In recognition of this immutable fact, the Convention on the Rights of the Child is now almost universally ratified. Its status as the most important document on the human rights of children is established beyond any doubt. Madame Chairperson, 3. Despite this positive development, millions of children continue to suffer human rights violations world wide. In armed conflicts across the world children suffer as refugees and internally displaced persons.
Thousands find themselves in the role of combatants and para-combatants.
Armies of occupation treat them as soft targets punishing them for the convictions of their parents such as in Indian Occupied Kashmir. We hope the adoption of the Draft Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on Involvement of Children in Armed Conflicts will help ameliorate the plight of such children. We will continue to cooperate with the current Chairperson of the working group Ambassador Heidenstorm of Sweden in her informal consultations aimed at achieving a consensus text. Madame Chairperson, 6. Exploitation of children as objects of sexual gratification is the bane of the modern world.