Home » » organic's blog

The Child Soldier: US WILPF and the US Government

 

Memorial Day, 2008

The Child Soldier: US WILPF and the US Government

DAY ONE:

     Could any of us have imagined this face-off over the child soldier issue six years ago? At the same time, within this treaty review process, US democracy has seemed to awaken.

     In this scenario, the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, based in Geneva Switzerland, called on the US government to testify before the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child.

       This periodical formal question and answer also occurs with other countries who signed the UN Convention on the Child that the US has not signed. But it did write and sign the Optional Protocol on the Involvement of Children in Armed Conflict.

     Our WILPF (US), Human Rights Watch and the American Civil Liberties Union submitted documents relevant to this protocol for a two-step treaty review procedure in the past week.

     Initially, at the US Mission, austere but impressive with its solar paneled exterior in Geneva, we three NGOs, including three WILPFers (Corinne Tyris, Ellen Barfield and Jean Verthein) met with met with representatives from the Departments of State, Defense, Justice, Health and Human Services and Homeland Security. Ambassador Tichnor called for a transparent exchange.

    In this process, I reminded myself that these are our public servants and this government activity belongs to us. The tone was cordial and diplomatic.

     According to diplomacy, each NGO questioner thanked this government panel for meeting with us. WILPF sought to evaluate whether the rights of children are violated. At issue was the recruitment of children within the public school system, especially affecting younger children.

     First off, Jo Becker of Human Rights Watch questioned this large panel about practice inconsistencies among the military service branches on deployment to Iraq. WILPF's Ellen Barfield, a veteran, followed and asked about youthful deployment. 

   The Defense Departments Deputy Assistant Director, Christopher Arendt, replied. "Anyone under age 17 is assigned to a unit not scheduled to deploy; no one ever leaves the US under 17." He added, "The data system tracks hazardous duty."  

     A complex and active dialogue ensued on the detaining of Iraqi juveniles. WILPF, US did not focus on this critical topic. The gist was that civilian Iraqi juveniles with potential or actual capability for roadside or suicidal bombings  detained, provided with contacts with their families and given educational opportunities.

     Their schooling under US aegis sounded so comprehensive and excellent, I raised my hand to turn the discussion to the recruitment inside US schools.

     Both WILPF and the ACLU have spotlighted this issue. WILPF, the most grassroots of the three NGOs, helps anti-recruitment efforts. WILPFers are active against recruitment in New York City schools. WILPF in Arizona has also reported recruitment offenses in schools there, as have other branches.    

     At the preliminary meeting at the US Mission before the UN Committee on the Child meeting, I identified my background over time in the education from preschoolers to graduate students.

     I asked about the seepage of the military recruitment activity into the school system during regular hours and referred to the WILPF document.  It reported on the militarization of public schools referred to the Middle School Cadet Corps. 

     Mr. Arendt replied that this MSCC derived from Mayor Daley in Chicago, not from the Department of Defense, because that latter finds this program breeds "good citizenship." The California Cadet Corps, Mr. Arendt added, is connected to the National Guard and the Marine Corps supports Young Marines; neither you recruitment organization attached to the Defense Department.

     I continued with Mr. Arendt about military recruiters targeting poor ethnic communities. In NYC, anti-recruitment lead organizer from Vets for Peace, Jim Murphy, had told me that the low income African-American community has wised up quickly to the contacts with young students. But the Hispanics and some others were less much aware of this US recruitment effort in the schools.    

    Abhorring militarizing the public schools, I commented, "Is this the goal of American education." No response to a philosophical question was expected.

   No Child Left Behind, the US law, mandated standardized testing to upgrade the public school system and it students. The school system in each district or state must turn over student data for potential recruitment efforts. This law passed with bipartisan support.

     "What about bonuses," I asked, "to motivate these students?" Mr. Arendt noted that bonuses are "market driven," according to the need for specialists. Recruits win bonuses for joining up with the US military, for example, in electronics or earn them later if recruits acquire special skills useful to the military during their service years, they can "use professionally later." In other words, bonuses are not an automatic lure for recruitment.

     Based on my work with veteran school returnees in a university, I wondered if an imagined World War II GI Bill or Vietnam Veterans' benefits, now lapsed, do lure recruits.

     Also I inquired about targeting certain poor ethnic communities. Mr. Arendt noted that "demographics of recruitment" reflect various cities across the US.

     Corinne Tyris pursued her questions about definitions of "recruitment" and "enlistment" in the Optional Protocol and its universal application.

     The US has not signed the Convention on the Rights of the Child. Nevertheless, Robert Harris from the State Department had written the protocol, now part of the UN treaty.

     He summed up our dialogue on the necessity to fight the ill-treatment of children, oppose their forced recruitment into the US military and in opposing forces around the world. He emphasized the wrongdoing of exploiting children.

    Ambassador Lagon repeated his offers to meet with us to insure the well-being of young people. 

     But I and others remain haunted by the infusing of schools with military recruitment programs and offers.

Jean Verthein, NGO Representative for WILPF, US to the United Nations.  

   -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Note:  Within the Advancing Human Rights (AHR) committee, Laura Roskos conceived and drafted this original WILPF document, Improper and Abusive Recruitment of Children into the U.S. Armed Forces. She, Tzili Mor from School Women's International Law Center and, Corinne Tyris, a Temple University law student researched and helped write it. The latter two are also WILPF members. The whole effort was a combined Disarm and AHR project.

Jennifer Turner of the American Civil Liberties Union researched and wrote, Soldiers of Misfortune, US Violations of the optional Protocol on the Involvement of Children in Armed Conflict. Relevant research was done in cooperation with Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer.
»