Appropriations for the Department of Defense for Fiscal Year 1999 Section 8128 (a) of the Conference Report Accompanying H.R. 4103
(A) FINDINGS. - The Congress finds that -
(1) child experts estimate that as many as 250,000 children under the age of 18 are currently serving in armed forces or armed groups in more than thirty countries around the world;
(2) contemporary armed conflict has caused the deaths of 2,000,000 minors in the last decade alone, and has left an estimated 6,000,000 children seriously injured or permanently disabled;
(3) children are uniquely vulnerable to military recruitment because of their emotional and physical immaturity, are easily manipulated, and can be drawn into violence that they are too young to resist or understand;
(4) children are most likely to become child soldiers if they are poor, separated from their families, displaced from their homes, living in a combat zone, or have limited access to education;
(5) orphans and refugees are particularly vulnerable to recruitment; (6) one of the most egregious examples of the use of child soldiers is the abduction of some 10,000 children, some as young as eight years of age, by the Lord's Resistance Army (in this section referred to as the "LRA") in northern Uganda;
(7) the Department of State's Country Reports on Human Rights Practices in Uganda for 1997 reports that the LRA kills, maims, and rapes large numbers of civilians, and forces abducted children into "virtual slavery as guards, concubines, and soldiers";
(8) children abducted by the LRA are forced to raid and loot villages, fight in the front line of battle against the Ugandan army and the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA), serve as sexual salves to rebel commanders, and participate in the killing of other children who try to escape;
(9) former LRA child captives report witnessing Sudanese soldiers delivering food supplies, vehicles, ammunition and arms to LRA base camps in government-controlled southern Sudan;
(10) children who manage to escape from LRA captivity have little access to trauma care and rehabilitation programs, and many find their families displaced, unlocatable, dead, or fearful of having the child return home;
(11) Graca Machel, the former United Nations expert on the impact of armed conflict on children, identified the immediate demobilization of all child soldiers as an urgent priority, and recommended the establishment of through an optional protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child of 18 as the minimum age for recruitment and participation in armed forces; and
(12) the International Committee of the Red Cross, the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), the UN High Commission on Refugees, and the UN High Commissioner on Human Rights, as well as many non-governmental organizations, also support the establishment of 18 as the minimum age for military recruitment and participation in armed conflict.
(B) IN GENERAL - The Congress hereby -
(1) deplores the global use of child soldiers, and supports their immediate demobilization;
(2) condemns the abduction of Ugandan children by the LRA;
(3) calls on the government of Sudan to use its influence with the LRA to secure the release of abducted children and to halt further abductions; and
(4) encourages the United States delegation not to block the drafting of an optional protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child that would establish 18 as the minimum age for participation in armed conflict.
(C) SENSE OF THE CONGRESS. - It is the sense of the Congress that the President and the Secretary of State should -
(1) support efforts to end the abduction of children by the LRA, secure their release, and facilitate their rehabilitation and reintegration into society;(2) not block efforts to establish 18 as the minimum age for participation in conflict through an optional protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child; and
(3) provide greater support to United Nations agencies and nongovernmental organizations working for the rehabilitation and reintegration of former child soldiers into society.
Appropriations for the Department of Defense for Fiscal Year 1999 Section 8128 (a) of the Conference Report Accompanying H.R. 4103
(A) FINDINGS. - The Congress finds that -
(1) child experts estimate that as many as 250,000 children under the age of 18 are currently serving in armed forces or armed groups in more than thirty countries around the world;
(2) contemporary armed conflict has caused the deaths of 2,000,000 minors in the last decade alone, and has left an estimated 6,000,000 children seriously injured or permanently disabled;
(3) children are uniquely vulnerable to military recruitment because of their emotional and physical immaturity, are easily manipulated, and can be drawn into violence that they are too young to resist or understand;
(4) children are most likely to become child soldiers if they are poor, separated from their families, displaced from their homes, living in a combat zone, or have limited access to education;
(5) orphans and refugees are particularly vulnerable to recruitment; (6) one of the most egregious examples of the use of child soldiers is the abduction of some 10,000 children, some as young as eight years of age, by the Lord's Resistance Army (in this section referred to as the "LRA") in northern Uganda;
(7) the Department of State's Country Reports on Human Rights Practices in Uganda for 1997 reports that the LRA kills, maims, and rapes large numbers of civilians, and forces abducted children into "virtual slavery as guards, concubines, and soldiers";
(8) children abducted by the LRA are forced to raid and loot villages, fight in the front line of battle against the Ugandan army and the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA), serve as sexual salves to rebel commanders, and participate in the killing of other children who try to escape;
(9) former LRA child captives report witnessing Sudanese soldiers delivering food supplies, vehicles, ammunition and arms to LRA base camps in government-controlled southern Sudan;
(10) children who manage to escape from LRA captivity have little access to trauma care and rehabilitation programs, and many find their families displaced, unlocatable, dead, or fearful of having the child return home;
(11) Graca Machel, the former United Nations expert on the impact of armed conflict on children, identified the immediate demobilization of all child soldiers as an urgent priority, and recommended the establishment of through an optional protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child of 18 as the minimum age for recruitment and participation in armed forces; and
(12) the International Committee of the Red Cross, the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), the UN High Commission on Refugees, and the UN High Commissioner on Human Rights, as well as many non-governmental organizations, also support the establishment of 18 as the minimum age for military recruitment and participation in armed conflict.
(B) IN GENERAL - The Congress hereby -
(1) deplores the global use of child soldiers, and supports their immediate demobilization;
(2) condemns the abduction of Ugandan children by the LRA;
(3) calls on the government of Sudan to use its influence with the LRA to secure the release of abducted children and to halt further abductions; and
(4) encourages the United States delegation not to block the drafting of an optional protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child that would establish 18 as the minimum age for participation in armed conflict.
(C) SENSE OF THE CONGRESS. - It is the sense of the Congress that the President and the Secretary of State should -
(1) support efforts to end the abduction of children by the LRA, secure their release, and facilitate their rehabilitation and reintegration into society;(2) not block efforts to establish 18 as the minimum age for participation in conflict through an optional protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child; and
(3) provide greater support to United Nations agencies and nongovernmental organizations working for the rehabilitation and reintegration of former child soldiers into society.
