[Print Friendly Version] Fact Sheet Office of the Spokesman Washington, DC December 24, 2002 The Optional Protocol to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child on the Involvement of Children in Armed Conflict The United States has officially become a State Party to the Optional Protocol on the Involvement of Children in Armed Conflict by depositing its ratification instruments at the United Nations today. The Senate unanimously provided its advice and consent to ratification and President Bush signed the instruments of ratification. This illustrates the commitment of the United States to the protection of children by working with the international community to end abuses and recognize universal human rights norms. This protocol seeks to protect children from the harmful and widespread impact of armed conflict. - It is A Global Problem
: At any one time, over 300,000 children are used in armed conflict as soldiers, messengers, guards, runners, bearers, spies, cooks, and sex slaves. While the problem is most critical in Africa and Asia, it also exists in Latin America, Europe, and the Middle East. UN Secretary General Kofi Annans December 2002 report to the UN Security Council lists 23 parties, including governments and/or rebel groups in Afghanistan, Burundi, Congo, Liberia and Somalia, that recruit and use child soldiers in violation of internationally accepted standards. Children as young as ten years old have been abducted from their homes and forced into situations where they witness, and sometimes perpetrate, violence against their own families and communities. Demobilized child soldiers often need to be relocated in new communities and provided with assistance for their physical and psychological traumas as well as interrupted education.
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