[Congressional Record Volume 154, Number 141 (Monday, September 8, 2008)]
[House]
[Pages H7820-H7823]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




               CHILD SOLDIERS ACCOUNTABILITY ACT OF 2008

  Ms. JACKSON-LEE of Texas. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules 
and pass the Senate bill (S. 2135) to prohibit the recruitment or use 
of child soldiers, to designate persons who recruit or use child 
soldiers as inadmissible aliens, to allow the deportation of persons 
who recruit or use child soldiers, and for other purposes, as amended.
  The Clerk read the title of the Senate bill.
  The text of the Senate bill is as follows:

                                S. 2135

       Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of 
     the United States of America in Congress assembled,

     SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

       This Act may be cited as the ``Child Soldiers 
     Accountability Act of 2008''.

     SEC. 2. ACCOUNTABILITY FOR THE RECRUITMENT AND USE OF CHILD 
                   SOLDIERS.

       (a) Crime for Recruiting or Using Child Soldiers.--
       (1) In general.--Chapter 118 of title 18, United States 
     Code, is amended by adding at the end the following:

     ``Sec. 2442. Recruitment or use of child soldiers

       ``(a) Offense.--Whoever knowingly--
       ``(1) recruits, enlists, or conscripts a person to serve 
     while such person is under 15 years of age in an armed force 
     or group; or
       ``(2) uses a person under 15 years of age to participate 
     actively in hostilities;
     knowing such person is under 15 years of age, shall be 
     punished as provided in subsection (b).
       ``(b) Penalty.--Whoever violates, or attempts or conspires 
     to violate, subsection (a) shall be fined under this title or 
     imprisoned not more than 20 years, or both and, if death of 
     any person results, shall be fined under this title and 
     imprisoned for any term of years or for life.
       ``(c) Jurisdiction.--There is jurisdiction over an offense 
     described in subsection (a), and any attempt or conspiracy to 
     commit such offense, if--
       ``(1) the alleged offender is a national of the United 
     States (as defined in section 101(a)(22) of the Immigration 
     and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1101(a)(22))) or an alien 
     lawfully admitted for permanent residence in the United 
     States (as defined in section 101(a)(20) of such Act (8 
     U.S.C. 1101(a)(20));
       ``(2) the alleged offender is a stateless person whose 
     habitual residence is in the United States;
       ``(3) the alleged offender is present in the United States, 
     irrespective of the nationality of the alleged offender; or
       ``(4) the offense occurs in whole or in part within the 
     United States.
       ``(d) Definitions.--In this section:
       ``(1) Participate actively in hostilities.--The term 
     `participate actively in hostilities' means taking part in--
       ``(A) combat or military activities related to combat, 
     including sabotage and serving as a decoy, a courier, or at a 
     military checkpoint; or
       ``(B) direct support functions related to combat, including 
     transporting supplies or providing other services.
       ``(2) Armed force or group.--The term `armed force or 
     group' means any army, militia, or other military 
     organization, whether or not it is state-sponsored, excluding 
     any group assembled solely for nonviolent political 
     association.''.
       (2) Statute of limitations.--Chapter 213 of title 18, 
     United States Code is amended by adding at the end the 
     following:

     ``Sec. 3300. Recruitment or use of child soldiers

       ``No person may be prosecuted, tried, or punished for a 
     violation of section 2442 unless the indictment or the 
     information is filed not later than 10 years after the 
     commission of the offense.''.
       (3) Clerical amendment.--Title 18, United States Code, is 
     amended--
       (A) in the table of sections for chapter 118, by adding at 
     the end the following:

``2442. Recruitment or use of child soldiers.'';

     and
       (B) in the table of sections for chapter 213, by adding at 
     the end the following:

``3300. Recruitment or use of child soldiers.''.

