Dear Mr. President:

We are writing to express our serious concern regarding the increasing global use of child soldiers, who - many time forcibly conscripted - serve in armed conflicts around the world. Experts estimate that as many as 250,000 children, some as young as eight years old, serve in military forces of over 30 countries, and this has resulted in the deaths of two million minors in the last decade along. In addition to those children killed, an estimated six million have been seriously injured or permanently disabled.

In light of these outrageous and deeply disturbing international developments, the United Nations established a working group in 1994 to develop an Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child to address the issue of child soldiers. We want to thank you, Mr President, for your support of the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the leadership you showed by signing this Convention in February 1995. Unfortunately, the United States and Somalia, a country without a functioning government, are the only countries in the world which have not ratified the Convention. As a result, the US cannot be part of the Optional Protocol.

As you know, the working group seeks to raise the minimum age for recruitment and participation in armed conflict from 15 to 18 years of age. The Optional Protocol would set these international standards to prevent the use of child soldiers in armed conflict as it occurs daily around the world. While the US accepts 17-year-old volunteers into its armed forces with parental consent, it already complies in practice with the minimum requirement of 18 years of age for participation in armed conflict. Even though there are no specific US statutory provisions, the armed forces de factor already ensure that because 17-year old volunteers are in the "training pipeline" for several months after enlistment, all but a negligible fraction of recruits have reached the age of 18 before being deployed in combat situations.

We are therefore disturbed and dismayed to learn that the US delegation to the working group on the Optional Protocol has obstructed any progress in reaching an agreement regarding the 18-years minimum requirement for participation in armed conflict, even though the US is ineligible to sign it. Since the working group operates on a unanimous consensus basis, the United States - as the only country opposing the 18-years minimum requirement - has stalled the negotiations on this important issue, resulting in a break-down earlier this year.

We urge you, Mr. President, to show international leadership by advising the US delegation to either revise its position on this crucial issue, or at least not to stand in the way of other countries in the upcoming meetings. If these countries want to express their commitment to ending the use of child soldiers in armed conflict by imposing strict international standards, they deserve our support. If these nations seek to address these despicable international developments by reaching an important international optional agreement to the Convention, which the United States has chosen not to ratify, we should at least not pose an insurmountable obstacle to the successful conclusion of their efforts.

Sincerely,

Signers as of January 20, 1998: