The report described the situation in the Chechen Republic as an “armed conflict” where youths under 17 are recruited as child soldiers. “Insurgency groups” were also mentioned in the document. Russia asked UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan to correct the report. The correction issued on Tuesday altered the reference to insurgency groups, changing it to “Chechen illegal armed groups."

Russia raised the issue after Kofi Annan, under pressure from Britain, agreed in February to rewrite the same report to blur a reference to Northern Ireland as an area of "armed conflict", Reuters reports.

In addition to Chechnya and Northern Ireland, the following countries are on the UN list of areas where children are drawn into conflict: Afghanistan, Burundi, Colombia, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Myanmar, Nepal, the Philippines, Somalia, Sri Lanka, Sudan and Uganda.

UN human rights activists have long been concerned about the situation in Chechnya. On April 15, the UN Human Rights Commission rejected a draft resolution on Chechnya that spoke about human rights abuses in the republic. 23 out of 53 countries voted against the resolution, which criticized Russia’s policy on Chechnya.

Earlier, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Vladimir Chizhov said the proposed resolution was not in line with the spirit of Russia-EU relations. He recalled that this was the third attempt to push such resolutions through. The two previous attempts failed because they did not receive enough support.