       (b) Ground of Inadmissibility for Recruiting or Using Child 
     Soldiers.--Section 212(a)(3) of the Immigration and 
     Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1182(a)(3)) is amended by adding at 
     the end the following:
       ``(G) Recruitment or use of child soldiers.--Any alien who 
     has engaged in the recruitment or use of child soldiers in 
     violation of section 2442 of title 18, United States Code, is 
     inadmissible.''.
       (c) Ground of Removability for Recruiting or Using Child 
     Soldiers.--Section 237(a)(4) of the Immigration and 
     Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1227(a)(4)) is amended by adding at 
     the end the following:
       ``(F) Recruitment or use of child soldiers.--Any alien who 
     has engaged in the recruitment or use of child soldiers in 
     violation of section 2442 of title 18, United States Code, is 
     deportable.''.
       (d) Asylum and Withholding of Removal.--
       (1) Issuance of regulations.--Not later than 60 days after 
     the date of enactment of this Act, the Attorney General and 
     the Secretary of Homeland Security shall promulgate final 
     regulations establishing that, for purposes of sections 
     241(b)(3)(B)(iii) and 208(b)(2)(A)(iii) of the Immigration 
     and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1231(b)(3)(B)(iii); 8 U.S.C. 
     1158(b)(2)(A)(iii)), an alien who is deportable under section 
     237(a)(4)(F) of such Act (8 U.S.C. 1227(a)(4)(F)) or 
     inadmissible under section 212(a)(3)(G) of such Act (8 U.S.C. 
     1182(a)(3)(G)) shall be considered an alien with respect to 
     whom there are serious reasons to believe that the alien 
     committed a serious nonpolitical crime.
       (2) Authority to waive certain regulatory requirements.--
     The requirements of chapter 5 of title 5, United States Code 
     (commonly referred to as the ``Administrative Procedure 
     Act''), chapter 35 of title 44, United States Code (commonly 
     referred to as the ``Paperwork Reduction Act''), or any other 
     law relating to rulemaking, information collection, or 
     publication in the Federal Register, shall not apply to any 
     action to implement paragraph (1) to the extent the Attorney 
     General or the Secretary Homeland of Security determines that 
     compliance with any such requirement would impede the 
     expeditious implementation of such paragraph.

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the rule, the gentlewoman from 
Texas (Ms. Jackson-Lee) and the gentleman from Iowa (Mr. King) each 
will control 20 minutes.
  The Chair recognizes the gentlewoman from Texas.


                             General Leave

  Ms. JACKSON-LEE of Texas. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that 
all Members have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks 
and include extraneous materials on the bill under consideration.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the 
gentlewoman from Texas?
  There was no objection.
  Ms. JACKSON-LEE of Texas. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I 
may consume.
  Mr. Speaker, let me note what a tragedy it is that we have to stand 
on the floor of the House in 2008 to speak about the exploitation of 
children as soldiers. Up to 250,000 children are exploited each day 
around the world in state-run armies, paramilitaries and guerilla 
groups. These child soldiers, boys and girls as young as 8 years old, 
are forced to serve as combatants and human mine detectors. They are 
often used to conduct suicide missions, and many are used as sex 
slaves. In fact, we have seen many of them turn themselves in Liberia, 
Sierra Leone and Colombia. In many cases they are provided with drugs 
and alcohol to numb them to the atrocities they are required to commit. 
In all cases, their childhoods are taken from them, their health and 
lives are endangered, and their psyches are destroyed.
  It is a war crime under customary international law to recruit or use 
children under 15 years of age as soldiers.

[[Page H7821]]

  I am reminded of an early amendment when I first came to the United 
States Congress that I added to an appropriations bill that we should 
restrain the use of appropriations foreign aid for those countries that 
would not commit to releasing their child soldiers. It is an ongoing 
and persistent problem.
  It is a violation of the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the 
Rights of the Child, which 110 countries, including the U.S., have 
ratified, to recruit or use child soldiers under the age of 18. But 
such actions do not currently violate U.S. criminal or immigration law. 
We are thus hindered in our ability to prevent those who use or recruit 
child soldiers from coming to our country, and we are unable to punish 
those perpetrators who make it here. In contrast, other grave human 
rights violations, including torture, are punishable under U.S. 
criminal and immigration law.
  The Child Soldier Accountability Act of 2008 would correct this 
disparity by making it a Federal crime and violation of immigration 
laws to recruit or use child soldiers under the age of 15.
  This bipartisan legislation was sponsored in the Senate by Senators 
Dick Durbin and Tom Coburn, the chairman and ranking member of the 
Senate Judiciary Committee Subcommittee on Human Rights and the Law. 
They worked together on this bill to ensure that war criminals who 
would exploit children cannot find safe haven in our country.
  The bill we vote on today is slightly changed from the bill that was 
sent to us by the Senate. It now includes changes agreed to in 
bipartisan and bicameral discussions between Senators Durbin, Coburn, 
Jon Kyl and Jeff Sessions, as well as numerous House Members, including 
Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers and Ranking Member Lamar 
Smith, Crime Subcommittee Chairman Bobby Scott and Ranking Member Louie 
Gohmert, and Immigration Subcommittee Chairwoman Zoe Lofgren and 
Ranking Member Steve King.
  The United States must hold accountable the war criminals who steal 
the childhood of innocents by turning them into killers or human 
fodder. I thus urge my colleagues to support this important 
legislation.
  Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
  Mr. KING of Iowa. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may 
consume.
  Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of S. 2135, the Child Soldier 
Accountability Act of 2008, which prohibits the use of children under 
the age of 15 in military forces or armed conflicts.
  Children are currently used as soldiers in over 20 countries. An 
estimated 200,000 to 300,000 children are used as soldiers for rebel 
groups, militias and government armed forces. The individuals who 
recruit children do so because children are physically vulnerable and 
easily intimidated. Many children are recruited by force and often 
compelled to follow orders under threat of death. Child soldiers are a 
global phenomenon. The problem is most critical in Africa and Asia, but 
armed groups in the Americas, Eurasia and the Middle East also use 
child soldiers.
  The United States is a party to the Optional Protocol to the 
Convention on the Rights of the Child on the involvement of children in 
armed conflict. President Clinton signed the Optional Protocol in 2000 
and it was ratified by the Senate in 2002.
  The Optional Protocol requires states to raise the age of voluntary 
recruitment from 15 and to impose a binding declaration of the minimum 
age for recruitment into their armed forces. The protocol also requires 
states to take all feasible measures to ensure that members of the 
armed forces under the age of 18 do not participate in hostilities and 
prohibits the conscription of anyone under the age of 18 into the armed 
forces.
  The protocol prohibits the recruitment or use in hostilities of 
children under the age of 18 by rebel or other nongovernmental and 
armed groups and requires states to criminalize such practices.
  In addition to joining the Optional Protocol, the United States funds 
programs to, one, rehabilitate children who were abducted in Southern 
Sudan and Northern Uganda; two, demobilize 4,000 children soldiers in 
Afghanistan and enroll them in education and counseling programs; and 
three, reintegrate former child combatants in Burundi, the Democratic 
Republic of the Congo, and Liberia.

                              {time}  1500

  The bill before us today complements the ongoing efforts of the 
United States to combat the use of child soldiers. S. 2135 is the 
product of several months of good-faith negotiations among Democrats 
and Republicans in the House and Senate and the administration.
  The amended version of S. 2135 that the House will vote on today 
includes several technical changes to clarify the intent and scope of 
the bill. Most notably, the bill ensures that U.S. military recruiting 
practices are not impeded by this legislation. The bill also authorizes 
the government to deport or deny admission to any individual who 
recruits or uses child soldiers under the age of 15. I urge my 
colleagues to support this bill.
  I reserve the balance of my time.
  Ms. JACKSON-LEE of Texas. Mr. Speaker, it gives me great pleasure to 
yield such time as he may consume to the chairman of the Subcommittee 
on Crime of the House Judiciary Committee, Bobby Scott of Virginia.
  Mr. SCOTT of Virginia. I thank the gentlelady for yielding.
  Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of S. 2135, the Child Soldiers 
Accountability Act of 2008. S. 2135 amends title 18 of the United 
States Code to create a criminal provision under U.S. law aimed at 
those who recruit or conscript children under the age of 15 into armed 
conflict. It establishes criminal penalties for up to 20 years in 
prison and up to life imprisonment if death results from the crime.
  The bill also makes it a violation of immigration law for any person 
seeking admission to the United States to have committed such acts.
  Finally, the bill would extend United States jurisdiction to 
perpetrators of this crime who are present in the United States, 
regardless of their nationality or where the crime takes place, so that 
those who commit these crimes cannot use this country as a safe haven 
from prosecution. This type of jurisdiction exists for similar crimes 
such as laws on torture and genocide, which allow for extraterritorial 
jurisdiction for crimes committed outside of the United States.
  In at least 18 countries around the world, children are utilized as 
direct participants in war. Many of these children soldiers, some as 
young as 8 years old, are abducted or recruited by force and often 
compelled to follow orders to participate under harsh duress. And girls 
make up more than 30 percent of child soldiers and participate in many 
conflicts. Oftentimes, they are abused and raped. Once recruited, these 
children, boys and girls, participate in all forms of combat, even 
wielding AK-47s and M-16s as portrayed in the media.
  There is international opposition to recruiting and using child 
soldiers. Over 110 countries, including the United States, have 
ratified the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the 
Child, which prohibits the recruitment and use of child soldiers under 
the age of 18. Nevertheless, the prevalence and nature of the child 
soldier problem is not going away. It continues to plague the 
international community. For example, in Uganda, the rebel group has 
abducted at least 20,000 children and has forced them to work as 
laborers, soldiers, and sex slaves. We hear about the ongoing 
persecution and atrocities in Burma, but what has escaped media 
attention is the use of child soldiers there, as the government has 
recruited up to 70,000 children, more than any other country in the 
world.
  Recruiting and using child soldiers does not currently violate United 
States criminal law. S. 2135 was introduced by Senator Durbin and 
Senator Coburn to correct that problem. We overwhelmingly passed the 
Genocide Accountability Act last year to end the immunity gap in 
genocide law. By this bill, we seek to do the same thing for those who 
maliciously recruit and use innocent children in warfare. I urge my 
colleagues to support the bill.
  Mr. KING of Iowa. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may 
consume.
  Mr. Speaker, as I listen to the debate here and contemplate the 
global situation of 200,000, 300,000 child soldiers and

