The battle to uphold the rights and well-being of children exposed to armed conflict "has reached a watershed moment," the Secretary-General's Special Representative on the issue told the Security Council. During the annual Council debate on children and armed conflict, Under-Secretary-General Olara Otunnu said that while there has been significant progress on many fronts for children, too many parties go unpunished despite continuing to violate their rights. "The general situation for children remains grave and unacceptable," Mr. Otunnu said, citing the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), the Indonesian province of Aceh, Iraq, Liberia, the occupied Palestinian territories and Uganda as areas where children have particularly suffered over the past year.