Tomorrow, February 12, marks the International Day against the use of child soldiers. Here is the press release for the English Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers.
New campaign to get states to sign the legal tool of protection and more important for the children in conflict.
Alboan organizations, Amnesty International, Entreculturas Commitment Foundation, Save the Children and the Jesuit Refugee Service mobilize the international day against the use of child soldiers to denounce the serious human rights violations which are subjected daily children in many countries.
The organizations call upon States that have not yet done so to ratify the Optional Protocol the Convention on the Rights of the Child sovereign participation of children in armed conflicts . It is the legal tool of protection more important for children in conflict.
The Protocol is an essential tool to ensure that children are not used in armed conflict. Increases to 18 the minimum age for direct participation in hostilities, compared with the previous minimum age of 15 years in the Convention on the Rights of the child and the child. It also obliges States Parties to enforce strict rules where not met.
currently have ratified this Protocol 134 countries, 23 have signed but not ratified (as Cameroon, Ghana, Liberia, Pakistan and Somalia) and a total of 35 or have not signed or have agreed to do so (as Equatorial Guinea, Ethiopia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Saudi Arabia or Zimbawue ). Spain ratified it in 2002.
With this initiative, organizations will join the United Nations campaign " No one under 18 / under 18 Zero" pursued the universal ratification of this Protocol for the February 12, 2012 - when will mark the 10 th anniversary of its entry into force. The campaign aims to anyone under 18 is recruited or used in armed forces or armed groups, since the association with armed forces deprives children of their rights and their childhood to be devastating physical and psychological impact it creates.
Finally, the organizations call upon the states that have signed and ratified the protocol to make additional efforts for proper implementation, providing adequate resources. In The Chad are being recruited children aged between 13 and 17 years of age by armed forces and used in combat, and are used under 10 years as a courier and transport functions. This clearly contradicts the Protocol, and is a clear breach of country's international obligations.
Additional information
is impossible to estimate accurately the number of child soldiers. There are tens of thousands in all regions of the world. According to the latest global report on child soldiers of the Coalition of 2008, at least 24 countries from all regions of the world to recruit children under 18.
Since then, thousands of child soldiers have been freed from fighting forces, whether governmental or insurgent groups, following peace agreements and demobilization programs and reintegration into Afghanistan, Burundi, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Democratic Republic of Congo, southern Sudan and other countries . However, during these years have occurred, have resumed or intensified conflicts in countries like Chad, Iraq, Central African Republic, Somalia and Sudan (Darfur) , increasing in these places the recruitment of minors.
Children and young soldiers have been subjected to extreme , where some have witnessed the murder of their families or have been used as instruments to commit atrocities. Many have been victims of abuse, rape and other forms of forced sexuality, including "marriage" with the combatants in the case of girls. On numerous occasions they have been drugged to overcome fear the enemy, used as cannon fodder, forced to carry out looting, rape or maul people.
Alboan organizations, Amnesty International, Entreculturas Commitment Foundation, Save the Children and the Jesuit Refugee Service mobilize the international day against the use of child soldiers to denounce the serious human rights violations which are subjected daily children in many countries.
The organizations call upon States that have not yet done so to ratify the Optional Protocol the Convention on the Rights of the Child sovereign participation of children in armed conflicts . It is the legal tool of protection more important for children in conflict.
The Protocol is an essential tool to ensure that children are not used in armed conflict. Increases to 18 the minimum age for direct participation in hostilities, compared with the previous minimum age of 15 years in the Convention on the Rights of the child and the child. It also obliges States Parties to enforce strict rules where not met.
currently have ratified this Protocol 134 countries, 23 have signed but not ratified (as Cameroon, Ghana, Liberia, Pakistan and Somalia) and a total of 35 or have not signed or have agreed to do so (as Equatorial Guinea, Ethiopia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Saudi Arabia or Zimbawue ). Spain ratified it in 2002.
With this initiative, organizations will join the United Nations campaign " No one under 18 / under 18 Zero" pursued the universal ratification of this Protocol for the February 12, 2012 - when will mark the 10 th anniversary of its entry into force. The campaign aims to anyone under 18 is recruited or used in armed forces or armed groups, since the association with armed forces deprives children of their rights and their childhood to be devastating physical and psychological impact it creates.
Finally, the organizations call upon the states that have signed and ratified the protocol to make additional efforts for proper implementation, providing adequate resources. In The Chad are being recruited children aged between 13 and 17 years of age by armed forces and used in combat, and are used under 10 years as a courier and transport functions. This clearly contradicts the Protocol, and is a clear breach of country's international obligations.
Additional information
is impossible to estimate accurately the number of child soldiers. There are tens of thousands in all regions of the world. According to the latest global report on child soldiers of the Coalition of 2008, at least 24 countries from all regions of the world to recruit children under 18.
Since then, thousands of child soldiers have been freed from fighting forces, whether governmental or insurgent groups, following peace agreements and demobilization programs and reintegration into Afghanistan, Burundi, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Democratic Republic of Congo, southern Sudan and other countries . However, during these years have occurred, have resumed or intensified conflicts in countries like Chad, Iraq, Central African Republic, Somalia and Sudan (Darfur) , increasing in these places the recruitment of minors.
Children and young soldiers have been subjected to extreme , where some have witnessed the murder of their families or have been used as instruments to commit atrocities. Many have been victims of abuse, rape and other forms of forced sexuality, including "marriage" with the combatants in the case of girls. On numerous occasions they have been drugged to overcome fear the enemy, used as cannon fodder, forced to carry out looting, rape or maul people.
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More information:
www.childsoldiersglobalreport.org
www.child -soldiers.org
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