[[Page H7822]]

what that means, and the repatriation, so to speak, of the child 
soldiers in Afghanistan, having just returned from Iraq, Afghanistan, 
and Georgia, and having walked in some of the dust-covered mountains 
and in the dust-covered plains over there and been brought up to speed 
in briefings in both of those countries, it occurs to me how tough it 
is over in that part of the world, how close they are to the Stone Age, 
and how difficult it is to live in that country, let alone stand and 
fight, and the generations of warfare that have built one on top of the 
other. There is not a generation there that can remember not having 
fought.
  Life expectancy in Afghanistan, 44 years. Up until a couple years 
ago, Afghanistan, by my recollection, was the only country in the world 
where men could expect to live longer than women, even though men were 
the ones that were most often killed in the conflict. The health care 
is that bad.
  When young people are brought up in warfare and they are conscripted 
into the military and they are confronted with armed conflict at an 
early age, they may not know any other way of life. And to bring them 
back into education and try to repatriate them into more of, as we 
would see it, a normal lifestyle is a very difficult task. But Mr. 
Speaker, we must. We must break that cycle of violence. We must break 
that cycle of violence and the culture that reconstitutes at each 
generation. That is the case in Afghanistan, it is the case in Iraq, it 
is the case in the West Bank and in the Gaza strip and Israel proper. 
And it goes on and on and on around this world.
  When little children, when little girls are raised to wear a pseudo 
suicide belt as part of perpetuating a culture of violence, when they 
are taught to hate people because of their religion or their ethnicity 
and they see that practiced on the news every day, when I turn on al-
Jazeera TV and I see the venom and the hatred that is there, when I 
watch the leaders of the people that oppose us bring it back home to be 
inspiring in recruiting people who believe that their path to salvation 
is killing people who are not like them, then I understand how 
important it is to break this cycle. I don't know if we are going to be 
able to do that. I think this bill will move us a little bit closer 
along that way. At least it stands on the right principle for the right 
cause, and I urge its adoption.
  I yield back the balance of my time.
  Ms. JACKSON-LEE of Texas. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I 
may consume.
  By listening to my two colleagues from Iowa and from Virginia, you 
can see the commonality of viewpoints on this persistent and cancerous 
aspect of our world society, the continuous use of child soldiers.
  I offer to my colleagues the words of a child soldier, and I read 
them as follows:
  ``My parents refused to give me to the LITE, so about 15 of them came 
to my house. It was both men and women in uniforms with rifles and guns 
in holsters. I was fast asleep when they came to get me at one point in 
the morning. These people dragged me out of the house. My father 
shouted at them, saying, `What is going on?' Some of the LITE soldiers 
took my father away towards the woods and beat him. They also pushed my 
mother onto the ground when she tried to stop them.''
  This girl was recruited by the Tamil Tigers in Sri Lanka at age 16.
  Another story from a young child:
  ``Early on, when my brothers and I were captured, the LRA explained 
to us that all five brothers couldn't serve in the LRA because we would 
not perform well. So they tied up my two younger brothers and invited 
us to watch. Then they beat them with sticks until two of them died. 
They told us it would give us strength to fight. My youngest brother 
was 9 years old.''
  Martin, recruited by the Lord's Resistance Army in Uganda at age 12.
  This legislation of course is long overdue. And I would ask my 
colleagues to consider that it may be time after time and year after 
year that we have to continue to pass this legislation, but I would 
hope that we would be persistent, hope that the President signs this 
legislation, and, as well, that we can stamp out the cancer of using 
and victimizing these wonderful children.
  I would like to submit these statements into the Record from Human 
Rights Watch: Child Soldiers, The Voices of Child Soldiers.


