"I would like to give you a message, "a fifteen-year-old girl abducted by the Lord's Resistance Army in Uganda said. "Please do your best to tell all the world what is happening to us children. So that other children don't have to pass through this violence."

The Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child, on the involvement of children in armed conflict, is the proof that she has been heard. The protocol is now before the U.S. Senate for ratification. Consider this:

• Child soldiers come from poor and otherwise disadvantaged sectors of society.
• They are children of conflict zones.
• They are children whose families have been disrupted or lost entirely.
• The children who become soldiers are the most vulnerable of the vulnerable.
• They are mostly children without the protection of wealth, influence, or adults.
• They are virtually defenseless against forcible recruitment and may actually welcome the protection which group membership offers.
• They are often children struggling to survive.
• They are children for whom the culture of war is part of their daily lives.

This is the image to which so many of our partners in the U.S. campaign against the use of child soldiers have sensitized us. And, we've come a long way. The major breakthrough, slightly over two years ago, in which the Pentagon accepted an international agreement that prohibited children being used in conflict as long as it did not prevent the U.S. from recruiting soldiers below the age of 18, led to what is known as the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child. The United Nations adopted this global ban on the use of children as soldiers in May 2000. The U.S. signed it that July.

The protocol prohibits the forced recruitment and conscription of children under the age of eighteen, as well as the participation of anyone under the age of 18 in armed conflict. Currently, an estimated 300,000 children under the age of eighteen are fighting in conflict in about 40 countries around the world. The reality of child soldiers in Africa is especially tragic.

Ninety-four countries have now signed the protocol. Ratification, however, has been slow, and it takes ten nations before the protocol enters into force. Only late last year did New Zealand become the tenth, making it all official on February 12, 2002.

Happily, the Bush administration and virtually all members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee have indicated their support for this very important treaty, and hearings were held before the Committee in March. Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA), who has taken a lead on the child soldiers issue, chaired, and both Sens. Jesse Helms (R-NC) and Paul Wellstone (D-MN) spoke in support. Even the Defense Department weighed in in favor, saying that while the protocol will require the military to modify its deployment of 17-year-olds (who would now be prohibited from participation in hostilities), the protocol "will not harm the ability of the DoD to perform its mission."

Still, U.S. ratification remains to be done. The Committee is likely to act during April, and the protocol will then move on for a vote on the Senate floor.

It is worth noting that, as important as U.S. ratification is, the new child soldiers protocol is not the only aspect of the child soldiers issue of concern. Advocates remain anxious that there be increased U.S. support for programs to prevent child recruitment world wide and to provide for the demobilization, rehabilitation, and social reintegration of child soldiers.

Regrettably, the U.S. is refusing to be a part of the new International Criminal Court, which will treat the use of child soldiers under 15 as a war crime.

It would be argued that the problem of child soldiers is not an issue facing the U.S. itself, and that the horrors of the child soldier experiences in Africa and Asia especially ought instead to focus attention on their ratification, not ours. But solidarity does have meaning, and in these difficult times it is especially important for the United States to act to address concerns and needs of nations and peoples throughout the world. Using children to fight the wars of adults is reprehensible, and the US should not hesitate to join nations around the world in saying so.

Please contact your Senators and Members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee today, to tell them not to wait any longer to ratify the Optional Protocol. Given recent problems with mail delivery in Washington, please contact your Senator by calling 202-224-3121, or through electronic mail. You can find e-mail links by going to www.senate.gov/contacting/index.cfm

[Sample message:]
I'm calling to urge the Senator to support ratification of the Optional Protocol on the involvement of children in armed conflict. The protocol will help stop the use of child soldiers around the world. Please make US ratification a top priority for this session of Congress.

General Assembly

The 213th General Assembly (2001) of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.):
Renews its call on the United States government, the only government in the world that has not done so, to ratify the Convention on the Rights of the Child, in order to give the full support of our government and people to the promotion and protection of the dignity and rights of children, not only in our country, but throughout the world. Calls on the United States government to ratify the two protocols to the Convention on the Rights of the Child that were approved in 2000, which are designed to prevent the use of children as soldiers and to prevent the commercial sexual exploitation of children through sale, prostitution, and child pornography. (Minutes, 2001, Part I, p. 288)