[Congressional Record Volume 154, Number 146 (Monday, September 15, 2008)]
[Senate]
[Pages S8513-S8516]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




               CHILD SOLDIERS ACCOUNTABILITY ACT OF 2008

  Mr. DURBIN. Madam President, I am going to make a short statement in 
reference to S. 2135. After that statement, I will ask to lay before 
the Senate a Message from the House with respect to that.
  I would like to say at the outset that this bill, S. 2135, is known 
as the Child Soldiers Accountability Act.
  In January of 2007, at the beginning of this Congress, the Senate 
Judiciary Committee embarked on an experiment, establishing a new 
subcommittee, called the Human Rights and the Law Subcommittee. It was 
the first time in the 219-year history of the Senate that a 
subcommittee or committee focused specifically on the issue of human 
rights was formed.
  I thank Senator Patrick Leahy, the Chairman of the Judiciary 
committee, for giving me the opportunity to serve as the first chairman 
of the Human Rights and the Law Subcommittee.
  Senator Tom Coburn, Republican of Oklahoma, is the ranking member of 
the subcommittee. Senator Coburn and I disagree on many issues, but we 
have formed an unusual partnership in this subcommittee, working across 
party lines to address some of the most urgent human rights crises in 
the world.
  One of the first hearings we held focused on the scourge of child 
soldiers.
  We learned that up to 250,000 children currently serve as combatants, 
porters, human mine detectors and sex slaves in state-run armies, 
paramilitaries and guerilla groups around the world.
  Under treaties that we have ratified, there is a clear legal 
prohibition on recruiting and using child soldiers. But, as we learned 
at our hearing, recruiting and using child soldiers does not violate 
U.S. criminal or immigration law.
  Senator Coburn and I introduced the Child Soldiers Accountability Act 
to close this loophole in the law. This legislation will make it 
illegal under U.S. criminal and immigration law to recruit or use child 
soldiers.
  This bipartisan bill will ensure that those who recruit or use 
children as soldiers will not find safe haven in our country. It will 
give the U.S. Government the tools to prosecute or deport the war 
criminals who commit this horrible human rights abuse.
  The Child Soldiers Accountability Act passed the Senate unanimously 
last December. The Judiciary Committee in the House of Representatives 
held a hearing on the bill and made some thoughtful revisions. Earlier 
this week, the House passed the legislation unanimously. Now, the 
Senate is poised to send it to President Bush for his signature.
  I would like to thank all of my colleagues in the Senate for 
supporting the Child Soldiers Accountability Act, especially, Senator 
Coburn, the bill's lead Republican cosponsor; Judiciary Committee 
Chairman Leahy, a cosponsor who helped shepherd the bill through the 
Committee; and Senators Russ Feingold and Sam Brownback, the bill's 
other original cosponsors
  I would also like to thank Members of the House of Representatives 
for their support, especially John Conyers and Lamar Smith, the 
chairman and ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee; Bobby 
Scott and Louie Gohmert, the chairman and ranking member of the Crime 
Subcommittee; and Zoe Lofgren and Steve King, the chairman and ranking 
member of the House Immigration Subcommittee.
  At our hearing on child soldiers, we heard moving testimony from a 
remarkable young man named Ismael Beah. Mr. Beah is a former child 
soldier and author of the bestselling book ``A Long Way Gone: Memoirs 
of a Boy

[[Page S8514]]

Soldier.'' Mr. Beah said the Child Soldiers Accountability Act ``would 
set a clear example that there is no safe haven anywhere for those who 
recruit and use children in war.'' Mr. Beah also posed a challenge to 
all of us:

       When you go home tonight to your children, your cousins, 
     and your grandchildren and watch them carrying out their 
     various childhood activities, I want you to remember that at 
     that same moment, there are countless children elsewhere who 
     are being killed; injured; exposed to extreme violence; and 
     forced to serve in armed groups, including girls who are 
     raped. . . . As you watch your loved ones, those children you 
     adore most, ask yourselves whether you would want these kinds 
     of suffering for them. If you don't, then you must stop this 
     from happening to other children around the world whose lives 
     and humanity are as important and of the same value as all 
     children everywhere.