                      the voices of child soldiers

       ``The section leader ordered us to take cover and open 
     fire. There were seven of us, and seven or ten of the enemy. 
     I was too afraid to look, so I put my face in the ground and 
     shot my gun up at the sky. I was afraid their bullets would 
     hit my head. I fired two magazines, about forty rounds. I was 
     afraid that if I didn't fire the section leader would punish 
     me.''--Khin Maung Than, recruited by Burma's national army at 
     age eleven.
       ``My parents refused to give me to the LTTE so about 
     fifteen of them came to my house--it was both men and women, 
     in uniforms, with rifles, and guns in holsters. . . . I was 
     fast asleep when they came to get me at one in the morning. . 
     . . These people dragged me out of the house. My father 
     shouted at them, saying, ``What is going on?'' but some of 
     the LTTE soldiers took my father away towards the woods and 
     beat him. . . . They also pushed by mother onto the ground 
     when she tried to stop them.''--girl recruited by the Tamil 
     Tigers in Sri Lanka at age sixteen.
       ``I was captured in Lofa County by government forces. The 
     forces beat me, they held me and kept me in the bush. I was 
     tied with my arms kept still and was raped there. I was 
     fourteen years old. . . . After the rape, I was taken to a 
     military base. . . . I was used in the fighting to carry 
     medicine. During the fighting I would carry medicine on my 
     head and was not allowed to talk. I had to stand very still. 
     I had to do a lot of work for the soldiers, sweeping, 
     washing, cleaning. During this time, I felt really bad. I was 
     afraid, I wanted to go home, but was made to stay with the 
     soldiers.''--Evelyn, recruited in Liberia by government 
     forces at age fourteen.
       ``I had a friend, Juanita, who got into trouble for 
     sleeping around. We had been friends in civilian life and we 
     shared a tent together. The commander said that it didn't 
     matter that she was my friend. She had committed an error and 
     had to be killed. I closed my eyes and fired the gun, but I 
     didn't hit her. So I shot again. The grave was right nearby. 
     I had to bury her and put dirt on top of her. The commander 
     said, ``You did very well. Even though you started to cry, 
     you did well. You'll have to do this again many more times, 
     and you'll have to learn not to cry.''--Angela, joined the 
     FARC-EP in Colombia at age twelve.
       ``Early on when my brothers and I were captured, the LRA 
     explained to us that all five brothers couldn't serve in the 
     LRA because we would not perform well. So they tied up my two 
     younger brothers and invited us to watch. Then they beat them 
     with sticks until two of them died. They told us it would 
     give us strength to fight. My youngest brother was nine years 
     old.''--Martin, recruited by the Lord's Resistance Army in 
     Uganda at age twelve.
  Mr. HONDA. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to speak in very strong support 
of the Child Soldiers Accountability Act of 2007. S. 2135 addresses the 
ongoing struggle to protect children from the horrors of war. The 
recruitment, enlisting, or conscripting of children in any armed force 
is unacceptable. Child soldiers face increased mortality rates as well 
as emotional and psychological damage that are often irreversible. The 
time has come for the United States to once again uphold justice and 
stand up for defenseless children who are at risk of losing their 
childhood, their families, and their physical and emotional well being.
  Currently, more than 250,000 child soldiers suffer at the hands of 
exploitative, ruthless military commanders. Too often, their cries for 
help are stifled by poverty, ongoing armed conflict, and political 
instability; it is our responsibility to take up their cause and punish 
those who have participated in their torment to the extent possible. 
There is widespread disagreement on the particulars of what might 
constitute justification for war or aggressive military action, but it 
is almost universally acknowledged that children should not be used as 
combatants in such conflicts.
  It is imperative that the United States sends a clear and firm 
message condemning the use of child soldiers and showing our 
willingness to take the necessary measures to respond to those who 
would use children in this fashion. Passing S. 2135 is a significant 
step forward in holding perpetrators accountable for their actions, 
particularly in light of the fact that the United States has not yet 
ratified the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, 
which expresses the wide-ranging opposition to the use of minor 
children as soldiers. Children in any country deserve the same 
opportunity to succeed and thrive at life; I believe this bill will 
solidify our commitment to a higher moral standard.
  By passing S. 2135 we have the opportunity to join the many nations 
fighting the scourge of child soldiering which is why I urge my 
colleagues to join me in supporting S. 2135.
  Ms. JACKSON-LEE of Texas. I ask my colleagues to enthusiastically 
support this particular legislation.
  I yield back the balance of my time.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the motion offered by the 
gentlewoman from Texas (Ms. Jackson-Lee) that the House suspend the 
rules and pass the Senate bill, S. 2135, as amended.

[[Page H7823]]

  The question was taken.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. In the opinion of the Chair, two-thirds 
being in the affirmative, the ayes have it.
  Ms. JACKSON-LEE of Texas. Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and 
nays.
  The yeas and nays were ordered.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to clause 8 of rule XX and the 
Chair's prior announcement, further proceedings on this motion will be 
postponed.

                          ____________________