Child Soldier Prevention Act of 2007 - Defines "child soldier."
Prohibits, with a national interest waiver, funds appropriated or otherwise made available for specified military and related areas from being obligated or otherwise made available to the government of a country identified by the Department of State as having governmental armed forces or government supported armed groups, including paramilitaries, militias, or civil defense forces, that recruit or use child soldiers.
Directs the Secretary of State to notify any government so identified.
Authorizes the President to reinstate assistance upon certifying to Congress that a government is implementing: (1) compliance measures; and (2) mechanisms to prohibit future use of child soldiers and to ensure that no children are recruited, conscripted, or otherwise compelled to serve as child soldiers.
Authorizes the President to provide assistance to a country for international military education and training otherwise prohibited under this Act upon certifying to Congress that such assistance is for programs that implement measures to demobilize child soldiers and for programs to support professionalization of the military.
[Congressional Bills 110th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 2620 Introduced in House (IH)]
110th CONGRESS
1st Session
H. R. 2620
To end the use of child soldiers in hostilities around the world, and
for other purposes.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
June 7, 2007
Mr. Marshall introduced the following bill; which was referred to the
Committee on Foreign Affairs
_______________________________________________________________________
A BILL
To end the use of child soldiers in hostilities around the world, and
for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the
United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ``Child Soldier Prevention Act of
2007''.
SEC. 2. FINDINGS.
Congress makes the following findings:
(1) According to the September 7, 2005, report to the
General Assembly of the United Nations by the Special
Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed
Conflict, ``In the last decade, two million children have been
killed in situations of armed conflict, while six million
children have been permanently disabled or injured. Over
250,000 children continue to be exploited as child soldiers and
tens of thousands of girls are being subjected to rape and
other forms of sexual violence.''.
(2) According to the Center for Emerging Threats and
Opportunities (CETO), Marine Corps Warfighting Laboratory,
``The Child Soldier Phenomenon has become a post-Cold War
epidemic that has proliferated to every continent with the
exception of Antarctica and Australia.''.
(3) Many of the children currently serving in armed forces
or paramilitaries were forcibly conscripted through kidnapping
or coercion, a form of human trafficking, while others joined
military units due to economic necessity, to avenge the loss of
a family member, or for their own personal safety.
(4) Some military and militia commanders force child
soldiers to commit gruesome acts of ritual killings or torture,
including acts of violence against other children.
(5) Many female child soldiers face the additional
psychological and physical horrors of rape and sexual abuse,
enslavement for sexual purposes by militia commanders, and
severe social stigma should they return home.
(6) Some military and militia commanders target children
for recruitment because of their psychological immaturity and
vulnerability to manipulation and indoctrination. Children are
often separated from their families in order to foster
dependence on military units and leaders. Consequently, many of
these children suffer from deep trauma and are in need of
psychological counseling and rehabilitation.
(7) Child soldiers are exposed to hazardous conditions and
are at risk of physical injury and disability, psychological
trauma, sexually transmitted diseases, respiratory and skin
infections, and often death.
(8) On May 25, 2000, the United Nations adopted and opened
for signature, ratification, and accession the Optional
Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the
Involvement of Children in Armed Conflict (in this Act referred
to as the ``Optional Protocol''), which establishes 18 as the
minimum age for conscription or forced recruitment and requires
states party to ensure that members of their armed forces under
the age of 18 do not take a direct part in hostilities.
(9) On June 18, 2002, the Senate unanimously approved the
resolution advising and consenting to the ratification of the
Optional Protocol.
(10) On December 23, 2002, the United States presented the
ratified optional protocol to the United Nations.
(11) More than 110 governments worldwide have ratified the
optional protocol, establishing a clear international norm
concerning the use of children in combat.
(12) On December 2, 1999, the United States ratified
International Labour Convention 182, the Convention concerning
the Prohibition and Immediate Action for the Elimination of the
Worst Forms of Child Labour, which includes the use of child
soldiers among the worst forms of child labor.
(13) On October 7, 2005, the Senate gave its advice and
consent to the ratification of the Protocol to Prevent,
Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women
and Children, Supplementing the United Nations Convention
Against Transnational Organized Crime.