  We have a moral obligation to respond to Mr. Beah's challenge. I hope 
the Child Soldiers Accountability Act is one small step towards ending 
the scourge of child soldiers.
  Madam President, this narrowly tailored bipartisan legislation would 
make it a crime and a violation of immigration law to recruit or use 
child soldiers. Congress must ensure that perpetrators who use children 
to wage war are held accountable and do not find safe haven in our 
country.
  The Child Soldiers Accountability Act passed the Senate unanimously 
in December 19, 2007. On September 8, 2008, the House passed the bill 
unanimously with modest revisions. Now the Senate is poised to pass 
this.
  I would like to again thank all of my colleagues in the Senate who 
have worked with me to enact the Child Soldiers Accountability Act, 
especially, Senator Tom Coburn, the bill's lead Republican cosponsor 
and the Ranking Member of the Human Rights and the Law Subcommittee, 
which I chair; Senator Patrick Leahy, a cosponsor of this bill and 
Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, who has been a leader on 
this and so many other human rights issues; Senator Russell Feingold, 
and Senator Sam Brownback, the bill's other original cosponsors; and 
Senators Christopher Dodd, John Kerry, Blanche Lincoln, Barack Obama, 
and Robert Menendez, the bill's other sponsors.
  I would also like to thank members of the House of Representatives 
who worked diligently to revise and pass the Child Soldiers 
Accountability Act with overwhelming bipartisan support, especially 
Representatives John Conyers and Lamar Smith, the Chairman and Ranking 
Member of the House Judiciary Committee; Representatives Bobby Scott 
and Louie Gohmert, the Chairman and Ranking Member of the House Crime, 
Terrorism, and Homeland Security Subcommittee; and Representatives Zoe 
Lofgren and Steve King the Chairman and Ranking Member of the House 
Immigration, Citizenship, Refugees, Border Security, and International 
Law Subcommittee.
  Of all the unspoken casualties of war, the use of children as 
soldiers is among the most heartbreaking and horrific. Up to 250,000 
children are currently serving as soldiers around the world. State-run 
armies, paramilitaries and guerrilla groups use these girls and boys--
some as young as 7 or 8 years old--as combatants, porters, sex slaves, 
spies and human mine detectors. These child soldiers are denied the 
childhood that our children and grandchildren have and to which every 
child has an inalienable right.
  In Burma, Chad, Somalia, Sudan and Uganda, government forces continue 
to recruit children, often through intimidation, coercion and violence. 
Government forces in countries such as Burundi, Colombia and the 
Democratic Republic of Congo often use children as spies or informants. 
Government-backed militias in the Darfur region of Sudan, Sri Lanka and 
Cote d'Ivoire use children in hostilities. Armed groups in Colombia, 
Cote d'Ivoire, the Democratic Republic of Congo and northern Uganda 
have raped girl soldiers and subjected them to other forms of abuse. A 
senior officer in the Chadian National Army summed up the cold calculus 
that drives government forces and armed groups to continue this 
abhorrent practice:

       Child soldiers are ideal because they don't complain, they 
     don't expect to be paid, and if you tell them to kill, they 
     kill.

  Despite all of this, there are signs that the world is beginning to 
rise to the challenge of stopping the use of children in armed 
conflict. Since 2004, there has been a decrease in the number of 
conflicts in which children are directly involved, from 27 in 2004 to 
17 by the end of 2007. More than 110 countries, including the United 
States, have adopted the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the 
Rights of the Child on the involvement of children in armed conflict, 
an international agreement that sets the minimum age for compulsory 
recruitment of soldiers at 18. International courts have begun 
prosecuting those who use child soldiers.
  While these are important and positive developments, the reality is 
that war criminals around the world continue to use children to wage 
war with virtual impunity. The ability of international courts to 
prosecute those who recruit child soldiers is severely limited. Too 
many perpetrators still believe they are outside the reach of the law. 
National courts can and must play a greater role in prosecuting 
perpetrators.
  As a nation founded upon the principle of individual freedom and a 
historical leader on human rights, the United States has a special 
obligation to lead the effort to end the use of child soldiers 
worldwide.
  Unfortunately, recruiting and using child soldiers does not violate 
U.S. criminal or immigration law. As a result, war criminals who have 
forced children into combat can find safe haven in the U.S. and our 
government has no power to prosecute them. In contrast, other grave 
human rights violations, including genocide and torture, are punishable 
under U.S. criminal and immigration law.
  I introduced the Child Soldiers Accountability Act to close this 
loophole. This bill will make it a crime to recruit or use persons 
under the age of 15 as soldiers. It will also enable the government to 
deport or deny admission to an individual who recruited or used child 
soldiers under the age of 15.
  Only a handful of countries have passed legislation creating criminal 
penalties for the use or recruitment of child soldiers to date. By 
enacting this legislation, the United States will lead the way towards 
a future where war criminals who recruit or use child soldiers will not 
find safe haven anywhere in the world. We will send a clear message to 
those adults who deliberately recruit or use children to wage war that 
there are real consequences for their actions.
  By holding such individuals criminally responsible, our country will 
help to deter the recruitment and use of child soldiers. This bill will 
provide an important new tool to the Domestic Security Section in the 
Justice Department's Criminal Division, which bears primary 
responsibility for criminal prosecutions of human rights abusers.
  We can help to end impunity for the recruitment and use of child 
soldiers by deporting or denying admission to foreign perpetrators and 
working with their home governments to ensure they will be prosecuted 
upon return. There have been only a few international and national 
prosecutions for child soldier use or recruitment to date. Under the 
Child Soldiers Accountability Act, an individual who recruited or used 
child soldiers need not have been convicted of doing so in order to be 
denied admission or deported. Requiring a conviction would allow those 
who use children to wage war to benefit from the prevailing impunity 
for this crime.
  Recognizing that perpetrators often use drugs, threats, violence or 
other means to pressure child soldiers into committing serious human 
rights violations, including the recruitment of other children, this 
legislation seeks to hold adults accountable for their actions and is 
not intended to make inadmissible or deportable child soldiers who 
participated in the recruitment of other children. This legislation 
should not be interpreted as placing new restrictions on or altering 
the legal status of former child soldiers who are seeking admission to 
or are already present in the United States.
  Former child soldiers should be treated as victims and should not be 
subjected to punitive measures for offenses they committed while they 
were children. Effectively rehabilitating and reintegrating child 
soldiers into society requires extensive care and support from family 
and others. In the absence of such support, former child soldiers

