I would like to take this opportunity to encourage your government to sign and ratify the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the involvement of children in armed conflict as part of its preparations for the UN General Assembly Special Session on Children in 2002.
As you know, more than 300,000 children under 18 are today fighting as soldiers in armed conflicts in more than 30 countries worldwide with governmental armed forces and armed opposition groups alike. The UN Security Council, in Resolution 1261 of August 1999 and Resolution 1314 of August 2000, has called on the international community to give urgent attention to this problem.
The Optional Protocol prohibits governments and armed groups from using children under the age of 18 in hostilities; bans all compulsory recruitment under 18 and raises the minimum age for voluntary recruitment by governments from the current standard of 15 years; and bans all military recruitment and use of children under 18 by armed groups.
This new standard is a strong expression of the international consensus against the use of children as soldiers - to date, it has already been signed and/or ratified by 87 governments with the number steadily growing. The forthcoming UN General Assembly Special Session on Children will be an important opportunity for governments to signal their commitment to this important international standard.
The Optional Protocol builds upon other international standards, including the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child which bans all forms of military recruitment under the age of 18, the International Labour Organisation's Convention 182 which prohibits forced recruitment of children under 18 for use in hostilities as one of the worst forms of child labour, and the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court which defines the recruitment and use as soldiers of children under 15 as a war crime.
We hope that your government will be in the first rank of UN member states to sign and ratify the Optional Protocol and help to lay the foundation for a truly global ban on the use of children as soldiers. We urge you to sign and ratify the Optional Protocol as soon as possible, without reservations and setting at least 18 as the minimum age for all forms of military recruitment.
Yours sincerely
cc. Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Geneva
cc. Permanent Representative to the United Nations, New York