Advancing Human Rights

In 2004 – according to the latest available statistics from the Under Secretary of Defense – about 19,885 seventeen year old children joined the US armed forces, constituting 23% of all new reserves and 4.3% of active armed forces recruits.  These 14,933 boys and 4,952 girls represent a fraction of the youths targeted annually by military recruiters who have become an ominous presence in elementary schools across the country where students as young as 11 can participate in the Middle School Cadet Corps.

Updated: 3/13/08 

On February 7, Advancing Human Rights committee member Tzili Mor addressed the U.N. Committee on the Rights of the Child in Geneva regarding U.S. violations of the Optional Protocol on Children in Armed Conflict:

Statement to the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child regarding U.S. Compliance with CRC OPAC
Feb. 7, 2008
OHCHR, Geneva

Statement made by Tzili Mor  to the CRC on behalf of WILPF

Click here to view this statement as a pdf document.

Update: 2008-02-22

Thank you for this opportunity to give voice to the experiences and concerns of members of the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom in the U.S. and their allies in 30 US-based national and local grass roots organizations who are similarly engaged in peace education and advocacy on behalf of the human rights of children.

In its report to this committee, the U.S. Government fails to define what constitutes "recruitment", and even suggests that recruitment is limited to the act of a person signing the enlistment contract.  The report ignores the concerted, targeted actions taken by military recruiters, including unchecked aggressive advertising, extravagant gift giving, and false promises of benefits and harassment of pre teens and teenagers that had to take place in order to achieve this result. In 2006, the U.S. Department of Defense spent 1.5 billion dollars on military recruitment, with half of this sum used for advertising alone. Military recruitment is a process that starts long before the contract is actually signed.

The Women’s Peace Table was created in the spirit U.N. Security Council Resolution 1325. Expanding on the Platform for Action that was established in Beijing in 1995, our goal is to weave the priorities of diverse women's organizations and communities across the U.S. into a single harmonized agenda for action: a prioritized list of policy changes and good practices that will prevent the U.S. from initiating and fueling future armed conflicts. Throughout the history of WILPF, the women in our organization have worked to create an environment of political, economic, social and psychological freedom for all members of the human community, so that true peace can be enjoyed by all. It is important that WILPF's efforts to be aligned with those of other women's organizations and communities so that U.S. women can develop a proactive peace movement that is resilient and unstoppable.

Updated: 2008-02-22 

The WILPF-UN Office in New York welcomed WILPF members to New York City to participate in the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) taking place 25 February - 7 March 2008.

Updated: 2008-09-15

View WILPF's September 2008 statement to the UN Human Rights Council

Going beyond “counter recruitment” strategies to End Abusive and Improper Military Recruitment

In 2004 – according to the latest available statistics from the Under Secretary of Defense – about 19,885 seventeen year old children joined the US armed forces, constituting 23% of all new reserves and 4.3% of active armed forces recruits.  These 14,933 boys and 4,952 girls represent a fraction of the youths targeted annually by military recruiters who have become an ominous presence in elementary schools across the country where students as young as 11 can participate in the Middle School Cadet Corps.

Children’s Human Rights and Military Service

While the exact numbers of child soldiers is difficult to pinpoint at any given time, the visibility of such combatants in recent conflicts in Burma and sub-Saharan Africa, and in training schools run by Al-Queda in Pakistan, has focused world attention on the human rights abuses inherent in such practices.  Most child soldiers are aged between 14 and 18. While many enlist "voluntarily" research shows that such adolescents see few alternatives to involvement in armed conflict. Some enlist as a means of survival in war-torn regions after family, social and economic structures collapse or after seeing family members tortured or killed by government forces or armed groups. Others join up because of poverty and lack of work or educational opportunities. Regardless of how they are recruited, child soldiers are victims, whose participation in conflict bears serious implications for their physical and emotional well-being. They are commonly subject to abuse and most of them witness death, killing, and sexual violence. Many participate in killings and most suffer serious long-term psychological consequences.¹