The tragic case of Omar Khadr (Spratley in The Canadian)

[struggle4progress]

by Spencer Spratley

According to UNICEF, a child soldier is defined as any person under the age of 18 who is part of any kind of regular or irregular armed force or armed group. These child soldiers are viewed by most Governments and world institutions as victims who require varying degrees of trauma healing, rehabilitation and reintegration into their communities ...

... rehabilitation programs have proven to be very effective when they are given adequate support and financing. One living example of this success is the story of Ishmael Beah. At 15 years of age he was rescued from the battlefields in Sierra Leone by UNICEF and rehabilitated in a facility run by a nongovernmental organization known as "Children Associated With the War." Eventually, Beah made his way to the United States, where he graduated from college and wrote his poignant memoirs, which received international acclaim. Beah is now a UNICEF advocate for children affected by war and travels the world to lobby governments to rehabilitate and reintegrate former child soldiers into society.

Now contrast this with the case of Omar Khadr, a Canadian citizen who was taken from Canada to the Middle East by his family when he was a teenager. Khadr was also removed from the battlefield when he was 15 after his father was killed and he was wounded during a firefight with U.S. troops. Instead of being returned to Canada for treatment and care, he was sent to Guantanamo Bay as an enemy combatant and held for years without charge ...

In fact, Canada was aware as early as 2003 that Khadr had been subject to torture. We know this because the documents ordered released by the Supreme Court of Canada to Khadr's defence team confirm it. As early as 2003, Khadr complained to Canadian interrogators that he had been tortured by American personnel in Afghanistan and that he was giving false statements and confessions out of fear that the torture would resume. The Canadian diplomat interviewing Khadr ... chose not to pursue the matter ...

http://www.agoracosmopolitan.com/home/Frontpage/2008/07/21/02483.html

[provis99]

1. the first sentence is rather odd

Canada allows enlistment into the military at 17; does that mean Canada is violating UNICEF guidelines?

Anyways, UNICEF opinions are just opinions, they have no force of law. Under the Geneva Conventions, child soldiers are those under the age of 15; 16 and older are adult soldiers. Secondly, this applies only to child soldiers serving a legitimate state military, and serving in uniform. Khadr meets none of these criteria.

He was essentially a partisan/guerilla fighter, fighting for an illegal group, and was 15 at the time. Hence according to the Geneva Protocols which the US signed, Khadr is justifiably subject to summary execution for violating the rules of war.

The Allies tried to convict German generals of executing young partisans in the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia, but decided that in fact that the executions were just and warranted under the rules of international law, in order to maintain order in an occupied territory during a period of war.

It may sound cruel, it may sound harsh, but thats the international standard.

[struggle4progress]

2. Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the involvement of children in

in armed conflict

Adopted and opened for signature, ratification and accession by General Assembly resolution A/RES/54/263
of 25 May 2000
entry into force 12 February 2002

The States Parties to the present Protocol,

Encouraged by the overwhelming support for the Convention on the Rights of the Child, demonstrating the widespread commitment that exists to strive for the promotion and protection of the rights of the child,

Reaffirming that the rights of children require special protection, and calling for continuous improvement of the situation of children without distinction, as well as for their development and education in conditions of peace and security,

Disturbed by the harmful and widespread impact of armed conflict on children and the long-term consequences it has for durable peace, security and development,

Condemning the targeting of children in situations of armed conflict and direct attacks on objects protected under international law, including places that generally have a significant presence of children, such as schools and hospitals,

Noting the adoption of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, in particular, the inclusion therein as a war crime, of conscripting or enlisting children under the age of 15 years or using them to participate actively in hostilities in both international and non-international armed conflict,

Considering therefore that to strengthen further the implementation of rights recognized in the Convention on the Rights of the Child there is a need to increase the protection of children from involvement in armed conflict,

Noting that article 1 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child specifies that, for the purposes of that Convention, a child means every human being below the age of 18 years unless, under the law applicable to the child, majority is attained earlier,

Convinced that an optional protocol to the Convention that raises the age of possible recruitment of persons into armed forces and their participation in hostilities will contribute effectively to the implementation of the principle that the best interests of the child are to be a primary consideration in all actions concerning children,

Noting that the twenty-sixth International Conference of the Red Cross and Red Crescent in December 1995 recommended, inter alia, that parties to conflict take every feasible step to ensure that children below the age of 18 years do not take part in hostilities,

