COMMENTARY: Ending child soldiering

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By Radhika Coomaraswamy

There has been significant progress recently toward ridding the world of child soldiers.

In May, the U.S. Congress took action that will advance the agenda to help protect the world's children and punish adults who seek to use them as cheap cannon-fodder in armed conflicts.

In 2007, two separate bills, the Child Soldiers Prevention Act and the Child Soldiers Accountability Act, found bipartisan support in both chambers of the Congress, and together they have the potential to make a real difference in the lives of thousands of child soldiers around the world. The Foreign Relations Committee incorporated the bills on child soldiers into the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act, providing an important impetus to efforts to address this ongoing global tragedy.

The legislation would impose significant restrictions on the transfer of military technology and provision of U.S. military assistance to governments or paramilitaries using child soldiers in violation of international law. The approval of arms export licenses would also be prohibited. The legislation would also give the U.S. government authority to prosecute, deport or deny admission to individuals who have recruited or used child fighters.

While the merits of such legislation are clear, one cannot help but also be aware of the inherent limitations. Ninety percent of the violators of children's rights who appear on U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon's annual "naming and shaming" list for recruiting and using children are nonstate parties, including Afghanistan's Taliban, Sri Lanka's Tamil Tigers and Colombia's FARC, none of whom benefit from U.S. arms sales and all of whom will require far more than the vague threat of U.S. prosecution to cease giving guns to children.

The unlawful recruitment and use of children remains pervasive in many of the world's harshest and enduring conflicts, robbing children of their childhood and the chance for a full life. While there is no accurate figure for the total number of children under arms, conservative estimates indicate there are 250,000 child soldiers in more than 17 conflicts in Asia, Africa and Latin America. More than 2 million children have been killed in battle and another 6 million have been rendered permanently disabled in the last two decades.

International efforts to combat child soldiering have been gathering pace. In July 2005, the Security Council passed the landmark Resolution 1612 rejecting the brutal exploitation of children in armed conflict and establishing a monitoring and reporting mechanism to compile information on grave violations against children. This resolution broke new ground by instituting practical measures to end the impunity of violating parties, and the United Nations now identifies governments, insurgents, rebel groups, and even individuals who recruit and use children as soldiers, porters, sex slaves and the like. These parties must draw up concrete and time-bound action plans to stop the abuse of children or face the probability of stern action by the Security Council.

Three years after passage of Resolution 1612, we have witnessed remarkable progress in several countries, including the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Burundi and Cote d'Ivoire. Armed groups in Cote d'Ivoire have ceased recruiting children and are working with the United Nations to reintegrate former child soldiers into their communities. Numerous parties in Myanmar, Sri Lanka and Uganda are collaborating on developing actions plans to prevent and halt child soldiering. Important legal precedents are being set - including trials in international tribunals of former Liberian and Congolese warlords.

Challenges still remain, but there are pressures that all actors - U.N. bodies, civil society and importantly, governments - can apply on violating parties. The momentum and attention created by the actions of the U.S. Congress to combat the disturbing practice of child soldiering must be built upon.

People and organizations around the world, including national legislators and opinion makers, should send a clear message that offending groups stop their abhorrent practices. We must also advocate with governments the position that such flagrant violations against children are unacceptable.

Now is the time for sustained and proactive collective efforts against violators, including targeted punitive measures against recalcitrant parties. These should include bans on the export and supply of small arms and other military equipment and assistance, travel restrictions on leaders, arms embargoes and restrictions on the flow of finances.

Clear U.S. engagement will add impetus toward bringing about concrete, tangible changes to the child soldiers issue around the globe, and may prompt other governments to follow suit.

One thing that unites all nations, all religions and all creeds is recognition that children are our most valuable asset and our hope for the future. We must redouble our collective efforts to protect them from exposure to violence and war. The world is watching, and the children are waiting. We must not fail them.

Radhika Coomaraswamy is United Nations undersecretary-general and special representative for children and armed conflict.