[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 36, Number 3 (Monday, January 24, 2000)]
[Page 130]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Statement on the Geneva Protocol on Child Soldiers

January 21, 2000

    Today the United States joined a consensus in Geneva on the text of 
a Protocol that addresses the problem of child soldiers. I am very 
pleased with the final result, and I look forward to the early adoption 
of the Protocol by the United Nations.
    The forcible recruitment of very young children--some no more than 9 
or 10 years old--into an increasing number of civil wars and other 
conflicts shocks the conscience and shames humanity. By addressing 
forced recruitment and the conduct of armed rebel groups, this agreement 
strikes at the heart of the problem of child soldiers. Countries that 
become parties to the Protocol would prohibit the use of soldiers under 
18 by non-state forces and would cooperate in rehabilitating and 
reintegrating child soldiers into society.
    The Protocol also deals in a realistic and reasonable way with the 
issue of minimum ages for conscription, voluntary recruitment, and 
participation in hostilities by national armed forces. The Protocol 
would establish an 18-year minimum age for compulsory recruitment; 
require parties to raise their minimum age for voluntary recruitment to 
an age above the current 15-year international standard; and require 
parties to take all feasible measures to ensure that armed forces 
personnel who are not yet 18 do not take a direct part in hostilities.
    This Protocol is an important advance for human rights. At the same 
time, it fully protects the military recruitment and readiness 
requirements of the United States. I am committed to a speedy process of 
review and signature and to working with the Senate on this historic 
achievement to protect the world's children.

Note: The Protocol was entitled the Optional Protocol to the Convention 
on the Rights of the Child on Involvement of Children in Armed 
Conflicts, adopted on January 21 by a working group of the United 
Nations Commission on Human Rights.