Welcoming the unanimous adoption, in June 1999, of International Labour Organization Convention No. 182 on the Prohibition and Immediate Action for the Elimination of the Worst Forms of Child Labour, which prohibits, inter alia, forced or compulsory recruitment of children for use in armed conflict,

Condemning with the gravest concern the recruitment, training and use within and across national borders of children in hostilities by armed groups distinct from the armed forces of a State, and recognizing the responsibility of those who recruit, train and use children in this regard,

Recalling the obligation of each party to an armed conflict to abide by the provisions of international humanitarian law,

Stressing that the present Protocol is without prejudice to the purposes and principles contained in the Charter of the United Nations, including Article 51, and relevant norms of humanitarian law,

Bearing in mind that conditions of peace and security based on full respect of the purposes and principles contained in the Charter and observance of applicable human rights instruments are indispensable for the full protection of children, in particular during armed conflict and foreign occupation,

Recognizing the special needs of those children who are particularly vulnerable to recruitment or use in hostilities contrary to the present Protocol owing to their economic or social status or gender,

Mindful of the necessity of taking into consideration the economic, social and political root causes of the involvement of children in armed conflict,

Convinced of the need to strengthen international cooperation in the implementation of the present Protocol, as well as the physical and psychosocial rehabilitation and social reintegration of children who are victims of armed conflict,

Encouraging the participation of the community and, in particular, children and child victims in the dissemination of informational and educational programmes concerning the implementation of the Protocol,

Have agreed as follows:
Article 1

States Parties shall take all feasible measures to ensure that members of their armed forces who have not attained the age of 18 years do not take a direct part in hostilities.
Article 2

States Parties shall ensure that persons who have not attained the age of 18 years are not compulsorily recruited into their armed forces.
Article 3

1. States Parties shall raise the minimum age for the voluntary recruitment of persons into their national armed forces from that set out in article 38, paragraph 3, of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, taking account of the principles contained in that article and recognizing that under the Convention persons under the age of 18 years are entitled to special protection.

2. Each State Party shall deposit a binding declaration upon ratification of or accession to the present Protocol that sets forth the minimum age at which it will permit voluntary recruitment into its national armed forces and a description of the safeguards it has adopted to ensure that such recruitment is not forced or coerced.

3. States Parties that permit voluntary recruitment into their national armed forces under the age of 18 years shall maintain safeguards to ensure, as a minimum, that:

(a) Such recruitment is genuinely voluntary;

(b) Such recruitment is carried out with the informed consent of the person's parents or legal guardians;

(c) Such persons are fully informed of the duties involved in such military service;

(d) Such persons provide reliable proof of age prior to acceptance into national military service.

4. Each State Party may strengthen its declaration at any time by notification to that effect addressed to the Secretary-General of the United Nations, who shall inform all States Parties. Such notification shall take effect on the date on which it is received by the Secretary-General.

5. The requirement to raise the age in paragraph 1 of the present article does not apply to schools operated by or under the control of the armed forces of the States Parties, in keeping with articles 28 and 29 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child.
Article 4

1. Armed groups that are distinct from the armed forces of a State should not, under any circumstances, recruit or use in hostilities persons under the age of 18 years.

2. States Parties shall take all feasible measures to prevent such recruitment and use, including the adoption of legal measures necessary to prohibit and criminalize such practices.

3. The application of the present article shall not affect the legal status of any party to an armed conflict.
Article 5

Nothing in the present Protocol shall be construed as precluding provisions in the law of a State Party or in international instruments and international humanitarian law that are more conducive to the realization of the rights of the child.
Article 6

1. Each State Party shall take all necessary legal, administrative and other measures to ensure the effective implementation and enforcement of the provisions of the present Protocol within its jurisdiction.

2. States Parties undertake to make the principles and provisions of the present Protocol widely known and promoted by appropriate means, to adults and children alike.

3. States Parties shall take all feasible measures to ensure that persons within their jurisdiction recruited or used in hostilities contrary to the present Protocol are demobilized or otherwise released from service. States Parties shall, when necessary, accord to such persons all appropriate assistance for their physical and psychological recovery and their social reintegration.
Article 7

1. States Parties shall cooperate in the implementation of the present Protocol, including in the prevention of any activity contrary thereto and in the rehabilitation and social reintegration of persons who are victims of acts contrary thereto, including through technical cooperation and financial assistance. Such assistance and cooperation will be undertaken in consultation with the States Parties concerned and the relevant international organizations.

