WASHINGTON - Pressed by the demands of the “global war on terrorism”, the United States is violating an international protocol that forbids the recruitment of children under the age of 18 for military service, according to a new report released Tuesday by a major civil rights group that charged that recruitment practices target children as young as 11 years old.
“The United States military’s procedures for recruiting students plainly violate internationally accepted standards and fail to protect youth from abusive and aggressive recruitment tactics,”
for submission to the U.N. Committee on the Rights of the Child
the U.S. Senate ratified the Protocol in 2002, making it binding under U.S., as well as international, law
In a survey of nearly 1,000 children, aged 14 to 17
more than one five respondents — equally distributed among the different grades — reported the use of class time by military recruiters
clipped from: www.commondreams.org