Child Soldiers Ratification Campaign

35 countries have now ratified the international ban on the use of child soldiers, more than the number needed for the ban to go into force. However, we need many more ratifications to make the ban truly global!

The ban is formally known as the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the involvement of children in armed conflict. It establishes 18 as the minimum age for conscription, forced recruitment, or participation in armed conflict.

Please help by contacting your government to encourage it to sign or, if it has already done so, ratify the Optional Protocol without reservations and setting at least 18 as the minimum age for all forms of military recruitment. (The "straight-18" position.)

Below is a list of priority countries that we particularly want to press to sign and/or ratify. Please contact as many of them as you can. Background on why we have chosen these countries and contact details for the government are provided.

Encourage to ratify: Cambodia Colombia Ireland  18 November 2002 Jamaica  9 May 2002 Jordan Mali  16 May 2002 Mexico  15 March 2002 Morocco  22 May 2002 Nepal The Philippines Sierra Leone  15 May 2002 United States  23 December 2002 Uruguay 9 September 2003

Encourage to sign: Algeria Eritrea Fiji Ghana  24 September 2003 Japan  10 May 2002 Mozambique Qatar  25 July 2002 Thailand Yemen

Please use the contact information given for each country, and fax copies of your letters to that country's missions to the United Nations in New York and Geneva.

• Click here for a sample letter to governments that have not signed the Optional Protocol.

• Click here for a letter to countries that have signed but not ratified the Optional Protocol.

(Last updated on April 22, 2004 )

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