[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: WILLIAM J. CLINTON (2000, Book II)]
[July 5, 2000]
[Pages 1383-1385]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]



Remarks in New York City on the United Nations Optional Protocols on 
Children's Rights
July 5, 2000

    Thank you very much, Ambassador Holbrooke. That generous introduction confirms one of my unbreakable 
laws of politics, which is, whenever possible, you should endeavor to be 
introduced by someone you have appointed to high office. [Laughter]
    I thank you, Deputy Secretary-General Frechette, for your welcome and for hosting me here today, and 
I'm delighted to see Olara Otunnu, Carol 
Bellamy. And thank you, Jim 
Wolfensohn, for being here and for your 
truly visionary leadership of the World Bank. I thank the members of the 
Security Council and the other Ambassadors who are here.
    It's a special honor to have the President of Mali, President 
Konare, here, as well. I thank Secretary 
Summers for his work, and for coming 
here. And I'm delighted to be here with three Members of the House of 
Representatives: the chairman of the House Committee on International 
Affairs, Mr. Ben Gilman from New York; 
and Representative Carolyn Maloney, who 
represents the district in which the United Nations is located; and 
Sheila Jackson Lee from Houston, Texas, 
who did so much work on these subjects we're here to discuss today.
    I also appreciate the presence here of members of the NGO community 
and members of the State, Defense, and Justice Departments' negotiating 
team who worked on these agreements. I'd also like to acknowledge the 
leadership of the Defense Department and the Joint Chiefs of Staff who 
worked hard to ensure that we could sign the child soldiers protocol in 
good faith, without compromising our military readiness or our national 
security in any way.
    Let me begin just by expressing a general word of appreciation, if I 
might, to the United Nations for the work that you have done. You 
mentioned the 500 multinational protocols that have come out of this 
organization since it began. We are grateful for the attention that you 
are now devoting to the world health crisis and for the opportunity that 
we will have to introduce this resolution tomorrow, for the work you are 
doing for peacekeeping, most recently in Sierra Leone, and in so many 
other ways. It's a profound honor for the United States to host the 
United Nations, especially in this millennial year, and I'm looking 
forward to coming back for the millennial summit.
    These two protocols today, I believe, are very important statements 
that go beyond their very terms. With the Convention on the Worst Forms 
of Child Labor I signed last year, they form a trio of vital protections 
for children, and they must be signposts for the future of the global 
society.
    To give life to our dream of a global economy that lifts all people, 
first we must stand together for all children. Yet every day, tens of 
millions of children work in conditions that shock the conscience. Every 
day, thousands of children are killed and brutalized in fighting wars 
that adults decided they should fight in. Every day around the world, 
and even here in the United States, children are sold into virtual 
slavery or traffic for the worst forms of sexual abuse.
    Think about what has been lost for the future because roughly 2 
million children have fought in wars over the last two decades. In 
Sierra Leone today, as many as half the rebel forces are under 18, some 
as young as 5 or 6. In Colombia, guerrillas have taken thousands of 
children from their villages to serve as soldiers.

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    Two years ago, when we went to Africa, Hillary met with Ugandan children who had been abducted and 
heard their stories of unspeakable horror--of children forced to kill 
each other, family members, even their own parents. In Africa and around 
the world, she has been an eloquent and strong and consistent voice on 
behalf of our children, those who have been abused, exploited, and 
forced into war. And I wish she could be with me here today, because 
she's an important reason for why we're all here. This morning she 
reminded me that I should say, again, there is no worse sin in life than 
sending a child to kill the people who gave him life.
    The optional protocol on children in armed conflict sets a clear and 
a high standard: No one under 18 may ever be drafted by any army in any 
country. Its signatories will do everything feasible to keep even 
volunteers from taking a direct part in hostilities before they are 18. 
They will make it a crime for any nongovernmental force to use children 
under 18 in war. And they will work together to meet the needs of 
children who have been forced into war, to save a generation that 
already has lost too much.
    What happens to the world's children in peacetime can be just as 
shocking. In the 21st century, it is difficult to believe that the 
global traffic in human beings is the third-largest source of income for 
organized crime, hundreds of thousands of children bought and sold, 
exploited and prostituted every year. Yet many countries don't even have 
laws against this kind of trade.
    The optional protocol on the sale of children, child prostitution, 
and child pornography will do a great deal to change that. It specifies 
that child pornography, prostitution, and enslavement are crimes 
everywhere. It provides better tools for law enforcement to extradite 
and prosecute those who profit from this dirty business.
    Already we are waging a firm fight against those who traffic in 
children, but this protocol will make a big difference. And I was glad 
that the Deputy Secretary-General invited 
other countries to sign this and other outstanding protocols when 
they're here for the millennial summit.
    Every American citizen should support these protocols. It is true 
that words on paper are not enough, but these documents are a clear 
starting point for action, for punishing offenders, dismantling the 
networks of trafficking, caring for the young victims. They represent an 
international coalition formed to fight a battle that one country, even 
a large country, cannot win alone. They represent a worldwide consensus 
on basic values, values every citizen of our country shares. In short, I 
believe they represent the United Nations at its very best. And they 
remind us why, at a time when crime, disease, and hate can spread faster 
than ever before, we need a strong United Nations more than ever before.
    The United States has already passed a sense of the Senate 
resolution in support of the Protocol on Children in Armed Conflict. I 
will send both protocols to the Senate this month, and I hope very much 
that they can be ratified this year.
    Both agreements are stand-alone documents; they create no 
obligations to other agreements which the United States has not 
ratified. They speak to an international sense of justice and to the 
belief profoundly shared by our people that children deserve love and 
protection.
    During one of the darkest moments of the 20th century, the great 
German theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer reminded us that ``the test of the 
morality of a society is what it does for children.'' Today more than 
ever, this is a test the world cannot afford to fail. The United States 
should always be at the forefront of this effort.
    I am grateful for the opportunity Americans had to take a leading 
role in negotiating these agreements and to be among the first nations 
to sign them. I pledge my best efforts to see that we are also leaders 
in implementing them and, in so doing, in granting the world's children 
a future far better than its recent past. I thank all of you for your 
support as well.
    Thank you very much.

Note: The President spoke at 3:35 p.m. in the West Foyer at the United 
Nations. In his remarks, he referred to U.S. Ambassador to the United 
Nations Richard C. Holbrooke; U.N. Deputy Secretary-General Louise 
Frechette; U.N. Secretary-General's Special Representative for Children 
and Armed Conflict Olara A. Otunnu; UNICEF Executive Director Carol 
Bellamy; and President Alpha Oumar Konare of Mali, president, U.N. 
Security Council.

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