A new international coalition today called on the world's governments to establish an effective ban on the growing use of child soldiers.
The new Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers said that in addition, several hundred thousand more children are members of armed forces who could be sent into combat at any moment. Although most recruits are over 15 years of age, significant recruitment starts at 10 years, and the use of even younger children has been recorded.
Current international standards allow children as young as 15 to be recruited into armed forces and participate in hostilities. A small number of countries have blocked efforts through a UN working group to raise the age to 18.
"There is no excuse to tolerate the use of children for the purposes of war," said Jo Becker, chair of the Coalition's steering committee and a representative of Human Rights Watch at a press conference today. "With public pressure and political will, we can stop this reprehensible practice."
The press conference to launch the new Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers also included statements by a former child soldier from Guatemala, UNICEF Deputy Executive Director Stephen Lewis, and Mr. Olara Otunnu, Special Representative to the Secretary General for Children and Armed Conflict.
"The use of children in waging war violates every existing standard of civilized human behavior," said Mr. Lewis. "The international community can dilly-dally no longer: we must take action. The starting point is clearly a universal ban on military recruitment of any kind - voluntary or obligatory - under the age of 18."
Emilio Hernandez-Xicara, forcibly recruited by the Guatemalan army at age 14, recalled his experience as a child soldier. "The army was a nightmare," he said. "We suffered greatly from the cruel treatment we received. We were constantly beaten, mostly for no reason at all, just to keep us in a state of terror. I still have a scar on my lip and sharp pains in my stomach from being brutally kicked by the older soldiers. . . They forced me to learn how to fight the enemy, in a war that I didn't understand why was being fought."
The Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers is being established by six international non-governmental organizations (NGOs) - Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, Jesuit Refugee Service (Geneva), International Federation Terre des Hommes, the Quaker United Nations Office (Geneva), and Swedish Save the Children (on behalf of the International Save the Children Alliance.) The coalition is working in close cooperation with the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement and key UN agencies and bodies. The Coalition is campaigning in favor of an optional protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child which would ban the recruitment and participation in armed conflict of children under the age of 18.
Previous estimates of the number of child soldiers ranged between 200,000 and 250,000. Information on the numbers of child soldiers in the world, including recruitment ages in governmental armed forces, is also being published on the Internet by Swedish Save the Children (www.rb.se), which holds the world's most comprehensive database on the subject.