(14) It is in the national security interest of the United
States to reduce the chances that members of the United States
Armed Forces will be forced to encounter children in combat
situations.
(15) Section 502B(a)(3) of the Foreign Assistance Act of
1961 (22 U.S.C. 2304(a)(3)) provides that ``the President is
directed to formulate and conduct international security
assistance programs of the United States in a manner which will
promote and advance human rights and avoid identification of
the United States, through such programs, with governments
which deny to their people internationally recognized human
rights and fundamental freedoms, in violation of international
law or in contravention of the policy of the United States as
expressed in this section or otherwise''.
SEC. 3. CHILD SOLDIER DEFINED.
In this Act, consistent with the provisions of the Optional
Protocol, the term ``child soldier''--
(1) means--
(A) any person under age 18 who takes a direct part
in hostilities as a member of governmental armed
forces;
(B) any person under age 18 who has been
compulsorily recruited into governmental armed forces;
(C) any person under age 16 voluntarily recruited
into governmental armed forces; and
(D) any person under age 18 recruited or used in
hostilities by armed forces distinct from the armed
forces of a state; and
(2) includes any person described in subparagraphs (B),
(C), and (D) of paragraph (1) who is serving in any capacity,
including in a support role such as a cook, porter, messenger,
medic, guard, or sex slave.
SEC. 4. SENSE OF CONGRESS.
It is the sense of Congress--
(1) to condemn the conscription, forced recruitment or use
of children by governments, paramilitaries, or other
organizations in hostilities;
(2) that the United States Government should support and,
where practicable, lead efforts to establish and uphold
international standards designed to end this abuse of human
rights;
(3) that the United States Government should expand ongoing
services to rehabilitate recovered child soldiers and to
reintegrate them back into their communities by--
(A) offering ongoing psychological services to help
victims recover from their trauma and relearn how to
deal with others in nonviolent ways such that they are
no longer a danger to their community;
(B) facilitating reconciliation with their
communities through negotiations with traditional
leaders and elders to enable recovered abductees to
resume normal lives in their communities; and
(C) providing educational and vocational
assistance;
(4) that the United States should work with the
international community, including, where appropriate, third
country governments, nongovernmental organizations, faith-based
organizations, United Nations agencies, local governments,
labor unions, and private enterprise--
(A) on efforts to bring to justice rebel
organizations that kidnap children for use as child
soldiers, including the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) in
Uganda, Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia
(FARC), and Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE),
including, where feasible, by arresting the leaders of
such groups; and
(B) on efforts to recover those children who have
been abducted and to assist them in their
rehabilitation and reintegration into communities;
(5) that the Secretary of State, the Secretary of Labor,
and the Secretary of Defense should coordinate programs to
achieve the goals specified in paragraph (3), and in countries
where the use of child soldiers is an issue, whether or not it
is supported or sanctioned by the governments of such
countries, United States diplomatic missions should include in
their mission program plans a strategy to achieve the goals
specified in such paragraph;
(6) that United States diplomatic missions in countries in
which governments use or tolerate child soldiers should
develop, as part of annual program planning, strategies to
promote efforts to end this abuse of human rights; and
(7) that, in allocating or recommending the allocation of
funds or recommending candidates for programs and grants funded
by the United States Government, United States diplomatic
missions should give particular consideration to those programs
and candidates deemed to promote the end to this abuse of human
rights.
SEC. 5. PROHIBITION.
(a) In General.--Subject to subsections (b), (c), and (d), none of
the funds appropriated or otherwise made available for international
military education and training, foreign military financing, foreign
military sales, direct commercial sales, or excess defense articles by
the Foreign Operations, Export Financing, and Related Programs
Appropriations Act, 2006 (Public Law 109-102) or any other Act making
appropriations for foreign operations, export financing, and related
programs may be obligated or otherwise made available to the government
of a country that is clearly identified by the Department of State in
the Department of State's most recent Country Reports on Human Rights
Practices as having governmental armed forces or government supported
armed groups, including paramilitaries, militias, or civil defense
forces, that recruit or use child soldiers.
(b) Notification to Countries in Violation of the Standards of This
Act.--The Secretary of State shall formally notify any government
identified pursuant to subsection (a).
