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CIAO DATE: 7/5/2006
U.S. Military Assistance to Countries Using Child Soldiers: 1990-2006
Rhea Myerscough
December 2005
Released on Feb. 28, 2005, the State Department’s 2004 Human Rights report discusses the “nature and extent of the compulsory recruitment and conscription of individuals under the age of 18” by all armed groups in every country, and what steps have been taken by the governments of the respective countries to eliminate such practices. The State Department report cites 26 countries that have forcefully recruited and/or used child soldiers, including four countries that had no evidence of new child soldier participation in 2004. CDI’s research has revealed that of these 26 countries, the United States has provided 22 with military assistance since 2001.
While the Human Rights Report includes information on the many countries where tangible, positive results have been accomplished in the area of disarmament, demobilization, and reintegration, the list also includes gross violators of established international standards such as Sri Lanka and Colombia, where government-backed paramilitary groups and militias, as well as domestic insurgency forces, forcibly recruit and use child soldiers. In these cases, the United States continues to provide millions in Foreign Military Sales (FMS), Direct Commercial Sales (DCS), Excess Defense Articles (EDA), International Military Education and Training (IMET), and Foreign Military Financing (FMF), despite demonstrably poor records. Other notable examples include countries such as Nepal and Yemen, which have seen significantly increased military assistance from the United States since September 2001 as part of the global war on terror.
A link is provided below to a list of countries identified in the State Department Human Rights Report, along with a brief description of the status of child soldiers, and the amount of military assistance provided by the United States. The descriptions of the use of child soldiers are quoted directly from the 2004 U.S. Department of State Human Rights Report.
The Department of State’s 2004 Human Rights Report is available at http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2004/. Additional information on child soldiers can be found in the Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers’ Global Report 2004, available at http://www.child-soldiers.org/resources/global-reports.
