Earlier this month, U.S. President Bill Clinton signed an important new child soldiers treaty. The Treaty, an Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child, was signed at the United Nations on July 5. Reflecting on the thousands of children used in conflicts from Sierra Leone to Colombia, President Clinton said, "To give life to our dream of a global economy that lifts all people, first we must stand together for all children."

The Treaty raises the age for conscription and participation in conflict to 18 from the current international standard of 15 and requires governments to take "all feasible measures to ensure that members of their armed forces who have not attained the age of 18 years do not take a direct part in hostilities." The agreement does allow government armies to recruit children as young as 16 with parental consent, a concession to demands by the United States and the United Kingdom, countries which recruit under 18's for the armed forces. Rebel and guerilla armies are banned from recruiting or using children under the age of 18 in their military forces. The White House Fact Sheet describes the importance of the Treaty as a document that "raises international standards in the effort to end the forced recruitment of children into armed conflict, gives governments additional tools to pressure violators, and promotes rehabilitation to help reintegrate child soldiers into civilian life."

More than 300,000 children are directly involved in military action in over 30 conflicts around the world. Child soldiers serve alongside adults in government forces, rebel opposition groups, and guerrilla armies. They are used as cooks, couriers, porters, spies, front line combatants, and other combat and non-combat roles.

The Treaty was agreed to in Geneva in January after six years of negotiations. It was formally adopted by the United Nations General Assembly on May 25th and opened for signature and ratification on June 5th. The United States was the eighth country to sign the Treaty, joining Argentina, Cambodia, Canada, Monaco, Norway, San Marino, and Sweden.

Achieving agreement was particularly noteworthy because it marked a substantive shift in United Sates policy. Despite numerous attempts to sabotage the process during the six years of negotiations, the United States finally ceased attempts to block consensus when certain conditions were met. The United States opposed raising the age for recruitment to 18 because the Pentagon wanted to continue its practice of recruiting 17 year olds (who had parental consent) and assigning them to active duty forces. (Under the terms of the Treaty, the U.S. will be able to maintain its practice of recruiting and enlisting 17 year olds and, according to the White House, "related programs such as ROTC and military schools will be unaffected.")

Another concession opened a clear path for the U.S. to become a party to the Treaty even though it hasn't ratified the parent treaty, the Convention on the Rights of the Child. Treaty negotiators in Geneva agreed to the United States' request to include language that allows states that have signed the Convention (President Clinton signed the Treaty in 1995) to sign and ratify the child soldiers' Protocol. The Treaty does not require any changes in U.S. law.

To fulfill the Treaty's obligations, the Department of Defense has agreed not to deploy troops under 18 into combat situations. The White House Fact Sheet clarifies that the Pentagon will adhere to the agreement. "The Secretary of Defense, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the Service Chiefs carefully considered whether the U.S. military could undertake such an obligation and concluded we could do so while fully protecting our military recruitment and readiness requirements," the Fact Sheet stated.

Implementation of the Treaty will not place much of a burden on U.S. military policy. Each year the U.S. military enlists 50,000 17-year olds to help fill the ranks of the 1.2 million servicemen and women. According to Pentagon spokesperson Lt. Col. David Lapan, "no more than 2,500 recruits would be affected each year by the Protocol." The current practice of routinely sending soldiers under 18 to combat areas such as Somalia, Bosnia, and the Gulf will have to be changed.

Unlike other treaties bogged down by bureaucratic wrangling, the child soldiers Protocol should not face significant obstacles to ratification. The Senate adopted a resolution on June 8 calling for ratification of the Treaty as soon as possible (the House version was passed July 12). President Clinton has announced that he will be delivering the Treaty to the Senate for ratification this week. The Senate should now do the right thing for the children of the world and ratify this Treaty as soon as possible.

The Treaty will enter into force after it is ratified by 10 countries. Due to the high level of support, children's rights advocates predict the Treaty will enter into force by the end of this year. While swift entry into force is important for initiating Treaty implementation, it is only the first step in protecting children and ensuring they are not subject to hazardous or dehumanizing treatment. The work to stop the use of child soldiers will not be completed until the world stops sending innocent children to fight in war. But only staunch commitments to see that treaty provisions are followed by both governments and rebel groups will end this brutal practice and offer protection to this most defenseless population.