(c) National Interest Waiver.--
(1) Waiver.--The President may waive the application to a
country of the prohibition in subsection (a) if the President
determines that such waiver is in the interest of the United
States.
(2) Publication and notification.--The President shall
publish each waiver granted under paragraph (1) in the Federal
Register and shall notify the Committee on Foreign Relations
and the Committee on Appropriations of the Senate and the
Committee on Foreign Affairs and the Committee on
Appropriations of the House of Representatives of each such
waiver, including the justification for the waiver, in
accordance with the regular notification procedures of such
Committees.
(d) Reinstatement of Assistance.--The President may provide to a
country assistance otherwise prohibited under subsection (a) upon
certifying to Congress that the government of such country--
(1) has implemented effective measures to come into
compliance with the standards of this Act; and
(2) has implemented effective policies and mechanisms to
prohibit and prevent future use of child soldiers and to ensure
that no children are recruited, conscripted, or otherwise
compelled to serve as child soldiers.
(e) Exception for Programs Directly Related to Addressing the
Problem of Child Soldiers or Professionalization of the Military.--
(1) In general.--The President may provide to a country
assistance for international military education and training
otherwise prohibited under subsection (a) upon certifying to
Congress that--
(A) the government of such country is implementing
effective measures to demobilize child soldiers in its
forces or in government supported paramilitaries and to
provide demobilization, rehabilitation, and
reintegration assistance to those former child
soldiers; and
(B) the assistance provided by the United States
Government to the government of such country will go to
programs that will directly support professionalization
of the military.
(2) Limitation.--The exception under paragraph (1) may not
remain in effect for more than 2 years following the date of
notification specified in subsection (b).
SEC. 6. REPORTS.
(a) Preparation of Reports Regarding Child Soldiers.--United States
missions abroad shall thoroughly investigate reports of the use of
child soldiers.
(b) Information for Annual Human Rights Reports.--In preparing
those portions of the Human Rights Reports that relate to child
soldiers, the Secretary of State shall ensure that such reports shall
include a description of the use of child soldiers in each foreign
country, including--
(1) trends toward improvement in such country of the status
of child soldiers or the continued or increased tolerance of
such practices; and
(2) the role of the government of such country in engaging
in or tolerating the use of child soldiers.
(c) Inclusion of Information on Violations.--When the Secretary of
State determines that a government has violated the standards of this
Act, the Secretary shall clearly indicate that fact in the relevant
Annual Human Rights Report.
(d) Letter to Congress.--Not later than June 15 of each year for 10
years following the enactment of this Act, the President shall submit
to the Committee on Foreign Relations and the Committee on
Appropriations of the Senate and the Committee on Foreign Affairs and
the Committee on Appropriations of the House of Representatives--
(1) a list of the countries receiving notification that
they are in violation of the standards of this Act;
(2) a list of any waivers or exceptions exercised under
this Act;
(3) justification for those waivers and exceptions; and
(4) a description of any assistance provided pursuant to
this Act.
SEC. 7. REPORT ON IMPLEMENTATION OF ACT.
Not later than 180 days after the date of the enactment of this
Act, the President shall submit to the Committee on Foreign Relations
and the Committee on Appropriations of the Senate and the Committee on
Foreign Affairs and the Committee on Appropriations of the House of
Representatives a report setting forth a strategy for achieving the
policy objectives of this Act, including a description of an effective
mechanism for coordination of United States Government efforts to
implement this strategy.
SEC. 8. TRAINING FOR FOREIGN SERVICE OFFICERS.
Section 708 of the Foreign Service Act of 1980 (22 U.S.C. 4028) is
amended by adding at the end the following new subsection:
``(c) The Secretary of State, with the assistance of other relevant
officials, shall establish as part of the standard training provided
after January 1, 2008, for officers of the Service, including chiefs of
mission, instruction on matters related to child soldiers and the
substance of the Child Soldier Prevention Act of 2007.''.
SEC. 9. EFFECTIVE DATE; APPLICABILITY.
This Act shall take effect 180 days after the date of the enactment
of this Act and shall apply to funds obligated after such effective
date.
<all>
Introduced in House
Introduced in House
Referred to the House Committee on Foreign Affairs.
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