The United Nations General Assembly adopted the Optional protocol on the involvement of children in armed conflict to the Convention on the Rights of the Child in Annex I of a resolution on 25 May 2000.[1]
The protocol came into force on 12 February 2002.
The protocol requires of ratifying governments to ensure that while their armed forces can accept volunteers below the age of 18, they can not be conscripted and "States Parties shall take all feasible measures to ensure that members of their armed forces who have not attained the age of 18 years do not take a direct part in hostilities".[2] Non-state actors and guerrilla forces are forbidden from recruiting anyone under the age of 18 for any purpose. Currently, 128 nations were party to the Protocol while another 28 had signed and have yet to ratify.
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ICRC commentary
The sentence "States Parties shall take all feasible measures to ensure that members of their armed forces who have not attained the age of 18 years do not take a direct part in hostilities" was adapted from Article 77.2 of the Additional Protocol I to the Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949, and relating to the Protection of Victims of International Armed Conflicts, adopted in 1977, with an alteration from fifteen years to eighteen years and some other minor modifications. ("The Parties to the conflict shall take all feasible measures in order that children who have not attained the age of fifteen years do not take a direct part in hostilities and, in particular, they shall refrain from recruiting them into their armed forces.")
The ICRC commentary on Protocol I makes clear, this is not a complete ban on the use of children in conflict. The ICRC had suggested that the Parties to the conflict should "take all necessary measures", which became in the final text, "take all feasible measures" which is not a total prohibition on their doing so because feasible should be understood as meaning "capable of being done, accomplished or carried out, possible or practicable". Refraining from recruiting children under fifteen does not exclude child who volunteer for armed service. During the negotiations over the clause "take a part in hostilities" the word "direct" was added to it, this opens up the possibility that child volunteers could be involved indirectly in hostilities, gathering and transmitting military information, helping in the transportation of arms and munitions, provision of supplies etc.[3]
National responses
The United Kingdom, which recruits citizens into the army who are under 18, clarified their position in an explanatory memorandum, stating that "whilst Army personnel under the age of 18 may continue to undertake a limited range of duties with resident units in Northern Ireland, they do not participate in activities in direct support of the civil powers; under 18s are not deployed as aircrew; and in line with UN policy, personnel under the age of 18 are not deployed on UN peacekeeping operations".[4]
Notes
- ^ United Nations General Assembly Resolution 263 session 54 Optional protocols to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the involvement of children in armed conflict and on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography on 25 May 2000
- ^ Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the involvement of children in armed conflict, Articles 1 and 2
- ^ ICRC Commentary on Protocol I: Article 77 website of the ICRC ¶ 3183-3191 also ¶ 3171
- ^ "Explanatory Memorandum on the Optional Protocol to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child - Command Paper number: 5759". Foreign Office. http://www.fco.gov.uk/en/about-the-fco/publications/treaty-command-papers-ems/explanatory-memoranda/explanatory-memoranda-2003/unchild.
References
See also
- Committee on the Rights of the Child
- List of international instruments relevant to the worst forms of child labour
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