ACLU: United States violates UN protocol in its treatment of Iraqi, and American, children Nick Langewis

Published: Wednesday May 14, 2008



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Print This Email This A new US government report reveals that nearly 2,500 children, being held in military custody in Iraq and Afghanistan by the United States, are not uniformly protected as mandated by United Nations protocol. Neither, contends the American Civil Liberties Union, are those the government seeks as new recruits here at home. The report, submitted Wednesday to the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child, shows that there is no set policy in place to handle youths under the age of 18 captured and detained by the US military in Iraq and Afghanistan. "It is shocking," said Jamil Dakwar, Director of the ACLU's Human Rights Program, "to know that the U.S. is holding hundreds of juveniles in Iraq and Afghanistan, and even more disturbing that there is no comprehensive policy in place that will protect their rights as children. "Juveniles and former child soldiers should be treated first and foremost as candidates for rehabilitation and reintegration into society, not subjected to further victimization." The ACLU, in an additional report, says that the United States' lack of policies towards underage detainees violates not only the international norm, but the Optional Protocol on the Involvement of Children in Armed Conflict, ratified in 2002. The Protocol mandates that no person under 18 years of age be forced to join a military force, and calls to protect, with "all feasible measures," members of a military force under the age of 18 from direct combat, whether in a state military or a militia. About 500 children in Iraq alone are being held without charge in US-run facilities; the government says that the children are being taught to "contribute positively to the future of Iraq." The ACLU contends that, in addition to these children, a confirmed 10 under 18 are being held at the infamous Bagram military base in Afghanistan, and at least 23 are thought to have been minors on their arrival at Guantánamo Bay. The ACLU also says that the United States Department of Defense's stateside recruitment efforts, especially towards youth of color, violate the Optional Protocol by grooming and courting pre-teens and teenagers--sometimes using coercive tactics through school programs, video games and per guidelines in recruitment training manuals--before they are legally able to sign a binding contract. "Contrary to the government report," said Jennifer Turner of the ACLU Human Rights Program, "recruitment does not begin when a high school senior signs a contract to enlist. The government fails to acknowledge that recruiters contact, cultivate, and at times harass potential recruits long before they are old enough to sign up."