs) in the DRC. Our work and research with CFAFFs supports Amnesty's findings.
In addition, our work indicates that one third of those children and young adults who have been demobilised are not properly reintegrating with their families, making them susceptible to re-mobilisation and often leading them onto the streets.
We believe that reintegration must be a priority for whoever wins the Presidential run off at the end of this month, and for the international community.
War Child puts forward the following recommendations to the United Nations, and to the Australian government.
United Nations
We are calling for the United Nations to establish and maintain a database that tracks the current status of the number of children processed through disarmament, demobilisation and reintegration programmes. This database must track the proportion of children formerly associated with fighting forces who have been unable to reintegrate, why, where they are located, and then use the information to inform the nomination and monitoring of the authority responsible for securing their sustainable and meaningful inclusion. The database must also seek to define what reintegration actually means and use this as a basis for establishing minimum standards for its application.
Australian Government
- The Australian government is required to submit five-year reports to the Committee on the Rights of the Child. In these reports we are calling for the Australian government to explicitly report on its efforts to provide the financial and technical assistance needed by countries such as the DRC in overcoming the marginalisation of children formerly associated with fighting forces.
- More specifically, we are calling for the Australian government to support the emerging government of the DRC to develop a comprehensive national strategy (as laid out in the General Measures of Implementation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child) that includes plans to address the long-term reintegration of children formerly associated with fighting forces. The national strategy should have clear reporting mechanisms and robust indicators of genuine inclusion.
- We are calling for the Australian government to ensure that their Country Strategies explicitly recognise the need to establish relevant structures and means of working with local actors and the international community to drive a coordinated and coherent response to securing the rights and wellbeing of children formerly associated with fighting forces.
- We are calling for the Australian government to investigate the current effectiveness of the use of tax payers’ money in reintegrating children formerly associated with fighting forces. We are specifically asking the Australian government to emphasise the importance of an effective
- engagement with these children and in so doing recognise that this is not merely a resourcing issue.
Crisis in the Middle East
July 2006
The conflict in Lebanon, Israel and Gaza has resulted in a humanitarian and political crisis that threatens to engulf the entire region. An estimated one half million civilians have been displaced, and more than 500 civilians have been killed (thirty percent of them children). Many more are without access to basic lifesaving services, including food, water, health care and shelter. There is widespread destruction of civilian infrastructure, including hospitals, schools and road networks.
War Child Australia reminds all parties to the conflict of their obligation to protect the lives of civilians, especially children, in accordance with International Humanitarian Law and to ensure full and unfettered humanitarian access. All parties to the conflict also have obligations under the Geneva Conventions to distinguish between civilians and combatants and to refrain from attacks that harm the civilian population.
War Child Australia calls on all parties to the conflict to agree to an immediate ceasefire and to resolve the crisis through peaceful means.
War Child is an international relief and development agency dedicated to providing immediate, effective and sustainable aid to children affected by war. War Child Australia raises funds for War Child UK, which is active in the Occupied Palestinian Territories.
A Midwinter Night's Dream: artwork auction
28 June 2006
Ever wondered about the childhood dreams of Cate Blanchett, Missy Higgins, Cathy Freeman, Pia Miranda, Steve Irwin, Tara Moss,Nick Earls, Rebecca Sparrow, Sean Leahy and other superstars or artists?
Thanks to an ambitious charity auction event the Brisbane Advertising and Design Club (BAD) and War Child Australia, more than 20 international and national superstar celebrities and artists have turned their childhood dreams to art to raise money for children of war.
The event, titled A Midwinter Night’s Dream, will be a high glamour ticketed charity auction - where each pillowcase work of art goes under the hammer – to be held on Wednesday, 26 July at the Tivoli in Fortitude Valley.
Read full release.
More books for the children of Solomon Islands
5 May 2006
Following the success of an earlier project, War Child Australia, the Rotary Club of Brisbane Planetarium, and a group of Australian children's book publishers have again teamed up to send books to the Solomon Islands. This time, more than 3000 books from eight Australian children’s book publishers will be winging their way to libraries and schools throughout the Solomon Islands. [Read more.]
Australian Taxation Office grants War Child Australia DGR status
22 February 2006
International aid agency War Child today announced it has joined the ranks of other
major Australian charities with its War Child Australia Relief Fund being endorsed by the
Australian Taxation Office (ATO) as a deductible gift recipient (DGR). [Read more.]
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