PRESS CONFERENCE BY COALITION TO STOP USE OF CHILD SOLDIERS

Given that use of child soldiers was still pervasive around the world, the international community must move much faster towards establishing an effective global ban on their use, Jo Becker, Children’s Rights Advocacy Director for Human Rights Watch, told correspondents this afternoon at Headquarters.  Ms. Becker was speaking at a press conference sponsored by the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) to launch the report of the Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers.

She said the Coalition had been founded in 1998 by six international non-governmental organizations (NGOs), including Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International and the International Save the Children Alliance.  It was now a global network with partners and national campaigns in more than 40 countries.  They worked closely with UNICEF, the International Red Cross and the Office of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict.

The Coalition’s purpose was to mobilize support for an international prohibition against any military recruitment of children under the age of 18 or their use in armed conflict, she said.  It worked to prevent the use of child soldiers, to secure their demobilization and to ensure their rehabilitation and reintegration into society. 

She said the Coalition had conducted media and public education campaigns on the issue of child soldiers and had successfully lobbied to have the International Labour Organization (ILO) recognize the use of child soldiers as one of the worst forms of child labour.  It had also pushed intergovernmental and regional bodies to take up the issue.  A major initiative had been organizing five regional conferences over the last two years to examine the problem and what could be done.  The Coalition had also conducted comprehensive research on the problem in

180 countries, she added. 

Just over a year ago, she said, the United Nations General Assembly had adopted an optional protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the involvement of children in armed conflict.  This provided an international standard that prohibited any use of children under the age of 18 in armed conflict.  It did allow, she pointed out, national forces to accept voluntary recruits as young as 16, but with certain safeguards.

Since the protocol had been adopted, she continued, more than 80 countries had signed it –- that was a significant step forward.  Only five countries, however –- Canada, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Andorra and the Democratic Republic of the Congo -– had ratified the protocol. 

She noted that governments from around the world were meeting at United Nations Headquarters this week to prepare for September’s special session of the General Assembly on children.  What was needed now was concrete follow-up to promises made to stop the use of child soldiers.  The Coalition was campaigning for 100 signatures and 50 ratifications of the optional protocol by the time of the special session.

Ishmael Beah, former child soldier from Sierra Leone, currently a student at Oberlin College in Ohio, United States, then gave an overview of his experiences.

He said he had been abducted to serve as a soldier in the Sierra Leone army at the age of 14 in 1993, following the death of his parents.  There were several reasons why children became soldiers -– and this was probably true throughout the world.  One was because they lacked parental guidance –- often, as in his case, they had lost their parents to war.  The military or rebel forces often convinced children that they could provide an opportunity for revenge.

He now realized that rather than providing a solution, joining the military caused even greater problems, because the result of joining the military was often the death of other children’s parents. 

He wished to stress -– and offered himself as an example –- that if children were given a second chance they could be rehabilitated and become part of society again.  Former child soldiers “can be the best peacemakers in the world, because they know what it is like to suffer”, he said. 

He called on governments to follow-up on their promises.  It was one thing to come to the United Nations and draft documents, but another to act. 

More and more children were becoming child soldiers, he said, noting the traumatic experience he had had fighting on the frontline as a child.  The problem now was about the children who were still involved in conflict or were going through rehabilitation.  He had made it his responsibility to speak on behalf of child soldiers around the world.  If action wasn’t taken as soon as possible, the future of the world itself would be put in question.

Rory Mungoven, Coordinator of the Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers, said the report provided the first comprehensive baseline of information from which to better understand the global trends in the problem, and to better track progress or setbacks.  The Coalition calculated that there were more than half a million children under 18 in military service of different kinds with governments and armed groups in 87 countries worldwide.  Of those, around

300,000 were actively fighting in armed conflicts in 41 countries.

He noted that such statistics could often conceal as much as they revealed, because they only provided a snapshot in time of the problem, while the problem itself was a cumulative one.  Many of today’s adult soldiers started out as children, and in some conflicts like Afghanistan or Angola a second generation of child soldiers -– the children of child soldiers -- was being seen.

The problem was not confined to developing countries in conflict situations, he said.  Industrialized countries, such as the United States and the United Kingdom, recruited children under 18 into the armed forces and deployed them to conflict zones.

The report noted that the situation was improving in Latin America, the Middle East and North Africa.  However, where the problem persisted, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa and parts of Asia and the Pacific, the use of child soldiers was growing worse. 

One of the most disturbing trends, he added, was that children were now being recruited, not because there was a shortage of adults, but because they were cheap, expendable and could be drugged more easily.  He also noted that the problem was becoming transnational -- even globalized.

He noted that there were at least 75 countries that upheld the principle that no child under 18 should be recruited militarily or used in hostilities.  Armed groups throughout the world had also made commitments to abide by that standard and had even released or demobilized children.  He called for a “massive mobilization of resources” for the effort.  Those resources must be committed for the long-term –- long after conflicts had passed and the transition process began.

Responding to a correspondent’s question, Mr. Mungoven said the figure of half a million child soldiers represented the first time a holistic figure had been available.  He added that the number of children actively engaged in combat

 –- around 300,000 -- ebbed and flowed as conflicts developed and receded.  Despite the increase in the problem in individual countries, overall some slight improvement was being seen.

Taking up a question on rehabilitation of child soldiers, Jean-Claude LeGrand, Child Protection Officer at UNICEF, who was present in the audience, said that UNICEF was systematically engaged in demobilizing and reintegrating children whenever possible.  There was currently a conducive environment, whereas before there had been a very scattered response from the humanitarian community. 

Programmes varied greatly, but there was an increasingly coordinated response, he said.  The key message was that demobilization was not the business of militaries, it was the business of humanitarian organizations.

Mr. Beah said that during the time of his rehabilitation there had been only one major NGO rehabilitating children, but that now there were several.  He pointed out that it was very difficult to rehabilitate child soldiers when civil war was still continuing.  Follow-up was key. 

Among the other questions asked of the panellists was how many of the signatories to the optional protocol still used child soldiers.

Ms. Becker said “one clear example that we want to watch is the Democratic Republic of the Congo.”  It was the most recent ratifier of the protocol and at the same time had one of the worst child soldier problems in the world.  Her understanding was that of the thousands of child soldiers in that country, many were “left-overs” from former President Laurent Kabila’s campaign to take power in 1996-1997.  The Government of the Democratic Republic and UNICEF were planning a campaign to encourage the military forces throughout the country to take immediate action to demobilize child soldiers.

Mr. Mungoven said that a clear majority of those that had signed the optional protocol did not recruit children under 18.  Some governments had signed the protocol but would hold it in contempt.  Of the five permanent members of the Security Council, he noted, the Russian Federation was the only one not to recruit children under 18 into their armed forces.

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