The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Mary Robinson, urged states on Friday in Geneva to support new legislation that would prevent children under 18 from being recruited into the armed forces.
Speaking to the UN working group mandated with drafting an optional protocol to the CRC, Robinson said the addition of the protocol would send a “strong signal” from the international community on the issue of child soldiers.
“I have witnessed the effects of armed conflict on children in various parts of the world to which I have travelled,” Robinson, who was in Sierra Leone in June 1999, said. “I now appeal to you to take the necessary measures to ensure that no child has to suffer again in this manner.”
Robinson also said national legislation should not be presented as an obstacle to new, more advanced international standards.
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