We are deeply concerned about the continuing use of children as soldiers around the world, and urge you to ensure a leadership role for the United States in ending this appalling phenomenon by publicly supporting the new child soldiers protocol, and by encouraging the United States Senate to act swiftly to
ratify it.
The Honorable George W. Bush
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue,
NW Washington, DC 20500
Dear President Bush:
We are writing you on behalf of diverse constituencies, including human rights, humanitarian, labor, peace and security, religious, veterans, student, youth, labor, professional and children=s organizations. We are deeply concerned about the continuing use of children as soldiers around the world, and urge you to ensure a leadership role for the United States in ending this appalling phenomenon by publicly supporting the new child soldiers protocol, and by encouraging the United States Senate to act swiftly to ratify it.
Worldwide, some 300,000 children under the age of eighteen are currently fighting in approximately thirty conflicts. Their ranks include children as young as eight recruited into Colombia=s paramilitaries, teenaged boys forcibly taken from their villages in Myanmar to serve in the national army, and young girls kidnapped by the Lord=s Resistance Army in Northern Uganda for use as soldiers and sex slaves. Too often, these children learn to kill before they learn to read.
Some child soldiers are recruited by force, while others C impoverished, without access to an education or separated from their families C see armed groups as their best chance at survival. They may begin as messengers or porters, but too often are sent to the front lines of combat where they suffer far higher casualty rates than their adult counterparts. Those who survive are often psychologically traumatized from exposure to brutal violence.
Last year, the nations of the world came together and for the first time, agreed that the use of children in armed conflict is simply unacceptable. After years of negotiation, the United Nations General Assembly unanimously adopted the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the involvement of children in armed conflict (the child soldiers protocol).
The new protocol establishes eighteen as the minimum age for direct participation in armed conflict, for compulsory recruitment, and for any recruitment or use in hostilities by non-governmental armed groups. Under the agreement, governments are allowed to accept voluntary recruits as young as age sixteen, but with certain safeguards, including parental permission and proof of age.
Since its formal adoption on May 25, 2000 seventy-six governments have signed the protocol. We are proud that the United States was one of the first nations to do so, on July 5, 2000.
We now hope that the United States will be one of the first countries to ratify this important agreement. Both the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives have adopted resolutions urging swift consideration of the protocol, recognizing that United States leadership on this issue will send a clear message to governments and armed groups around the world that the use of children on the battlefield is unconscionable.
We urge you to take a clear public stance against the use of child soldiers early in your administration, and to make U.S. ratification of the child soldiers protocol a priority for your first 100 days in office.
Thank you for your consideration.
Sincerely,
(Signatures attached)
cc: The Honorable Colin L. Powell, Secretary of State
Lawrence J. Goodwin, Executive Director, Africa Faith and Justice Network
Anthony Henry, Associate General Secretary for Program, American Friends Service Committee
Dr. William F. Schulz, Executive Director, Amnesty International USA
Miriam Young, Executive Director, Asia Pacific Center for Justice and Peace
William G. Martin, Co-Chair, Association for Concerned African Scholars
Eugene J. Carroll, Jr., Rear Admiral, US Navy (Ret.), Vice President, Center for Defense Information*
Bernardine Dohrn, Director, Children and Family Justice Center, Northwestern University School of Law*
Marian Wright Edelman, President, Children's Defense Fund
Greg Laszakovits, Coordinator, Church of the Brethren Washington Office
Caroline Ramsey, President, The Crafts Center*
Margarita Lacabe, Executive Director, Derechos Human Rights
Thomas H. Hart, Director of Government Relations, Episcopal Church USA
Janet Chisholm, Interim Co-Executive Director, Fellowship of Reconciliation
Joe Volk, Executive Secretary, Friends Committee on National Legislation
Loretta Bondi, Advocacy Director, Arms and Conflict Program, The Fund for Peace
Ann Smith, Executive Director, Global Education Associates*
Carole Artigiani, Executive Director, Global Kids
Jack Healey, Director, Human Rights Action Center
Kenneth Roth, Executive Director, Human Rights Watch
Kathleen McGinnis, Executive Director, Institute for Peace and Justice*
Richard Ryscavage S.J., Director, Jesuit Refugee Service/USA
Mary Sochet, Co-Chair, Kids Meeting Kids Can Make a Difference
Ralston H. Deffenbaugh, Jr., President, Lutheran Immigrant and Refugee Service
Fr. Michael J. Snyder M.M., Assistant General, Maryknoll Fathers and Brothers
Sister Helene O'Sullivan, M.M., President, Maryknoll Sisters of St. Dominic
Gerry G. Lee, Co-Director, Maryknoll Mission Association of the Faithful
J. Daryl Byler, Director, Mennonite Central Committee, Washington Office
Mohammad Parvin, Executive Director, Mission for the Establishment of Human Rights in Iran
Arun Gandhi, Executive Director, MK Gandhi Institute for the Study of Nonviolence
Linda Golodner, President, National Consumer's League
Rev. Bob Edgar, General Secretary, National Council of Churches of Christ in the USA
Bob Chase, President, National Education Association
Mubarak E. Awad, Director, National Youth Advocate Program
Michael Beer, Director, Nonviolence International
Carol Jahnkow, Executive Director, Peace Resource Center of San Diego
Len Rubenstein, Executive Director, Physicians for Human Rights
Charles MacCormack, President and CEO, Save the Children*
Joyce D. Sohl, Deputy General Secretary, Women's Division, General Board of Global Ministries
United Methodist Church
Rosanne Rustmeyer, SSND, Executive Director, United States Catholic Mission Association
Charles J. Lyons, President, U.S. Fund for UNICEF
Robert O. Muller, President, Vietnam Veterans of America Foundation
Dr. Gabriella Randazzo, Executive Director, Visionary Artists for Children's Rights
The Reverend Dr. Leon P. Spencer, Executive Director, Washington Office on Africa
John. B. Anderson, President and CEO, World Federalist Association
Nancy Nye, Director, Youth Advocate Program International
* organization listed for identification purposes only
