[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 162 (Tuesday, November 16, 1999)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E2398-E2399]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




 INTRODUCTION OF H. CON. RES. 209 CONDEMNING THE USE OF CHILD SOLDIERS 
AND CALLING FOR U.S. SUPPORT FOR AN INTERNATIONAL AGREEMENT AGAINST THE 
                         USE OF CHILD SOLDIERS

                                 ______
                                 

                            HON. TOM LANTOS

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                       Tuesday, November 16, 1999

  Mr. LANTOS. Mr. Speaker, I recently introduced House Concurrent 
Resolution 209, a bipartisan resolution which strongly condemns the 
outrageous use of child soldiers around the world and calls on our 
government to support an international effort to develop an optional 
protocol to the U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child.
  This resolution--which is currently cosponsored by over 40 of our 
distinguished colleagues--is based on the deeply disturbing testimony 
of numerous expert witnesses before the Congressional Human Rights 
Caucus. They reported the most horrific practices including the 
forcible conscription of children--some as young as 7 years old--for 
use as combatants in armed conflicts around the world. As we speak, 
children are being conscripted into armies of some countries and 
warring factions through kidnaping and coercion, while others join out 
of economic necessity, the intention to avenge the loss of a family 
member, or for their own personal safety.
  Many times, these children are forced to kill in the most sadistic 
and gruesome fashion, their victims often other children or even their 
own family or friends. By forcing children to perpetrate the most 
horrific crimes against their own families ensures that these child 
soldiers cannot desert and can never return home.
  Mr. Speaker, our resolution clearly exposes the full scope of the 
problem of child soldiers. As it notes, experts estimate that in 1999 
approximately 300,000 individuals under the age of 18 are participating 
in armed conflict in more than 30 countries around the world, and 
hundreds of thousands more are at risk of being conscripted. The 
practice of conscripting children has resulted in the deaths of two 
million minors in the last decade alone. In addition to those children 
who have been killed, an estimated six million have been seriously 
injured or permanently disabled. Let there be no mistake, Mr. Speaker, 
this truly global problem needs a global solution which can only be 
brought about by determined and concerned action of the world 
community.
  For this purpose, the United Nations established a working group in 
1994 to develop an Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of 
the Child to address the issue of child soldiers. The United States and 
Somalia, a country without a functioning government, are the only two 
recognized countries in the world which have not ratified this 
Convention. Therefore, the U.S. cannot even be a party to this Optional 
Protocol. The Convention on the Rights of the Child, which establishes 
very stringent and necessary protections with regard to educational, 
labor and developmental provisions, gives the world ``child'' the 
following meaning in Article 1: ``For the purposes of the present 
Convention, a child means every human being below the age of eighteen 
years unless under the law applicable to the child, majority in 
attained earlier.''
  It is simply beyond my comprehension that the same Convention--which 
otherwise protects children in a comprehensive manner--makes an age 
exception in Article 38(3) for the most dangerous profession in the 
world, that of soldier: ``States Parties shall refrain from recruiting 
any person who has not attained the age of fifteen years into their 
armed forces. In recruiting among those persons who have attained the 
age of fifteen years but who have not attained the age of eighteen 
years, States Parties shall endeavor to give priority to those who are 
oldest.''
  In light of the global developments I have outlined, the U.N. Working 
Group seeks to raise the minimum age for recruitment and participation 
in armed conflict from 15 to 18 years of age, but the U.S. delegation 
to the Working Group so far opposes this overwhelming international 
consensus, preventing a unanimous draft protocol.
  On October 29, 1998, this international consensus resulted in the 
decision by United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan to set a 
minimum age requirement of 18 for Untied Nations peacekeeping personnel 
made available by member nations of the United Nations. On the occasion 
of the unanimous adoption of Resolution 1261 (1999) on August 25, 1999 
by the U.N. Security Council condemning the use of children in armed 
conflict, Special Representative of the Secretary General for Children 
and Armed Conflict, Olara Otunnu, addressed the Security Council. The 
Special Representative urged the adoption of a global three-pronged 
approach to combat the use of children in armed conflict including the 
raising of the age limit for recruitment and participation in armed 
conflict from the present age of 15 to 18 years; increased 
international pressure against armed groups which abuse children; and 
addressing political, social, and economic factors which create an 
environment where children become soldiers.
  Mr. Speaker, the international consensus is clear, and our government 
should not stand in the way of this consensus. Our government should 
not give unintentional cover to nations with deplorable human rights 
records by giving them an opportunity to hide behind the current U.S. 
position on this issue. While the U.S. accepts 17-year-old volunteers 
into its armed forces with parental consent, U.S. armed forces de facto 
already ensure that all but a negligible fraction of recruits have 
reached the age of 18 before being deployed in combat situations, 
because 17-year-old volunteers are in the ``training pipeline'' and do 
not complete their training until they are 18 years of age.
  Mr. Speaker, I ask that the text of H. Con. Res. 209 be inserted at 
this point in the Congressional Record.

                    House Concurrent Resolution 209

       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.
       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 kidnaping or coercion, while others join military 
     units due to economic necessity, to avenge the loss of a

[[Page E2399]]

     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 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 socioeconomic 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 House of Representatives (the Senate 
     concurring), That--
       (1) the Congress joins the international community in 
     condemning the use of children as soldiers by governmental 
     and non-governmental 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.

     

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