MANILA, Philippines – (UPDATE) The Commission on Human Rights has called on both the government and the Moro rebels engaged in armed combat in Mindanao to create zones of peace for children.

In a statement e-mailed to media, CHR Chairperson Leila De Lima said that children should take center stage in any talks between the two parties.

"Children are the vassals of our future. The way to peace necessarily includes them. Afford the children a central place in all decisions and politics that necessarily affect their well-being…In the best interest of all our children, insulate them from the harrowing effects of armed conflict and displacement…No harm should come upon them," she said.

De Lima also expressed "deep alarm" on the toll the ongoing war has inflicted on children. She said the children's rights to life, survival, development, education, and to be with their families were disrupted because of the fighting.

Following reports that the Moro Islamic Liberation Front is recruiting children to become warriors, the CHR "condemns the use of children as soldiers by any armed group." It said that recruitment of children in armed groups is one of the six grave child rights violations
identified by the United Nations' Security Council; the others are killing and maiming, abduction, rape and other forms of sexual violence, attacks on schools and hospitals, and denial of humanitarian access.

It asked the MILF to allow a special CHR team access to MILF training camps so that it could verify or belie the reports. "We challenge the MILF to cooperate," the commission said.

The CHR said both parties should include this prohibition in their peace agenda.

"Cease and desist from the practice or tolerance of recruiting children in the active ranks or in the auxiliary services. Your children's place should never be in the trenches of war-ridden fields but in schools where they can develop and actualize as complete individuals living lives with dignity and humanity," it said.

In the same breath, the CHR did not let the government easily off the hook, particularly on the report that five children, including a 17-year-old pregnant minor, were killed during an air strike in Datu Piang Maguindanao on September 8.

"The taking of lives of children is not justified, even if these children were recruited by armed rebel groups. That makes children double victims. Dead children… as a 'collateral damage' is unacceptable," the CHR said.

The commission is currently conducting a follow-up, deeper investigation into the Datu Piang incident with the view of determining the accountability for the deaths of the five children.

"Children are affected by armed conflict in many ways from the deprivation of their immediate needs to the psychological trauma brought on by war," it said.

The commission thus regularly sends monitors to evacuation centers to ensure that their rights are not violated.

However, "the lingering observation is that national and institutional frameworks in place sadly do not provide children sufficient protection from the effects of war," it said, noting that the state of evacuation centers is "deplorable and sub-human."

"Cramped living spaces, cold cemented floors, limited supply of water for bathing, washing and drinking, lack or absence of latrines, conscripted access to nutritional food, lack of medicines and clothes is the reality for the 'batang bakwit,'" De Lima said.

Batang bakwit is the term used on children in evacuation centers.

Aside from disrupted classes, as public schools serve as evacuation centers during fire fights, children and their parents don't have access to medical missions, "and more importantly, to psycho-social interventions to address the debilitating trauma of war for children."

"These displaced are often repository only of immediate food or non-food items that focuses sharply only on their survival," the CHR said.

The commission pointed out that while evacuation centers serve as temporary shelters, they can potentially provide more harm than good to children.

Citing reports from evacuation centers in other countries, it said children have been victims of rape and molestation ("gender-based violence") there as they don't provide privacy or the basic amenities of home and security.

"It is therefore imperative for both the government and non-state actors to resolve all armed conflicts with much haste and decisiveness and to instead commit to the use of peaceful dialogues in addressing ideological differences. If a protracted war cannot be avoided and the return to their homes of origin an impossibility, these displaced families and children must be properly relocated," the CHR said.