[Congressional Bills 106th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H. Con. Res. 348 Referred in Senate (RFS)]

  2d Session
H. CON. RES. 348


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                             July 12, 2000

      Received and referred to the Committee on Foreign Relations

_______________________________________________________________________

                         CONCURRENT RESOLUTION


 
    Expressing condemnation of the use of children as soldiers and 
expressing the belief that the United States should support and, where 
       possible, lead efforts to end this abuse of human rights.

Whereas in the year 2000 approximately 300,000 individuals under the age of 18 
        are participating in armed conflict in more than 30 countries worldwide;
Whereas many of these children are forcibly conscripted through kidnaping or 
        coercion, while others join military units due to economic necessity, to 
        avenge the loss of a family member, or for their own personal safety;
Whereas many military commanders frequently force child soldiers to commit 
        gruesome acts of ritual killings or torture against their enemies, 
        including against other children;
Whereas many military commanders separate children from their families in order 
        to foster dependence on military units and leaders, leaving children 
        vulnerable to manipulation, deep traumatization, and in need of 
        psychological counseling and rehabilitation;
Whereas child soldiers are exposed to hazardous conditions and risk physical 
        injuries, sexually transmitted diseases, malnutrition, deformed backs 
        and shoulders from carrying overweight loads, and respiratory and skin 
        infections;
Whereas many young female soldiers face the additional psychological and 
        physical horrors of rape and sexual abuse, being enslaved for sexual 
        purposes by militia commanders, and forced to endure severe social 
        stigma should they return home;
Whereas children in northern Uganda continue to be kidnaped by the Lord's 
        Resistance Army (LRA) which is supported and funded by the Government of 
        Sudan and which has committed and continues to commit gross human rights 
        violations in Uganda;
Whereas children in Sri Lanka have been forcibly recruited by the opposition 
        Tamil Tigers movement and forced to kill or be killed in the armed 
        conflict in that country;
Whereas an estimated 7,000 child soldiers have been involved in the conflict in 
        Sierra Leone, some as young as age 10, with many being forced to commit 
        extrajudicial executions, torture, rape, and amputations for the rebel 
        Revolutionary United Front;
Whereas on January 21, 2000, in Geneva, a United Nations Working Group, 
        including representatives from more than 80 governments including the 
        United States, reached consensus on an optional protocol on the use of 
        child soldiers;
Whereas this optional protocol will raise the international minimum age for 
        conscription to age 18 and will require governments to take all feasible 
        measures to ensure that members of their armed forces under the age of 
        18 do not participate directly in combat, prohibit the recruitment and 
        use in armed conflict of persons under the age of 18 by nongovernmental 
        armed forces, encourage governments to raise the minimum legal age for 
        voluntary recruits above the current standard of 15 and, commits 
        governments to support the demobilization and rehabilitation of child 
        soldiers, and when possible, to allocate resources to this purpose;
Whereas on October 29, 1998, United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan set 
        minimum age requirements for United Nations peacekeeping personnel that 
        are made available by member nations of the United Nations;
Whereas the participating States of the Organization for Security and 
        Cooperation in Europe, in the 1999 Charter for European Security signed 
        in Istanbul, Turkey, committed themselves to ``develop and implement 
        measures to promote the rights and interests of children in armed 
        conflict and postconflict situations, including refugees and internally 
        displaced children'' and to ``look at ways of preventing forced or 
        compulsory recruitment for use in armed conflict of persons under 18 
        years of age'';
Whereas United Nations Under-Secretary General for Peace-keeping, Bernard Miyet, 
        announced in the Fourth Committee of the General Assembly that 
        contributing governments of member nations were asked not to send 
        civilian police and military observers under the age of 25, and that 
        troops in national contingents should preferably be at least 21 years of 
        age but in no case should they be younger than 18 years of age;
Whereas on August 25, 1999, the United Nations Security Council unanimously 
        passed Resolution 1261 (1999) condemning the use of children in armed 
        conflicts;
Whereas in addressing the Security Council, the Special Representative of the 
        Secretary General for Children and Armed Conflict, Olara Otunnu, urged 
        the adoption of a global three-pronged approach to combat the use of 
        children in armed conflict, first to raise the age limit for recruitment 
        and participation in armed conflict from the present age of 15 to the 
        age of 18, second, to increase international pressure on armed groups 
        which currently abuse children, and third to address the political, 
        social, and economic factors which create an environment where children 
        are induced by appeal of ideology or by socio-economic collapse to 
        become child soldiers;
Whereas the United States delegation to the United Nations working group 
        relating to child soldiers, which included representatives from the 
        Department of Defense, supported the Geneva agreement on the optional 
        protocol;
Whereas on May 25, 2000, the United Nations General Assembly unanimously adopted 
        the optional protocol on the use of child soldiers;
Whereas the optional protocol was opened for signature on June 5, 2000; and
Whereas President Clinton has publicly announced his support of the optional 
        protocol and a speedy process of review and signature: Now, therefore, 
        be it
    Resolved by the House of Representatives (the Senate concurring), 
That--
            (1) the Congress joins the international community in--
                    (A) condemning the use of children as soldiers by 
                governmental and nongovernmental armed forces 
                worldwide;
                    (B) welcoming the optional protocol as a critical 
                first step in ending the use of children as soldiers; 
                and
                    (C) applauding the decision by the United States 
                Government to support the protocol;
            (2) it is the sense of the Congress that--
                    (A) President Clinton should be commended for 
                signing the optional protocol and should consult 
                closely with the Senate with the objective of building 
                support for this protocol;
                    (B) the President and the Congress should work 
                together to enact a law that establishes a fund for the 
                rehabilitation and reintegration into society of child 
                soldiers; and
                     (C) the Departments of State and Defense should 
                undertake all possible efforts to persuade and 
                encourage other governments to ratify and endorse the 
                new optional protocol on the use of child soldiers.

            Passed the House of Representatives July 11, 2000.

            Attest:

                                                 JEFF TRANDAHL,

                                                                 Clerk.