[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 158 (Wednesday, November 10, 1999)]
[Senate]
[Pages S14574-S14575]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[[Page S14574]]
SENATE CONCURRENT RESOLUTION 72--EXPRESSING CONDEMNATION OF THE USE OF 
   CHILDREN AS SOLDIERS AND THE BELIEF THAT THE UNITED STATES SHOULD 
  SUPPORT AND, WHERE POSSIBLE, LEAD EFFORTS TO ESTABLISH AND ENFORCE 
   INTERNATIONAL STANDARDS DESIGNED TO END THIS ABUSE OF HUMAN RIGHTS

  Mr. WELLSTONE submitted the following concurrent resolution; which 
was referred to the Committee on Foreign Relations:

                            S. Con. Res. 72

       Whereas in 1999 approximately 300,000 individuals under the 
     age of 18 are participating in armed conflict in more than 30 
     countries worldwide and hundreds of thousands more are at 
     risk of being conscripted at any given moment;
       Whereas many of these children are forcibly conscripted 
     through kidnapping 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 
     kidnapped by the Lords 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 the international community is developing a 
     consensus on how to most effectively address the problem, and 
     toward this end, the United Nations has established a working 
     group to negotiate an optional international agreement on 
     child soldiers which would raise the legal age of recruitment 
     and participation in armed conflict to age 18;
       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 United Nations Under-Secretary General for 
     Peacekeeping, 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; and
       Whereas the United States delegation to the United Nations 
     working group relating to child soldiers has opposed efforts 
     to raise the minimum age of participation in armed conflict 
     to the age of 18 despite the support of an overwhelming 
     majority of countries: Now, therefore, be it
       Resolved by the Senate (the House of Representatives 
     concurring), That--
       (1) the Congress joins the international community in 
     condemning the use of children as soldiers by governmental 
     and nongovernmental armed forces worldwide; and
       (2) it is the sense of the Congress that--
       (A) the United States should not oppose current efforts to 
     negotiate an optional international agreement to raise the 
     international minimum age for military service to the age of 
     18;
       (B) the Secretary of State should address positively and 
     expediently this issue in the next session of the United 
     Nations working group relating to child soldiers before this 
     process is abandoned by the international community; and
       (C) 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.

  Mr. WELLSTONE. Mr. President, today I am submitting a concurrent 
resolution expressing condemnation of the use of children as soldiers 
and the belief that the United States should support and, where 
possible, lead efforts to establish and enforce international standards 
designed to end this abuse of human rights.
  In 1999, an estimated 300,000 individuals under the age of 18, some 
as young as age 5, were serving as soldiers in dozens of armed 
conflicts around the world, some with armed insurgencies, and some in 
regular armies.
  Over the past five years, children were combatants in at least 33 
countries around the world: in Africa, in the Americas, in Europe, the 
Middle East and Persian Gulf, and in Asia.
  Throughout the world, children are exploited by adults for cruel 
purposes. These children have no voice. Some children are kidnaped and 
forced to become combatants. In the conflict in Sierra Leone, rebel 
armies willfully conscripted children into their ranks after forcing 
them to kill their family members and neighbors.
  Once conscripted, many children are subject to brutal induction 
ceremonies. The impact of the regular use of physical and emotional 
abuse involving degradation and humiliation of younger recruits to 
``indoctrinate'' discipline, and to induce fear of superiors usually 
results in low self-esteem, guilt feelings and violent solutions to 
problems.
  In addition, children are treated like their adult counterparts. This 
can have severe physical effects. Poor and inadequate food and medical 
care have more serious implications for children, whose bodies are 
still growing and may be weakened by the exertions of military life. 
Children who cannot ``keep up'' are routinely killed by their leaders 
so that they cannot reveal any secrets.
  Child soldiers are sometimes drugged so that they will fight even 
more fiercely. They may be used as human shields, to protect the more 
valuable, trained adult soldiers.
  Some children may appear to become combatants of their own accord. 
These are children--children without the capacity to judge what is in 
their own best interest. Children who are subject to subtle 
manipulations by family and community members may succumb to pressures 
that lead them to participate in hostilities.
  Some children become so enraged by the violence against their 
families and communities they become combatants to seek revenge. These 
``volunteers'' are children who have witnessed extremes of physical 
violence, including death squad killings, disappearances, torture, 
destruction of home or property and massacres. Young children seldom 
appreciate the dangers which they face. Alone, orphaned, frightened, 
bored, and frustrated, they will often finally choose to fight.

  When a conflict has ended, child soldiers often do not receive any 
special treatment for their reintegration into civil society. Child 
soldiers have different needs than adult soldiers and require special 
services, such as education, training, and social and psychological 
rehabilitation.
  Although child soldiers are subjected to unspeakable horrors, the 
international community has been slow in outlawing the use of children 
under 18 in armed conflicts. Today, international law regarding child 
soldiers is governed primarily by the UN Convention on the Rights of 
the Child. The Convention states that children under 15 cannot be 
recruited, conscripted, or made to participate in armed conflict. Every 
country in the United Nations, except the United States and Somalia has 
ratified the Convention.
  Currently, a number of governments are working in Geneva to establish 
an Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child that 
would raise the minimum age for recruitment and participation in 
conflict in 18. The

[[Page S14575]]

working group has met over the past five years, but so far has been 
unable to reach consensus as to the wording and terms of the protocol. 
This delay is in part due to the United States, which does not want to 
give up its practice of recruiting youths under 18 for military 
service.
  Although in the United States conscription is limited to those 18 and 
over, the United States military has a long standing practice of 
recruiting youths under the age of 18 and allowing them to be 
designated to fill combat positions. According to the U.S. Defense 
Department, children under the age of 18 make up less than one-half of 
one percent of active U.S. troops, about 7,000 individuals. I urge the 
Defense Department to examine its policy of recruiting children under 
the age of 18. Further, I urge the Defense Department to reassign those 
recruits under 18 to non-combat positions and adopt a clear policy 
barring those under 18 from participating in armed conflict. These 
steps would bring the United States closer to the emerging 
international consensus regarding the minimum age for military service.
  Further, to move forward, the United States government must drop its 
objection to an international agreement establishing 18 as the minimum 
age for recruitment or participation in armed conflict. Since the 
United States is not even a party to the parent treaty, our opposition 
is inappropriate. The United States should not object to other 
countries moving forward in protecting their children even if we choose 
not to follow suit.
  Mr. President, I speak today for these children who have grown up 
surrounded by violence and can only see this as a permanent way of 
life; for the children who are the victims of unfathomable terror and 
violence; and, for the children who are forced to perpetrate equal 
atrocities upon others.
  I speak for the children who have no other voice to speak for them, 
and no voice to speak for themselves. I submit this resolution so that 
the United States Congress can speak for these children.

  I ask the United States Senate, as we look to the new millennium, to 
begin the process whereby we eliminate the use of children as soldiers. 
I ask the Senate to give voice to these children and to future 
generations of children through passage of this concurrent resolution.
  The resolution simply provides that (1) the Congress joins the 
international community in condemning the use of children as soldiers; 
and (2) it is the sense of the Congress that (A) the United States 
should not oppose current efforts to negotiate an optional 
international agreement to raise the international minimum age for 
military service to the age of 18; (B) The Secretary of State should 
address positively and expediently this issue in the next session of 
the United Nations working group relating to child soldiers before this 
process is abandoned by the international community; and (C) 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.

                          ____________________