Human Rights Activists
As Human Rights Activists, you work to protect children's rights as outlined in the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the and Optional Protocol by closely monitoring whether or not these rights are being violated.
You believe that these rights are universal and that they apply to everyone. You also recognize that when a government has ratified one or both of these international treaties, they have committed themselves to protecting children's rights. And they have agreed to hold themselves accountable if they fail to follow through with this important responsibility.
  
Before developing a policy for child soldiers, your group needs to:
• Find out if the country you’re representing has signed or ratified either the Convention on the Rights of the Child or the Optional Protocol. If it has signed the OP, look through the "Declarations and Reservations" section to find the minimum age it has set for voluntary military recruitment.
• Read the Paris Principles, especially sections: * 1.14 and how they relate to the CRC and OP
* 6.0 which gives information about how children become soldiers
• Examine its past use of child soldiers by the government and/or opposition groups. Look through the Amnesty International and the Human Rights Watch Web sites for information.
Use this information to fill out the following form and use it while presenting your policy recommendations to the Legislative Assembly. As you develop your policy, remember that your task is to use a financial focus to answer the question: WHAT SHOULD BE DONE ABOUT CHILD SOLDIERS?
Illustration:
Felicity O. Yost. Source:
Marie, In the Shadow of the Lion, by Jerry Piasecki. ©
United Nations, 2001 |
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