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Forcing children into armed forces 'a war crime' Thursday, 8
October 1998: UNICEF today issued the following statement on child
soldiers in Colombia:
UNICEF is unalterably opposed to pressing children into military
service of any kind. Forcing children to fight or otherwise serve in
armed conflicts is a cardinal violation of human rights and is
recognized as a prosecutable war crime in the statute of the
International Criminal Court. UNICEF supports swift ratification of this
statute and of the optional protocol to the Convention on the Rights of
the Child (CRC) which would make recruitment of children under the age
of 18 a war crime.
UNICEF calls special attention to the just-released revelations of
War Without Quarter: Colombia and International Humanitarian Law.
This timely overview, published by Human Rights Watch, focuses on
child soldiers in Colombia. It notes that all armed groups there are
culpable and urgently recommends adoption of the optional protocol and
other key legal reforms that would protect some 30,000 Colombian
children currently at risk.
Recent UNICEF experience in Sierra Leone and elsewhere indicates
both the tragic consequences of recruiting child soldiers and the
incredible difficulties involved in demobilization. The Human Rights
Watch report on Colombia is a welcome indication that global revulsion
against the use of child soldiers is growing. We look forward to a
time when there will no longer be thousands of children in Colombia,
and some 300,000 children around the world, fighting the wars of
adults. |
