Stop the Use of Child Soldiers - US Policies on the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child
December 1997

STOP THE USE OF CHILD SOLDIERS!

Urge the United States to support the Optional Protocol to the

Convention on the Rights of the Child

WRITE, FAX, E-MAIL NOW

Read Campaign Updates (01/22/98)

Child Soldiers

One of the most alarming trends in contemporary armed conflicts is the reliance on children as combatants. Today, an estimated quarter of a million children under the age of eighteen serve in government forces or armed opposition groups around the world. Children as young as eight are sometimes forcibly recruited, coerced, or induced to become soldiers, targeted because of their unique vulnerability as children. Their emotional and physical immaturity make them particularly malleable and susceptible to psychological and physical control. Additionally, their inexperience makes them particularly vulnerable to injury and death. Manipulated by adults, children are drawn into violence that they are too young to resist, while they are too young to appreciate and cope with its consequences.

The Convention on the Rights of the Child has been ratified by 191 governments. Only two governments in the world have not ratified the Convention: the United States and Somalia (which has no internationally recognized government). The Convention permits children of 15 and older to take part in armed conflict. That age has been universally seen as too low, and the general consensus internationally is that the minimum age should be raised.

The Optional Protocol

The United Nations Commission on Human Rights has established a working group to draft an Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child that would raise the minimum age for participation in armed conflict from 15 to 18. The only country that has refused to accept 18 as the minimum age at which a young person can take part in hostilities is the United States.

The working group will reconvene in February 1998 for what is hoped to be the final round of negotiations. Failure to reach an agreement at this meeting will prolong the terrible suffering of children who are being used as soldiers in wars.

The Role of the United States

The working group operates by consensus, so the Optional Protocol cannot be submitted to the Human Rights Commission for review unless all states agree to it. While several states in the working group prefer a minimum age of 17, the United States is the only state that has refused to accept 18 as the minimum age for participation in hostilities. The United States favors a minimum age of 17 because it accepts 17-year-old volunteers into the armed forces. However, 17-year-olds comprise less than one half of one percent of the armed forces; moreover, the United States has stated that " individuals under 18 are not stationed in combat situations." In reality, United States military practices do not differ significantly from the new standards to be established by the Optional Protocol.

The United States should not block the agreement on the Optional Protocol; it is denying basic protections to all the world's children, who sorely need them. Additionally, the United States is not a party to the Convention on the Rights of the Child and thus cannot become a party to the Protocol. Even if the United States did ratify the Convention, the Protocol is optional, and the states parties to the Convention are not obliged to become a party to the Protocol. If the United States cannot support the Protocol, it should (at least) not obstruct the efforts of every other country in the world to establish higher international standards for the protection of children.

YOUR SUPPORT WILL MAKE A DIFFERENCE!

For more information read the Human Rights Watch report, "The Scars of Death: Children Abducted by the Lord's Resistance Army in Uganda" which documents the abduction and killing of children in northern Uganda by a rebel group calling itself the Lord's Resistance Army.

Please send copies of your letters to Human Rights Watch at the address listed below. JOIN THE CHILDREN'S RIGHTS PROJECT ACTION NETWORK!

Linda Shipley
Human Rights Watch Children's Rights Project
485 Fifth Ave.
New York, NY 10017
Phone: (212)972-8400
Fax: (212) 972-0905
Email: shiplel@hrw.org.