Stop the Use of Child Soldiers

It is estimated that between 1993 and 2003 over two million children lost their lives due to armed conflicts, over six million were physically maimed, and that there are approximately 300 000 child soldiers at any given time. The most vulnerable members of society are used in the most cowardly of ways - as fodder on the front lines, as testers of minefields, as suicide bombers or as sexual slaves. Schools and hospitals, where children should be able to find solace and care, are often targeted in unlawful armed attacks.  We, the undersigned, are calling upon:


* States and Non State Actors to unequivocally assert that a child is any person less than 18 years of age.
* Heads of States and States who have not yet ratified/signed the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the involvement of children in armed conflict to do so immediately, and to implement the measures contained therein as swiftly and effectively as possible. We ask the following countries to do so in 2011: Antigua and Barbuda, Bahamas, Barbados, Brunei Sarussalam, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Comoros, Cote d’Ivoire, Dominican Republic, DPR Korea, Estonia, Equatorial Guinea, Ethiopia, Fiji, Ghana, Grenada, Guinea, Haiti, Indonesia, Kiribati, Lebanon, Liberia, Malaysia, Micronesia, Myanmar, Nauru, Niger, Nigeria, Pakistan, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Samoa, San Marino, Sao Tome and Principe, Soloman Islands, Somalia, South Sudan, Suriname, Swaziland, Tonga, Trinidad and Tobago, Tuvalu, United Arab Emirates, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
* States to provide children who have suffered the atrocities of war the best possible care in order to begin healing from the unspeakable acts inflicted upon them.
* States to affirm that every child has the right to be free from the horrors of war.