Doc. 8345
10 March 1999

Campaign against child soldiers

Motion for a recommendation

presented by Mrs Pozza Tasca and others

This motion has not been discussed in the Assembly and commits only the members who have signed it

The Assembly,

Considering the 1989 United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child;

Having regard to the report on the effects of armed conflict on children, prepared for the United Nations in 1996 by Graça Machel;

Considering that, according to UNICEF statistics, over 200 000 children are taking part in conflicts throughout the world;

Considering that the toll taken on children by wars over the last ten years is estimated to have been as follows:

— 2 million children killed;

— 4-5 million children crippled;

— 12 million children made homeless;

— over one million children orphaned; and

— approximately 10 million children left psychologically traumatised;

Noting that, prior to 1993, a United Nations working party had considered an optional additional protocol to the International Convention on the Rights of the Child aimed at setting 18 years as the minimum age for conscription or enlistment into armed forces;

Considering that the Statute of the International Criminal Court adopted in Rome in July 1998 declares the enlistment and use in armed forces of young people aged under 18 years to be a crime against humanity;

Recommends that the Committee of Ministers launch a campaign against the use of children in armed conflicts, the aims of which would be:

— the adoption of an additional protocol to the International Convention on the Rights of the Child prohibiting the enlistment and participation in armed conflicts of young people aged under 18 years;

— the preparation of an optional additional protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child providing for joint action to prohibit the use of minors in such conflicts;

— the adoption of the measures necessary to ensure the establishment within each member state of committees aimed at promoting, inter alia with the assistance of NGOs, the non-use of minors in conflicts and channelling resources towards efforts to achieve this aim;

— the drawing up of development aid policies for countries at war in order that they stop enlisting or using children to achieve military objectives, dismiss child soldiers from their armed forces, reintegrate them into civilian life and also protect non-combatants, in particular women and children, in war zones;

— the promotion of education for peace and tolerance through awareness-raising campaigns in countries where the risk of conflict is greatest.

Signed : ¹

Pozza Tasca, Italy, LDR

Arnau, Spain, SOC

Belohorska, Slovakia, EDG

Evin, France, SOC

Gross, Suisse, SOC

Gusenbauer, Austria, SOC

Polenta, Italy, EPP/CD

Poptodorova, Bulgaria, SOC

Pulgar, Spain, EPP/CD

Surjan, Hungary, EPP/CD

¹        SOC: Socialist Group

      EPP/CD: Group of the European People’s Party

      EDG: European Democratic Group

      LDR : Liberal, Democratic and Reformers’ Group

      UEL: Group of the Unified European Left

      NR: not registered in a group