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28 January 2000
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28-01-2000
Message of the High Commissioner on Adoption of Text of Draft Optional Protocol on Involvement of Children in Armed Conflict
The world is today one step closer to sparing its children the savagery of war. Last Friday, 21 January, a panel, or working group, of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights completed the elaboration of a draft optional protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child to establish 18 years as the minimum age for participation in hostilities. The draft optional protocol would also prohibit the compulsory recruitment by Governments who subscribed to it of persons below 18 years and ban recruitment or use in hostilities of persons under 18 by non-governmental armed groups. The document raises the standards contained in article 38 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child and represents a willingness to take stronger measures to keep children out of armed conflicts.
I wish to express my deep appreciation that the working group has successfully completed its mandate by adopting by consensus the text of the draft optional protocol. Working group participants showed much flexibility: indeed, the draft protocol constitutes a significant compromise between the divergent positions of various delegations. When I addressed the working group on 14 January, I expressed my belief that the question at issue was not the difference between 16, 17 and 18 years of age, but rather the distinction that needed to be made between children and adults. I feel the new draft instrument confirms this important distinction, even if it does not go as far as some would have wished.
I welcome the spirit of cooperation which prevailed in the working group and I wish to express my appreciation to both governmental and non-governmental representatives for their hard work towards adoption of a draft optional protocol. This is an achievement that comes just in time to to mark the tenth anniversary of the entry into force of the Convention on the Rights of the Child. I look forward to the speedy adoption of the optional protocol by the international community as a whole and its entry into force so as to make it an effective instrument to protect children in armed conflicts.
Message of the High Commissioner on Adoption of Text of Draft Optional Protocol on Involvement of Children in Armed Conflict
The world is today one step closer to sparing its children the savagery of war. Last Friday, 21 January, a panel, or working group, of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights completed the elaboration of a draft optional protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child to establish 18 years as the minimum age for participation in hostilities. The draft optional protocol would also prohibit the compulsory recruitment by Governments who subscribed to it of persons below 18 years and ban recruitment or use in hostilities of persons under 18 by non-governmental armed groups. The document raises the standards contained in article 38 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child and represents a willingness to take stronger measures to keep children out of armed conflicts.
I wish to express my deep appreciation that the working group has successfully completed its mandate by adopting by consensus the text of the draft optional protocol. Working group participants showed much flexibility: indeed, the draft protocol constitutes a significant compromise between the divergent positions of various delegations. When I addressed the working group on 14 January, I expressed my belief that the question at issue was not the difference between 16, 17 and 18 years of age, but rather the distinction that needed to be made between children and adults. I feel the new draft instrument confirms this important distinction, even if it does not go as far as some would have wished.
I welcome the spirit of cooperation which prevailed in the working group and I wish to express my appreciation to both governmental and non-governmental representatives for their hard work towards adoption of a draft optional protocol. This is an achievement that comes just in time to to mark the tenth anniversary of the entry into force of the Convention on the Rights of the Child. I look forward to the speedy adoption of the optional protocol by the international community as a whole and its entry into force so as to make it an effective instrument to protect children in armed conflicts.