114 STAT. 1654A-332 PUBLIC LAW 106-398 —APPENDIX (10) On January 21, 2000, in Geneva, a United Nations Working Group, including representatives from more than 80 governments including the United States, reached consensus on an international agreement, referred to in this case as an "optional protocol", on the use of child soldiers. (11) This optional protocol, upon entry into force, will— (A) raise the international minimum age for conscription and will require governments to take all feasible measures to ensure that members of their armed forces under age 18 do not participate directly in combat; (B) prohibit the recruitment and use in armed conflict of persons under the age of 18 by nongovernmental armed
forces; (C) encourage governments to raise the minimum legal age for voluntary recruits above the current standard of 15; and (D) commit governments to support the demobilization and rehabilitation of child soldiers and, when possible, to allocate resources to this purpose. (12) On October 29, 1998, United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan set minimum age requirements for United Nations peacekeeping personnel that are made available by member nations of the United Nations. (13) The United Nations Under-Secretary General for Peace-keeping, Bernard Miyet, announced in the Fourth Committee of the General Assembly that contributing governments of member nations were asked not to send civilian police and military observers under the age of 25 and that troops in national contingents should preferably be at least 21 years of age but in no case should they be younger than 18 years of age. (14) On August 25, 1999, the United Nations Security Council unanimously passed Resolution 1261 (1999) condemning the use of children in armed conflicts. (15) In addressing the Security Council on August 26, 1999, the Special Representative of the Secretary General for Children and Armed Conflict, Olara Otunnu, urged the adoption of a global three-pronged approach to combatting the use of children in armed conflict that would— (A) first, raise the age limit for recruitment and participation in armed conflict from the present age of 15 to the age of 18; (B) second, increase international pressure on armed groups which currently abuse children; and (C) third, address the political, social, and economic factors that create an environment in which children are induced by appeal of ideology or by socio-economic collapse to become child soldiers. (16) The United States delegation to the United Nations working group relating to child soldiers, which included representatives from the Department of Defense, supported the Geneva agreement on the optional protocol. (17) On May 25, 2000, the United Nations General Assembly unanimously adopted the optional protocol on the use of child soldiers. (18) The optional protocol was opened for signature on June 5, 2000.
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