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The United States government played an active role in the drafting of the Convention and signed it on 16 February 1995, but has not ratified it.[1] Along with Somalia and South Sudan, the United States is one of only three countries in the world which have not ratified the Convention. The US has signed and ratified both the optional protocols to the Convention. Two optional protocols were adopted by the UN General Assembly on 25 May 2000. The first, the Optional Protocol on the Involvement of Children in Armed Conflict, requires governments to ensure that children under the age of eighteen are not recruited compulsorily into their armed forces, and calls on governments to do everything feasible to ensure that members of their armed forces who are under eighteen years of age do not take part in hostilities. This protocol entered into force on 12 July 2002;[9] currently, 147 states are party to the protocol and another 22 states have signed but not ratified it.[9]
The second, the Optional Protocol on the Sale of Children, Child Prostitution and Child Pornography, requires states to prohibit the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography. It entered into force on 18 January 2002;[10]currently, 158 states are party to the protocol and another 16 states have signed but not ratified it.[10]