[[Page S8515]]

may become a generation of adults that will perpetuate conflict and 
undermine security, creating unforeseen challenges that our children 
will have to address.
  Last month, at the Beijing Olympic Games, Lopez Lomong, who was 
abducted at the age of six to be trained as a child soldier in Sudan, 
carried the United States flag at the opening ceremony. Mr. Lomong 
escaped the militia camp where he was held with three other boys and, 
after ten years at a refugee camp, resettled in the United States with 
a family in New York and went on to represent the United States at the 
Olympics. This incredible journey shows us how important it is to 
provide opportunities to those children who have been recruited or used 
to serve as combatants.
  Recruiting and using child soldiers is morally wrong and must be 
stopped. Unfortunately, neither moral suasion nor international 
agreements has brought this abhorrent practice to an end. We must end 
impunity for this horrific crime by closing the loopholes in our laws 
and prosecuting those who use or recruit child soldiers as the war 
criminals they are.
  Mr. LEAHY. Madam President, I am pleased that the Senate today will 
pass S. 2135, the Child Soldiers Accountability Act, which will combat 
the unconscionable practice of using children as soldiers in violent 
conflicts. I thank Senator Durbin and Senator Coburn for introducing 
this important legislation and I am proud to be a cosponsor. I also 
thank them for their leadership on the Judiciary Committee's new 
Subcommittee on Human Rights and the Law. Their leadership in working 
with the House sponsors to produce a consensus bill that we can all 
support has been critical. The United States should do all it can to 
prevent and punish this conduct, which is so contrary to our values.
  The use of children as soldiers has been universally condemned as 
abhorrent and unacceptable. Yet over the last decade hundreds of 
thousands of children have fought and died in conflicts around the 
world. This legislation would close the gap in our law and enable the 
U.S. Government to bring child soldier perpetrators that are found in 
our country to justice.
  This bill creates a tough new criminal provision aimed at those who 
recruit or conscript children under the age of 15 into armed conflict. 
It extends U.S. jurisdiction to perpetrators of this crime who are 
present in the United States, regardless of their nationality and where 
the crime takes place, so that those who exploit children will not find 
this country to be a sanctuary from prosecution. The bill also amends 
immigration law to allow those who have used children as soldiers to be 
barred or removed from the United States.
  This bill is the second piece of legislation to pass both houses of 
Congress resulting from the work of the Judiciary Committee's 
Subcommittee on Human Rights and the Law. I was proud to work with 
Senator Durbin to create the Human Rights and the Law Subcommittee. I 
am glad that the efforts Senator Durbin and I have made to make this 
subcommittee a force for change and to bring focus on these important 
issues is resulting in legislative action, as well as providing a forum 
to put a spotlight on important issues. The aubcommittee has already 
worked to make the Genocide Accountability Act law, and it will soon 
provide a powerful new tool in America's efforts to prevent and punish 
genocide. The Subcommittee has made further progress with hearings and 
legislation dealing with human trafficking and other vital issues.
  The conduct prohibited by the Child Soldiers Accountability Act is 
appalling but happens all too often throughout the world. We should do 
everything we can to stop this offense to human rights and human 
dignity, which exacts such great costs from too many of the world's 
children. I commend the Senate for passing this important legislation 
today and I hope the President will quickly sign this legislation into 
law.
  Mr. DURBIN. Madam President, I ask the Chair to lay before the Senate 
a message from the House with respect to S. 2135.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER laid before the Senate a message from the House 
as follows:

                                S. 2135

       Resolved, That the bill from the Senate (S. 2135) entitled 
     ``An Act 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'', do pass with the following amendment:
       Strike out all after the enacting clause and insert:

     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

[[Page S8516]]

     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.

  Mr. DURBIN. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate 
concur in the House amendment, the motion to reconsider be laid upon 
the table with no intervening action or debate, and any statements 
related to the measure be printed in the Record,
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

                          ____________________