2. States Parties in a position to do so shall provide such assistance through existing multilateral, bilateral or other programmes or, inter alia, through a voluntary fund established in accordance with the rules of the General Assembly.
Article 8

1. Each State Party shall, within two years following the entry into force of the present Protocol for that State Party, submit a report to the Committee on the Rights of the Child providing comprehensive information on the measures it has taken to implement the provisions of the Protocol, including the measures taken to implement the provisions on participation and recruitment.

2. Following the submission of the comprehensive report, each State Party shall include in the reports it submits to the Committee on the Rights of the Child, in accordance with article 44 of the Convention, any further information with respect to the implementation of the Protocol. Other States Parties to the Protocol shall submit a report every five years.

3. The Committee on the Rights of the Child may request from States Parties further information relevant to the implementation of the present Protocol.
Article 9

1. The present Protocol is open for signature by any State that is a party to the Convention or has signed it.

2. The present Protocol is subject to ratification and is open to accession by any State. Instruments of ratification or accession shall be deposited with the Secretary-General of the United Nations.

3. The Secretary-General, in his capacity as depositary of the Convention and the Protocol, shall inform all States Parties to the Convention and all States that have signed the Convention of each instrument of declaration pursuant to article 3.
Article 10

1. The present Protocol shall enter into force three months after the deposit of the tenth instrument of ratification or accession.

2. For each State ratifying the present Protocol or acceding to it after its entry into force, the Protocol shall enter into force one month after the date of the deposit of its own instrument of ratification or accession.
Article 11

1. Any State Party may denounce the present Protocol at any time by written notification to the Secretary- General of the United Nations, who shall thereafter inform the other States Parties to the Convention and all States that have signed the Convention. The denunciation shall take effect one year after the date of receipt of the notification by the Secretary-General. If, however, on the expiry of that year the denouncing State Party is engaged in armed conflict, the denunciation shall not take effect before the end of the armed conflict.

2. Such a denunciation shall not have the effect of releasing the State Party from its obligations under the present Protocol in regard to any act that occurs prior to the date on which the denunciation becomes effective. Nor shall such a denunciation prejudice in any way the continued consideration of any matter that is already under consideration by the Committee on the Rights of the Child prior to the date on which the denunciation becomes effective.
Article 12

1. Any State Party may propose an amendment and file it with the Secretary-General of the United Nations. The Secretary-General shall thereupon communicate the proposed amendment to States Parties with a request that they indicate whether they favour a conference of States Parties for the purpose of considering and voting upon the proposals. In the event that, within four months from the date of such communication, at least one third of the States Parties favour such a conference, the Secretary-General shall convene the conference under the auspices of the United Nations. Any amendment adopted by a majority of States Parties present and voting at the conference shall be submitted to the General Assembly of the United Nations for approval.

2. An amendment adopted in accordance with paragraph 1 of the present article shall enter into force when it has been approved by the General Assembly and accepted by a two-thirds majority of States Parties.

3. When an amendment enters into force, it shall be binding on those States Parties that have accepted it, other States Parties still being bound by the provisions of the present Protocol and any earlier amendments they have accepted.
Article 13

1. The present Protocol, of which the Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian and Spanish texts are equally authentic, shall be deposited in the archives of the United Nations.

2. The Secretary-General of the United Nations shall transmit certified copies of the present Protocol to all States Parties to the Convention and all States that have signed the Convention.

http://www2.ohchr.org/english/law/crc-conflict.htm

[struggle4progress]

3. Agreement Bars Using Children as Soldiers (NYT Jan 2000)

By STEVEN LEE MYERS
Published: January 22, 2000

Negotiators in Geneva agreed today on a new international accord prohibiting the use of child soldiers in war after the United States dropped its opposition to establishing 18 as the minimum age for sending soldiers into combat.

The Clinton administration, under pressure from the Pentagon, had insisted for months that any agreement allow the United States the option of sending volunteers as young as 17 into combat. The administration's opposition had threatened to block efforts to revise the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child to raise the minimum age for soldiers to 18 from 15.

