Children in Armed Conflict:
Optional Protocol of the Convention on the Rights of the Child

Palais Wilson, May 22, 2008 
Geneva, Switzerland           

DAY TWO (Day One was spent at the US Mission with US Officials-See separate blog on the Child Soldier)

WILPF, US focuses on counter-recruitment in the US. Other US NGOs and ones from other countries do so with other aspects of the child soldier issue, especially in Iraq. What follows is an edited, partial transcript. Bold print refers to some of US WILPF concerns in its report. Pages 3-5 provide some questions asked by members of the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child and some US answers.

Memorial Day, 2008

The Child Soldier: US WILPF and the US Government

DAY ONE:

     Could any of us have imagined this face-off over the child soldier issue six years ago? At the same time, within this treaty review process, US democracy has seemed to awaken.

     In this scenario, the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, based in Geneva Switzerland, called on the US government to testify before the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child.

       This periodical formal question and answer also occurs with other countries who signed the UN Convention on the Child that the US has not signed. But it did write and sign the Optional Protocol on the Involvement of Children in Armed Conflict.

I’ve just completed a ten day period in Washington D.C. (Feb 19 to 29). I want to report to you on the visits, in which Tzili Mor of AHR/CEDAW and Ellen Barfield of DISARM! Dismantle the War Economy also participated. Ellen Thomas served as a collection point in D.C. for post cards, and she and Elisabeth Leonard in Philadelphia provided hospitality.

Our most significant meetings were on behalf of AHR/CEDAW national committee and their wonderful shadow report on the child soldier protocol. These meetings should be of particular interest to all Branches working on counter recruitment in our schools and deserve a second blog on their own. That should follow shortly.

We recognize that the issue of peace and justice in Palestine and Israel can be difficult to discuss in a manner that seems equitable to all. We welcome comments regarding the recent statement - please submit a comment to this blog post to join our discussion on the crisis in Gaza.

It might be helpful to refer to our national Middle East Campaign and to our international work for peace in the Middle East. WILPF has sections in Israel, Palestine, and Lebanon and our advocacy work in the United States is coordinated with those sections through our International Middle East Committee.

Remember how at the end of the Cold War hopes were high for a peace dividend and conversion to a peace economy? I was living in Lesotho at the time, but I also felt the excitement and hopefulness as peace seemed to be breaking out all over -- even in the U.S. economy.

Early in the Clinton administration there was even government funding for conversion projects. In those days WILPFers were developing the Women's Budget, and in St. Louis WILPF member Mary Ann McGivern headed the Peace Economy Project. PEP sought to bring the benefits of peace to that community, and conversion to the local Boeing plant.