CHILDREN USED AS SOLDIERS:

The ultimate exploitation

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Quotation:

Overview:

There is a global trend towards the exploitation of children in military conflicts. They are easily kidnapped, require little food, are often considered expendable, are able to carry and aim the newer lightweight rifles, are strong enough to pull the trigger, and heavy enough to clear mine fields with their own bodies. "Child soldiers are 'more obedient, do not question orders and are easier to manipulate than adult soldiers.' " ₈

Combating this trend is a movement of concerned individuals and non-government organizations (NGOs) who are promoting a ban on the use of soldiers under the age of 18. The U.S. Pentagon and executive branch of the government initially opposed such a ban. However they reached a compromise before the United Nations protocol was finally negotiated. 

History:

The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child requires countries to:

The Convention is the "first, nearly universally ratified human rights treaty in history." ₃ It has been signed and ratified by 191 out of the world's 193 nations. The two holdouts are:

In 1994, a working group at the United Nations was formed to prepare a optional protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child that would raise the minimum age for armed forces recruitment and participation in hostilities from 15 to 18 years. Although most countries would accept such a change, Bangladesh, Cuba, Israel, Pakistan, the United Kingdom and the United States resisted it. The U.S. has a long standing policy of allowing 17 year olds to enter the military if they have the permission of a parent. However, they are not assigned to active combat. "Since the U.N. Working Group takes decisions only by consensus, all participating nations must be in unanimous agreement on the wording of the draft protocol. The United States alone has said that it would refuse to accept a consensus stipulating 18 years as the minimum age for recruitment." ₁₀

Many NGOs support 18 as the minimum age for entry into the armed forces. These include: Amnesty International, Friends Committee for World Consultation, Human Rights Watch, International Catholic Children's Bureau, International Save the Children Alliance, the World Council of Churches, etc.

Scope of the problem:

According to a letter sent to President Clinton in 1997 by 36 senior retired U.S. Army, Navy and Air Force officers, and one Canadian Armed forces officer: ₆

Graça Machel, the U.N. Secretary-General's Expert on the Impact of Armed Conflict on Children reported. ₈

"In Liberia, children as young as seven have been found in combat, while in Cambodia, a survey of wounded soldiers found that 20 per cent of them were between the ages of 10 and 14 when recruited. In Sri Lanka, of 180 Tamil Tiger guerrillas killed in one government attack, more than half were still in their teens, and 128 were girls. Solid statistics are hard to come by, however, as most armies and militia do not want to admit to their use of child soldiers."

Elsewhere Machel wrote: ₉

"In Afghanistan, where approximately 90 per cent of children now have no access to schooling, the proportion of soldiers who are children is thought to have risen in recent years from roughly 30 to at least 45%."

"Children are very impressionable and may even be lured into cults of martyrdom. In Lebanon and Sri Lanka, for example, some adults have used young people's immaturity to their own advantage, recruiting and training adolescents for suicide bombings."

"In many countries, including Afghanistan, Mozambique, Colombia and Nicaragua, children have even been forced to commit atrocities against their own families or communities."

Recent developments:

On JUN-30, a coalition of NGO's called "Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers" launched a campaign. Chairperson Jo Becker stated that 44 countries recruit children under the age of 18 into their armed forces. 

Senator Paul Wellstone (D-MN) introduced a Congressional resolution, calling on the U.S. to not block efforts to establish 18 as a minimum age for engaging in armed conflict. It was passed in 1998-OCT.

On DEC-21, the leaders of 40 human rights, religious, peace, humanitarian, child welfare, veterans and professional organizations wrote an open letter to President Clinton asking him "to support an international prohibition on the use of child soldiers." ₁ Included were leaders of  the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Amnesty International USA, Human Rights Watch, National Council of Churches, National Education Association, TransAfrica, US Committee for UNICEF, and Vietnam Veterans of America Foundation. The letter states, in part:

"Robbed of their childhood, child combatants are subjected to a cycle of violence that they are often too young to understand, or resist. While many of these young recruits may start out as porters or messengers, too often they end up on the front lines of combat. Some are used for particularly hazardous duty, such as entering mine fields ahead of older troops, or undertaking suicide missions. Some have been forced to commit atrocities against family members or relatives. Inexperienced and immature, these children suffer far higher casualty rates than their adult counterparts. Those who survive are often physically or psychologically scarred. Typically lacking an education or civilian job skills, their futures are often bleak."