Human Rights and Military Recruitment

NEW YORK – The United States has failed to uphold its commitments to safeguard the rights of youth under 18 from military recruitment and to guarantee basic protections to foreign former child soldiers, according to an American Civil Liberties Union report released today. The report, “Soldiers of Misfortune,” charges that U.S. military recruiting practices that target children as young as 11, the lack of protections for alleged foreign child soldiers in U.S. military custody, and the denial of protection to former child soldiers from other countries seeking asylum violate the Optional Protocol on the Involvement of Children in Armed Conflict that the U.S. ratified in 2002.

A new ACLU Report, Soldiers of Misfortune says that military recruitment practices violate international standards. 5/18/08

“The United States is failing to protect its own youth from abusive military recruitment, and is simultaneously failing to protect the youth of other countries who have already been forcibly involved in armed conflict,” said Jamil Dakwar, Director of the ACLU Human Rights Program. “The United States should take immediate action to bring its policies and practices on military recruitment and treatment of former child soldiers in line with internationally accepted standards.”

Read the entire press release

Read the Report: Soldiers of Misfortune