Children's Rights Program

Current Events

THE WHITE HOUSE

Office of the Press Secretary

For Immediate Release

July, 5, 2000

FACT SHEET

United Nations Protocols on Child Soldiers and the

Sale of Children, Child Prostitution and Child Pornography

President Clinton today signed two historic agreements advancing international efforts to eliminate abuses committed against the world's children. The United States is among the first signatories to these United Nations protocols, which prohibit the forcible recruitment of children for use in armed conflict and protect children from slavery, prostitution and pornography.

The Optional Protocols to the Convention of the Rights of the Child on the Involvement of Children in Armed Conflict and on the Sale of Children, Child Prostitution and Child Pornography were adopted by the UN General Assembly on May 25, following several years of negotiations. The United States played an active role in negotiating both Protocols over the past several years.

The Administration intends to submit both Protocols to the United States Senate for advice and consent later this month and will continue to work with the Senate to achieve speedy ratification of these two Protocols.

Optional Protocol to the Convention of the Rights of the Child on the Ivovlement of Children in Armed Conflict.

In many parts of the world, children as young as seven or eight years old tote guns and ammunition and are deeply engaged in armed conflict, including:

• Angola, where over 10,000 chidlren have been forced to become soldiers.

• Colombia, where the Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) uses children as soldiers.

• Sierra Leone, where children comprise nearly half of the Revolutionary United Front Forces, and where up to 7,000 children are involved in the conflict.

• Burma, where many thousands of children serve as combatants.

The Protocol raises international standards in the effort to end the forced recruitment of children into amred conflict, gives governments additional tools to pressure violators and promotes rehabilitation to help reintegrate child soldiers into civilian life. Specifically, this Protocol:

• Bars compulsory recruitment below the age of 18.

• Requires that States set the minimum age for voluntary recruiment above the current 15 year -old standard and declare what minimum age they intend to adopt. States that recruit under the age of 18 are required to describe the steps they will take to ensure protection of under-18-year-old enlistees. (In this respect, the US practice is to accept qualified volunteers at age 17 provided they show parental consent and reliable proof of age. Related programs such as ROTC and military schools will be unaffected.)

• Mandates that parties take all feasible measures to ensure that members of their armed forces who have not attained the age of 18 years do not take a direct part in hostilities.

• Prohibits the recruitment or use of soldiers under 18 by non-governmental armed forces, which are the principal culprits in the use of child soldiers, since many rebel or militia groups abduct children to fight in civil wars.

• Promotes assistance and rehabilitation of children who have been victimized by armed conflict by requriring state parties' cooperation in prevention and rehabilitation efforts, including in partnership with non-governmental organizations. (The United State already contributes more that $20 million per year to programs for children affected by war.)

The Departments of State and Defense were deeply involved in the international negotiation leading to the adoption of the Protocol, which would require the United States to take all feasible measures to ensure that 17-year -olds do not take a direct part in hostilites. The Secretary of Defense, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the Service Chiefs carefully considered whether the US military could undertake such an obligation and concluded we could do so while fully protecting our military recruitment and readiness requirements.

On June 8, the US Senate adopted a resolution calling for ratification of this Protocol as quickly as possible. Optional Protocol on the Sale of Children, Child Prostitution and Child Pornography. This Protocol is a significant advance in efforts to strengthen law enforcement action against those responsible for sexual abuse of children, with strong provisions that:

• Define the terms sale of children, child prostitution, and child pornography for the first time in an international agreement and require that these abuses be treated as criminal acts.

• Establish stronger, clearer grounds for jurisdiction and extradtion to better ensure that offenders can be prosecuted regardless of where they are found.

• Include extensive provisions on international cooperation among nations, which will help child victims receive protection and assistance.

This Protocol supplements other US efforts in the international arena and builds on the adoption last year of the International Labor Organization's Worst Forms of Child Labor Convention. The Convention, which the United States has ratified, calls for immediate and effective measures to stamp out exploitation of children for prostitution, pornogrpahy, and other abuses.

Both Protocols are stand-alone international agreements open to all States without the need to be part of the underlying intenrnational agreement, the Convention on the Rights of the Child. Signature and ratification of these two Protocols do not create any other international agreement to which the United States is not a party.