By Cassandra Clifford
Monday, November 1
The United States has found itself in the hot-seat, as human-rights group cast scorn and dismay at the Administration following memorandum issued by President Obama. The memorandum, related to the 2007-2008 Child Soldiers Prevention Act (which Obama co-sponsored while serving in the Senate), essentially gives a free pass to four countries to continue receiving U.S. military aid despite their violation of the Act. The Child Soldiers Prevention Act prohibits the recruitment of, and the use of children in armed conflict.
U.N. secretary-general’s special representative for Children in Armed Conflict, Radhika Coomaraswamy, said “We are very disappointed — we didn’t see it coming,” but stated hat her office is not in the position to “second guess a security decision” by the United States, but that she would now urge the U.S. military to use its influence to convince these governments to sign U.N. action plans that are designed to release thousands of child soldiers from military service. She said she would press her case with the U.S. mission to the United Nations and then travel to Washington to make her case, hopefully with the Pentagon. (Turtle Bay)
The four countries for which sanctions will be waived against are; Chad, Yemen, Sudan, and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), all of which continue to use child soldiers. The U.S. provides training and support to the countries via the International Military Education and Training (IMET) fund, which provides military training and counter terrorism programs to the countries. The reason for the failure to pull the funding from these countries was stated as “the national interest of the country.” The basis for not withdrawing funding from the countries according to U.S. officials is that in doing such it would impede anti-terrorism efforts and hinder the introduction of other reforms.
Jesse Eaves, policy adviser on children’s issues for the humanitarian group World Vision, noted that the law did not mandate a cutoff of all forms of military assistance for offenders. For example, they could have still gotten help in eliminating their use of child soldiers. “That kind of assistance is still allowed under the law without invoking the waiver. That’s why this is a disturbing step,” he said (The Washington Post).
There are some 300,000 child soldiers across the globe. A former child soldier’s life is not returned to them once the gun is removed from their hand, we must ensure that they are not forgotten. Former child soldiers remain at risk for further violations, such as physical, mental and sexual abuse, they are also at high risk for HIV/AIDS, and are also at risk to become abusers themselves. As a global community, including and led by the United States, we must act to ensure that not only prevention plans, laws and disarmament policies are put into place, but that adequate and extensive rehabilitation of former child soldiers is given top priority. The support for international law by the U.S. is vital to ensure an end to the plight of child soldiers around the world, and the administration must act with urgency to end this practice.
To see the original article please visit http://children.foreignpolicyblogs.com/2010/11/01/us-in-hot-seat-as-aid-continues-for-countries-using-child-soldiers/