The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) has reported a significant drop in the recorded cases of child recruitment by the rebel group Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in Sri Lanka. In 2004, UNICEF recorded 1,099 cases of LTTE child recruitment. In 2007, that number dropped to 166, and of those, most took place in the first few months of the year. While these figures undoubtedly understate the problem because not all cases are reported, they show a very positive trend.
Human Rights Watch, working with our allies, has played an important role in maintaining pressure on the LTTE to stop using children as soldiers. We used our research and evidence of LTTE child recruitment to generate pressure among the Tamil diaspora, especially in Toronto and London, which provides much of the LTTE's financial support. Our work helped influence Canada to list the LTTE as a "terrorist organization," prohibiting Canadians from funding the group. We also pressed the UN Security Council to impose sanctions on the LTTE. The latest reduction in child recruitment coincides with a warning from the Security Council that it would consider such a move if the LTTE did not show concrete progress in ending its use of child soldiers.
