Kelvin Thomson (Wills, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It was a great privilege for me to take part in the Invisible Children’s global campaign known as ‘the Rescue’ on a very cold night on 25 April in Royal Park in Melbourne. This was part of a 100-city, nine-country rally to demand attention for the plight of children abducted and forced to fight as soldiers in the Lord’s Resistance Army, the LRA, which has been terrorising Central East Africa over the last two decades.

Invisible Children is a social, political and global movement using the transformative power of story to change lives. Its enthusiasm and commitment is remarkable and inspiring. I congratulate Amy Shand, State Director of World Vision’s Vision Generation Victoria, and also a local constituent, Melissa Bottrell, on their work in mobilising these young people. Currently, Invisible Children is putting 740 kids through school and employs more than 250 men and women living in this war-torn region, with plans to see that number grow. The organisation is also rebuilding 11 war-affected schools. Programs on the ground were developed by the people of northern Uganda and seek to improve the quality of life for individuals through education, enhanced learning environments and innovative economic opportunities.

The Rescue required participants to ‘abduct themselves for the abducted’. Thousands of people travelled by foot to a location in each city that became their base, which they refused to leave until a politician or public figure ‘rescued’ them by making a public statement on behalf of child soldiers. The Rescue began in February with the launch of Invisible Children’s world tour to show their film The Rescue of Joseph Kony’s Child Soldiers. Volunteer representatives took the film to schools, churches, concerts and coffee shops throughout the United States, Canada, Mexico, Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and Ireland with a call to action. The Rescue profiles elusive rebel LRA leader Joseph Kony and exposes groundbreaking testimonies from child soldiers forced to fight amongst the ranks of the LRA. This powerful 35-minute piece serves as a worldwide catalyst to combat apathy and injustice and empower a generation to take action about a forgotten war. The Invisible Children movement raises awareness through compelling documentary films, empowering individuals to use their time, talent and money to help make a difference.

For 23 years northern Uganda has been consumed by conflict, and more recently the LRA has spread its operations to the Democratic Republic of Congo, the Central African Republic and southern Sudan. Three current LRA leaders, including Joseph Kony, have outstanding arrest warrants against them issued by the International Criminal Court at The Hague for war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in Uganda. After Joseph Kony’s failure to sign a peace agreement in late November 2008, Uganda, Congo and southern Sudan organised a joint military campaign intended to defeat the LRA and capture the rebel leader. The LRA retaliated by murdering and displacing thousands of civilians and abducting hundreds of children to fight amongst its ranks. At the end of January, only 114 of those abducted had been rescued out of some 600 believed to be held still by the LRA.

A war originally contained within Uganda’s borders has now evolved into a widespread regional crisis. The UN Security Council needs to provide direction and additional resources, including further logistical capacity, to protect civilians at risk of LRA attack. As Human Rights Watch has pointed out, the armed conflict in northern Congo is governed by international humanitarian law, which applies both to states and to non-state armed groups such as the LRA. Uganda and Congo are both International Criminal Court state parties and are obliged to cooperate with the court, which includes executing warrants on LRA leaders. Emergency support must be given to UN agencies and local and international organisations such as Invisible Children to assist the victims and the communities affected by LRA of violence.

I commend Invisible Children’s efforts in providing education for those children formerly displaced and abducted and in facilitating their return to their original homes through economic development programs of financial training and successful sustainable businesses. I congratulate Invisible Children and I urge the federal government to do everything it can to secure the release of the child soldiers and enable them to recover the innocence which is their birthright. The invaluable work of Invisible Children has changed lives and restored hope to many who have been brutalised by this conflict.