U.S. Joins International Child Law Effort (another Treaty with the Devil UNITED NATIONS)

ASSOCIATED PRESS ^ | Monday, December 23, 2002 | By EDITH M. LEDERER

[FreeSpeechZone]

U.S. Joins International Child Law Effort

UNITED NATIONS -- The United States officially became a party Monday to international laws banning the use of children as soldiers and making the sexual exploitation of children a crime.

"Child victims of armed conflict and commercial sexual exploitation desperately need the world's attention," said U.S. State Department deputy spokesman Philip Reeker.

The United States is the 42nd country to ratify the two protocols. One requires nations to ensure that people under 18 do not participate in hostilities, while setting 18 as the minimum age for compulsory military recruitment. The other demands harsh punishments for people convicted of promoting child prostitution or engaging in child pornography and the sale of children.

Ambassador Sichan Siv, the U.S. representative to the U.N. Economic and Social Council, delivered documents confirming ratification to the U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child at the United Nations.

The U.S. State Department said the Senate and President Bush both approved the treaties, but it wasn't clear exactly when the ratification occurred.

The U.S. government initially opposed an 18-year minimum age for combat and in the past sent 17-year-old troops into armed conflicts in Somalia, Bosnia and the Gulf War. But the Department of Defense determined that it could comply with the protocol and ensure U.S. military recruitment and readiness.

More than 300,000 children are used in armed conflict as soldiers, messengers, guards, runners, bearers, spies, cooks and sex slaves, especially in Africa and Asia but also in Latin America, Europe and the Middle East, according to U.N. figures.

"Often, they live with fear, pain and degradation - or don't survive at all," Reeker said.

Secretary-General Kofi Annan's report to the Security Council this month listed 23 parties - including governments and rebel groups - in Afghanistan, Burundi, Congo, Liberia and Somalia that recruit and use child soldiers.

Human Rights Watch said the measures will enable the Bush administration to exert global leadership in ending the use of child soldiers.

"As a party to the treaty, the United States will be better able to use its considerable political and military influence to discourage the use of children as soldiers by other governments and armed groups," said Jo Becker, the group's children's rights advocate.

The State Department declined to estimate how many millions of children in the world are victimized in the multibillion dollar commercial sex trade, since most of the criminal activity is hidden.

"That said, an estimated one million children are currently trafficked for coerced sexual exploitation or labor," it said. "Those exploited children are at increased risk of violence, drug abuse, and disease - including HIV/AIDS."

The protocol calls for international cooperation among law enforcement agencies to stop the sale and sexual exploitation of children. It also calls for states that ratify the protocol to provide victims with counseling and rehabilitation.

[FreeSpeechZone]

A global Police force

[CanisMajor2002]

So does this mean the UN is going to finally condemn Palestinian Youth Homicide Bombers?

*snort*

[concerned about politics]

So does this mean the UN is going to finally condemn Palestinian Youth Homicide Bombers?

Will the UN now shut down little Muslim terrorist training schools? Little kids being trained to become future suicide bombers for Allah?

[Carry_Okie]

The U.S. State Department said the Senate and President Bush both approved the treaties, but it wasn't clear exactly when the ratification occurred.

Excuse me? Can't they review the Congressional Record? Then how are they sure it happened?

I know better than to ask if there was a recorded vote. :-(

[Carry_Okie]

Ambassador Sichan Siv, the U.S. representative to the U.N. Economic and Social Council, delivered documents confirming ratification to the U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child at the United Nations.

If this is the Rights of the Child treaty I know of, this is a hell of a lot more than just child soldiering and prostitution. This is robbing parents of the right to control the associations of their children.

I don't believe it. When did this happen?

[Carry_Okie]

Are they hiding this POS behind the Lott resignation and Christmas? What the hell was going on in that "conference call"?

[Enemy Of The State]

Common..everyone knows that it takes a villiage (idiot)

[Carry_Okie]

If this is the Rights of the Child Treaty they've been considering for the last decade, they just passed a minor's right to an abortion without parental notification.

[FreeSpeechZone]

bush will sent over ,it will happen like this a package of 34 treaties, all of which were ratified by a show of hands -- no recorded vote.

[FreeSpeechZone]

jesse is gone, the CFR is now the head

[Carry_Okie]

You don't need to tell me about any of that. I have records of that kind of crap going back to the 19th Century.

[Sabertooth]

UNITED NATIONS -- The United States officially became a party Monday to international laws banning the use of children as soldiers and making the sexual exploitation of children a crime.

< -snip- >

Ambassador Sichan Siv, the U.S. representative to the U.N. Economic and Social Council, delivered documents confirming ratification to the U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child at the United Nations.

The U.S. State Department said the Senate and President Bush both approved the treaties, but it wasn't clear exactly when the ratification occurred.

Most strange. Two thoughts occur to me.

Either Bush promised this treaty in return for Security Council movement on the Iraq resolutions, or some entrenched Clintonistas are up to some mischief.

[Carry_Okie]

Note that it wasn't Negroponte. This was through UNESCO (conveniently redubbed in the article).

[FreeSpeechZone]

Ambassador Sichan Siv, the U.S. representative to the U.N. Economic and Social Council, delivered documents confirming ratification to the U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child at the United Nations.

The U.S. State Department said the Senate and President

Bush both approved the treaties,

but it wasn't clear exactly when the ratification occurred.

[FreeSpeechZone]

lets see if we get the hole story

[Sandy]

Click here (Congressional Record, June 18, 2002).

[FreeSpeechZone]

Can anyone fine the VOTE On THIS

Ambassador Sichan Siv, the U.S. representative to the U.N. Economic and Social Council, delivered documents confirming ratification to the U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child at the United Nations.

The U.S. State Department said the Senate and President Bush both approved the treaties, but it wasn't clear exactly when the ratification occurred.

[Sandy]

See reply #17.

[FreeSpeechZone]

jesse is now gone

Mrs. BOXER. Madam President, I am very pleased that today the Senate is approving two Optional Protocols to the U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child. The Optional Protocol on Involvement of Children in Armed Conflict, also known as the Child Soldiers Protocol, aims to prevent children under the age of 18 from directly participating in hostilities. The second treaty, the Optional Protocol on the Sale of Children, Child Prostitution and Child Pornography aims to strengthen efforts to put a stop to the trafficking and exploitation of children.

Last March, I chaired a Senate Foreign Relations

Committee hearing on these two Protocols that featured members of the State, Justice, and Defense Departments. I appreciate the cooperation the committee received from these agencies in making ratification of these two treaties possible. The hearing also featured a panel of private witnesses that was led by Jo Becker, a tireless advocate on the issue of banning the use of child soldiers.