On February 5, 2013, the UN Committee of the Rights of the
Child reprimanded the US government for its treatment of children in areas of
armed conflict, specifically Afghanistan.
The report told of hundreds of deaths of Afghani children due to US air
strikes and attacks and the disappointing handling by the US government of the
child soldier situation. Unwillingly
forced to become child soldiers, many Afghani youth are now excluded from US
asylum, and some militaries with child soldiers have found loopholes in US laws
to receive US military assistance. The
committee strongly suggested the US to take significant precautionary measures
to ensure the safety of children abroad in conflict zones. While the US has shown efforts to limit
wartime involvement of innocent children, notably by the 2008 Child Soldiers
Prevention Act, which prohibited US military assistance to governments with
child soldiers, the lack of consistency in enforcing these efforts is
disappointing. Waivers to this law have
allowed continued use of youth armies in countries such as Chad, the Democratic
Republic of Congo, Libya, South Sudan, and Yemen, and the US government must
act to readdress this situation. There
are also many instances of former child soldiers seeking US refuge and being
denied because of their previous involvement with foreign organizations on the
grounds that it is “terrorist activity.”
Instead of grouping all foreign immigration into the same grounds for
inspection, cases of child soldiers should be handled on a more case-by-case
basis to ensure hundreds of innocents are not denied protection.
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