Statement
Human Rights Watch

(New York, July 5, 2000) -- Human Rights Watch praised the Clinton administration today for signing an international protocol that prohibits the use of children in armed conflict. The U.S. is the eighth country to sign the new agreement, which was adopted by the United Nations in May and opened for signature and ratification last month. The President is scheduled to sign the protocol this afternoon at the United Nations in New York.

"When U.S. soldiers participate in international peacekeeping operations, they may well find themselves face-to-face with a 14-year old carrying an AK-47," said Jo Becker, Advocacy Director for the Children's Rights Division of Human Rights Watch. "U.S. efforts to stop the use of child soldiers not only helps children internationally, but ultimately, American forces as well."

An estimated 300,000 children are currently participating in armed conflicts in more than thirty countries. Human Rights Watch has documented the use of children as soldiers in Uganda, Liberia, Angola, Lebanon, Sudan, Colombia, and Sri Lanka. Most recently, the organization has collected testimony from children recruited into the civil conflict in Sierra Leone.

"Once a child is recruited, their whole future becomes compromised," said Becker. "They're sucked into a cycle of violence, often denied an education or opportunity to learn any practical job skills, and end up maimed, psychologically damaged, or killed. U.S. support for the new protocol will help ensure these kids are protected."

Human Rights Watch also urged the U.S. Senate to act to ratify the new protocol as soon as possible.

The new protocol establishes eighteen as the minimum age for direct participation in hostilities, for compulsory recruitment, and for any recruitment or use in hostilities by non-governmental armed groups. However, it allows government forces to accept voluntary recruits from the age of sixteen, subject to certain safeguards including parental permission and proof of age.

The United States initially opposed the protocol, arguing that it needed to be able to deploy its seventeen-year old recruits. However, less than 3,000 of the US' 1.3 million active duty force are under the age of eighteen. The U.S. dropped its objections during the protocol's final round of negotiations in January of this year, and agreed to "take all feasible measures" to ensure that under-age troops do not participate in armed conflict. U.S. recruitment practices will not be affected by the protocol.

"Raising the U.S. deployment age was a very reasonable concession for the Pentagon to make, considering that the numbers involved are so small," said Becker. "It ensures that American troops have a greater degree of maturity. And very importantly, it sends a strong signal to other governments and forces worldwide, that children shouldn't participate in war."

Human Rights Watch chairs the international Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers, which was formed in 1998 to campaign on behalf of a global ban on the recruitment or use of child soldiers.

UNICEF applauds as Clinton signs key protocols on child rights

Wednesday, 5 July 2000: The United Nations Children’s Fund today hailed U.S. President Bill Clinton’s signing of two UN protocols that strengthen global standards for the protection of children.

The two protocols signed by the U.S. president today are:

• The Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography; and

• The Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the involvement of children in armed conflict.

The optional protocol on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography focuses on the criminalization of these violations of children's rights and emphasizes the need for increased public awareness and international co-operation in efforts to combat them.

The optional protocol on the involvement of children in armed conflict, among other provisions, makes 18 the minimum age for compulsory induction into the armed forces. Fifteen is the current minimum age.

"I am very, very pleased that President Clinton has signed these two important documents," said UNICEF Executive Director Carol Bellamy, who was present at the signing ceremony at UN headquarters here. "The President has been a strong and vocal advocate for children around the world, and his action today is another important endorsement of children’s fundamental rights."

The U.S. becomes only the fifth nation to sign both of the new optional protocols, which were adopted by the UN General Assembly in May. The other nations that have signed the protocol on the involvement of children in armed conflict are Argentina, Cambodia, Canada, Monaco, Norway, San Marino, and Sweden. Cambodia, Chile, Monaco, Norway and San Marino have signed the optional protocol on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography.

It is up to individual Governments to freely decide whether and when to sign – and then to ratify – the two protocols, which, as Optional Protocols to the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), must be viewed in the context of the Convention as a whole.

The CRC, which was adopted by the UN General Assembly in 1989, was signed by President Clinton in 1995. Today’s action by the President signals that the U.S. is a step closer to making internationally recognised human rights standards for children a reality in the United States, and gives UNICEF hope that the U.S. will move to bring about the earliest possible ratification of the CRC.

Ms. Bellamy noted that more nations have adopted the CRC than any other international treaty. "The recognition and implementation of children's rights are the bedrock measure of our progress as a civilization," she said. "That's why I am so hopeful that these two optional protocols will be universally adopted – and why the U.S. action today is especially valuable."

With regard to the protocol on the involvement of children in armed conflict, UNICEF pointed out that it requires States to make a declaration, upon ratification, regarding the age at which national forces will permit voluntary recruitment, as well as the steps that States will take to ensure that such recruitment in never forced or coerced. UNICEF said this clause was particularly important because, although the optional protocol sets 18 as the minimum age for compulsory recruitment, the instrument provides an opportunity for States to also establish 18 years as the minimum age for voluntary recruitment.

Today's signing by President Clinton of the United Nations Optional Protocols prohibiting the forcible recruitment of children for use in armed conflict and protecting children from slavery, prostitution and pornography builds on the Clinton/Gore Administration's record of working to eliminate the worst forms of child labor around the world.

President Clinton has made America a leader in working to prevent abusive child labor around the world: