DATE=1/14/2000
TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT
TITLE=U-N CHILD SOLDIERS (L-ONLY)
NUMBER=2-258079
BYLINE=LISA SCHLEIN
DATELINE=GENEVA
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:
INTRO: A United Nations effort to ban the use of
child soldiers is running into difficulty over
the minimum age at which young people can be
recruited into the armed forces. Lisa Schlein
reports a U-N conference in Geneva is trying to
raise the age of recruitment.
TEXT: Campaigners against the use of child
soldiers believe that raising the age of
recruitment from 15 to age 18 would help curb the
use of child soldiers. They claim growing
support for this position. But they accuse the
United States of blocking the proposed treaty.
Jo Becker of the U-S based Human Rights Watch and
head of the Coalition to Stop the Use of Child
Soldiers calls the U-S position unacceptable.
She says all countries agree that 18 should be
the minimum age for compulsory recruitment. But
she says the United States, which allows
voluntary recruitment at age 17, wants 17 to be
the age at which volunteers can be deployed in
combat.
/// BECKER ACT ///
The United States is not a party to the
Convention on the Rights of the Child.
And, so may argue that it cannot be a party
to the optional protocol itself. And yet
it is exerting incredible pressure on other
governments to try and avoid a higher
standard being adopted than its own
domestic practice.
/// END ACT ///
The 1990 Convention on the Rights of the Child
seeks to protect the basic rights of children; it
defines a child as anyone under 18 years of age.
But the convention allows children as young as 15
to fight in wars. So for the past six years,
governments have been negotiating an optional
protocol to raise the fighting age of children to
18.
Since the protocol is optional, governments do
not have to agree to it. ///OPT/// Ms. Becker
notes that the United Kingdom, which recruits
military volunteers at age 16, has said it would
continue the practice, but would not block the
treaty. ///end opt/// The treaty, which must be
adopted by consensus, can be blocked by one
dissenting vote.
Deputy U-S Assistant Secretary of State, Michael
Southwick, says criticism against the U-S is
based on misinformation. He says the United
States cares deeply about child soldiers and
contributes a great deal of money to their
rehabilitation. He says minors under age 18
should be allowed to participate in national
militaries so long as there are strict
safeguards.
/// SOUTHWICK ACT ///
We don't think that we are blocking this
treaty. As so often happens in these
international negotiations, there are a lot
of countries that share our position and
maybe don't speak out as forcibly about it.
We're in the forefront of this. But, there
are a lot of countries which have the same
concerns as we do. Over 70 countries
recruit under the age of 18. Most of them
have laws which allow the 17 year olds to
be deployed. Seventy countries is about
half the countries in the world. This is
far from the question of isolation.
/// END ACT ///
Campaigners note that less than three-thousand
17-year olds are part of the one-point-two
million member U-S active duty force. They
estimate that more than 300-thousand children,
some as young as seven, are involved in more than
30 conflicts around the world. While this is a
global phenomenon, the worst problems exist in
Africa. (Signed)
NEB/LS/GE/KL
14-Jan-2000 12:45 PM EDT (14-Jan-2000 1745 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America
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