Belgium‘s Chairmanship of the Security Council Working Group on Children and Armed Conflict (2019-2020)

Abstract

Children‘s rights in general and the UN‘s Children and Armed Conflict (CAAC) Agenda in particular have been a foreign policy priority of the Government of Belgium for decades, both in financial and in policy terms. As a result, awarding Belgium the chairmanship of the Security Council Working Group on CAAC (SCWG-CAAC) was the logical result of this commitment and a unanimous decision by the UNSC members when distributing chairmanships of subsidiary bodies to the incoming non-permanent UNSC members at the end of 2018.

This article looks at the objectives of Belgium‘s chairmanship of the SCWG-CAAC (2019-2020) and to what extent they were achieved. It furthermore analyzes the SCWG-CAAC conclusions, their structure, and the traditionally challenging points in the negotiations. Finally, the article concludes by reflecting on gaps and opportunities moving forward.