Dear President Clinton:

I am deeply concerned about the growing involvement of children in war. I urge you to use your influence to ensure that the United States supports 18 as the minimum age for participation in hostilities.

At present, children can be recruited and deployed in war from the age of 15, according to the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC).Right now, the Optional Protocol to the CRC is being drafted. It is hoped that this protocol will bring the age for military recruitment under the CRC in agreement with the overall definition of a child as a person under 18 years of age.

At the last working session for the optional protocol in January 1997, the US was the only government that stated that it could not accept 18 as the minimum age for participation in hostilities. All other nations were willing to support 18 as the minimum age. The reason given by the US was that it accepts 17-year-old volunteers into its armed forces. However, the US rarely sends 17-year-olds into combat and people that young actually comprise only 0.15 per cent of the total force.

The next working session for the optional protocol will take place in February 1998. I appeal to the US government to change its position on this critical issue, and to support, or at least not block, a consensus on 18 as the minimum age for participation in hostilities.

Respectfully,