PRESS BRIEFING BY SPECIAL REPRESENTATIVE FOR CHILDREN AND ARMED CONFLICT

Press Briefing

PRESS BRIEFING BY SPECIAL REPRESENTATIVE FOR CHILDREN AND ARMED CONFLICT

Today in Geneva consensus was reached on raising the minimum age for military recruitment and participation in armed conflict, after years of negotiation, the Secretary-General's Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict, Olara A. Otunnu, told journalists at a Headquarters press briefing today.

Referring to consensus reached at the final session of the United Nations Working Group on the Draft Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child, Mr. Otunnu said “this is a very special day for the protection of children in armed conflict”.

A key feature of the Protocol with which he was especially pleased was the raising of the age limit for participation in armed conflict from 15 years to 18 years old, he explained. That’s was a wonderful outcome for children, who were being abused in situations of armed conflict. By another key feature, the age limit for compulsory recruitment into armed forces had also been raised to 18 years of age. It was significant that the agreement specifically addressed the situation of armed groups that were not governmental, including insurgents and armed rebels, stating that under no circumstances may they recruit or have participation from children under 18. The agreement also expressly applied to external and internal conflict.

On the matter of voluntary enlistment, where he had advocated raising the age to 18, consensus on that ideal standard had not been achieved, but he was encouraged that the age limit had been raised from 15 to 16, he said.

He urged all States to prepare for a quick adoption of the Optional Protocol and for its swift ratification. That would strengthen the international community's hand in the protection of children. Today's development had set the international community free to concentrate on what really mattered, which was the curbing of child soldiering on the ground. It could now work to mobilize a major international and domestic movement to pressure those abusing children in that way. It could also now work to mobilize adequate resources to assist in demobilization and reintegration of ex-child soldiers back into the community. He congratulated the Working Group, and the Coalition to Stop Child Soldiers.

In response to a question, he advised that the United States had joined the consensus -- an aspect he described as a wonderful development.

The age limit had been set at 15 previously, he explained in response to another question, because many countries had a tradition of recruiting people into their armed forces at a young age. Thus, agreement on age limits had been difficult to achieve when the Convention itself had been drafted. However, subsequently a movement had been started to pressure States into bridging the discrepancy between the age-based definition of the child and the age of recruitment into militaries.

Answering another question, he explained that the Protocol allowed recruitment into armed forces from 16 years of age, but it forbade such soldiers

Otunnu Briefing - 2 - 21 January 2000

from being directly deployed into conflicts until they were 18 years of age. States would advise, on signing the protocol, of the minimum age at which they would recruit.

Asked what he had done for children in armed conflict in Chechnya, Mr. Otunnu said that he had been in touch with the Russian Federation's representatives to the United Nations on the matter. He had previously issued a statement about it, and was working closely with colleagues in the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights and the Office of the High Commissioner for Refugees.

Concerning recruitment of children by guerilla groups, he had managed to get several of those groups to agree not to recruit children under 18, but that was on a voluntary basis. The Optional Protocol represented a universal standard that applied to participation in any guerilla movement. It strengthened the hands of advocates, and meant that arrangements could now be put in place to more effectively monitor conduct on the ground. In addition, the energies that had been rightly locked up in pursuit of a higher standard could now be used to lean on those who were abusing children in that way, including guerillas, insurgents and States parties.

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