The UN’s Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict, Olara Otunnu, yesterday urged that the age limit for soldiers be raised from 15 to 18 years, with the threshold enforced by the international community. In his address to the Working Group on the Optional Protocol to the Convention of the Rights of the Child in Geneva, he recommended the United Nations address the social, economic and political conditions that give rise to child soldiers. He reported that after talks with Julius Nyerere, the facilitator of the Burundi peace talks, issues of child soldiers and their demobilisation would be included in the provisions of the Arusha peace process, a UN statement said.
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