In pact, nations pledge not to use child soldiers

updated 7:45 p.m. ET Feb. 6, 2007

PARIS - African, Asian and South American nations where child fighters have been used in war endorsed a new international agreement Tuesday that commits them to stopping the practice and punishing those who recruit youngsters as combatants.

Some nations hailed the text, which carries moral but no legal weight, as a breakthrough. But others said it may be no more than empty promises and that more than words are needed to rehabilitate children mentally and physically scarred by war.

“We’ve lost a whole generation of children,” said Liberia’s deputy minister of education, Hawa Goll-Kotchi. “It’s scary.”

Sierra Leone, Liberia, Congo, Sri Lanka, Colombia, Sudan and Somalia — just some of the nations where children have been recruited as fighters — were among nearly 60 countries that approved the so-called Paris Commitments, although it was not formally signed. All 27 nations of the European Union also endorsed the text.

The U.S. government did not participate in the conference. The State Department said the administration objected to some of the wording of the documents, but added that the U.S. remained committed to its treaty obligations to prevent the use of children in combat.

At least 250,000 boys and girls are believed to still be fighting in about a dozen conflicts worldwide, according to the United Nations. They are used as soldiers, messengers, spies and porters and sometimes forced to provide sexual services.

A call to ‘spare no effort’
The document requires its backers to “spare no effort” to end the use of soldiers younger than 18 and stipulates that countries must demobilize underage fighters, even during wartime. It also says that anyone who recruits children may not receive amnesty under peace agreements.

Ivory Coast’s foreign minister, Youssouf Bakayoko, called the pledge a “breakthrough.”

“Countries will now have to do their all to make sure this text is respected,” he told The Associated Press.

Ivory Coast was one of seven countries monitored under a 2005 U.N. Security Council resolution aimed at preventing child recruitment. The West African nation has been split between the government-controlled south and rebel-held north since a failed coup in 2002 sparked a civil war.

French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy insisted the document is more than just “good words” and “will have a great political value.”

Others were less optimistic.

Former child soldier Ishamel Beah, who made an emotional appeal Monday for strong action to keep children from returning to battle, told AP he fears the text will prove just more “empty promises.”

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