Winnipeg - Representatives of more than 120 governments, including more than 50 ministers, pledged here yesterday to step up the fight to save children caught up in wars.
But the agreement was immediately criticised by the honorary chair of the conference, Ms Graca Machel, for not going far enough by lacking tough deadlines for imposing international bans on the use and abuse of children in war situations and tough sanctions against any government or group that violated those bans. Ms Machel, wife of the former South African president, Mr Nelson Mandela, is the author of a detailed report for the UN on the subject.
The conference set up a committee comprised of Canada, Ghana and the UN Secretary General's Special Representative on Children in Armed Conflict to prepare a "mechanism" for implementing greater protection.