But in internal discussion during the last two weeks, the Joint Chiefs of Staff dropped their opposition to a minimum of 18 and accepted a compromise that would allow the armed services to continue recruiting and training 17-year-olds as they do today, but take ''all feasible measures'' to keep them out of combat until they turn 18.

The American reversal cleared the way for negotiators from 50 countries to agree on new guidelines governing children in combat after a final round of negotiations in Geneva. The protocol agreement, which the United Nations General Assembly must approve before governments can begin to ratify it, would also prohibit the drafting of children younger than 18 and would require countries to raise the minimum age for volunteers above 15, the convention's current standard ...

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9B03EFDD113DF931A15752C0A9669C8B63&n=Top%2FReference%2FTimes%20Topics%2FSubjects%2FS%2FStandards%20and%20Standardization

[struggle4progress]

4. Statement by Ambassador E. Michael Southwick (jan 2000)

tatement by Ambassador E. Michael Southwick
United Nations Working Group on Child Soldiers Protocol
Final Session
January 21, 2000

Thank you, Madame Chair.

The United States is pleased to join consensus on this historic Protocol. We congratulate the Chair for her wise, graceful, understanding, and decisive leadership. We congratulate all delegations for showing the necessary political will to achieve agreement.

This Protocol represents a huge step forward in our common effort to deal effectively with the problem of child soldiers.

As we have stated on several occasions, the core issue for us has always been the forcible recruitment of very young children in local armed conflicts around the world, where they may be maimed, killed, exposed to drugs and alcohol, sexually abused, and brutalized in many ways. By addressing the practices of non-state actors, this agreement strikes at the heart of the problem of child soldiers.

The agreement also deals in a realistic -- and therefore effective way -- with the issue of minimum ages for conscription, voluntary recruitment, and participation in hostilities.

As for participation in hostilities, the Optional Protocol will require states parties to "take all feasible measures" to ensure that soldiers in national armed forced under the age of 18 "do not take a direct part in hostilities." The terms in Article 1, with their roots in international humanitarian law and the law of armed conflict, are clear, well understood, and contextually relevant. Indeed, we will take all the steps we feasibly can to ensure that under 18 year old service personnel do not take a direct part in hostilities. While the standard recognizes that in exceptional cases, it may not be feasible for a commander to withhold or remove such a person from taking a direct part in hostilities, we believe that this is an effective, sensible, and practical standard that will promote the object we all seek: protecting children and ensuring that this Protocol has the widest possible adherence and support.

In our view, the provisions in the Protocol promoting international cooperation and international assistance in the areas of rehabilitation and social reintegration of children who have been victimized by acts contrary to the Protocol, are particularly useful. The United States has contributed more than $20 million per year in recent years to programs for children affected by war. We will continue to put a high priority on such programs.

We are also extremely pleased with the strong provisions for reporting, compliance, and follow-up. This must not be just another agreement put on the shelf and forgotten. It is important that we all work together to ensure that the Protocol is faithfully implemented by all states parties.

With regard to the concerns expressed by France about allowing the United States to become a party to the protocol without being a party to the underlying convention, the United States understands that any State that ratifies the Protocol is bound to accept also the relevant principles of the articles of the Convention on the Rights of the Child that are cited in the Protocol.

We have stressed all along that this Protocol, to be effective and meaningful, must be one that is both widely ratifiable and widely implementable. I believe we have been successful in achieving that objective.

We look forward to working with all of our international partners in the years ahead to achieve our common objective: eliminating the abuses committed against children in armed conflict.

Thank you.

http://www.usmission.ch/press2000/0121child.html

[spencer1971]

5. LOL

Actually, it may have been unnecessary to discuss the status of child soldiers at all since Khadr has not been tried in a legitimate court of law. At this point, he is guilty of nothing. He is not not, therefore, a guerrilla fighter or a murderer or anything. That is merely an assumption your part based on scant information you may have heard in the largely discredited mainstream media. If you like pablum spoon fed to you, keep on gobbling provis99.

Khadr is, in fact, presumed innocent until proven guilty. I take it you don't subscribe to that fundamental notion of justice.

I hope you never need to rely on a justice system in which your trial is run by the military, your lawyer is from the military, the prosecution is form the military, and your jury is composed of officers from said military. How would you feel about your chances? Probably not so good eh?

How many times has the Bush administration had to rework these sham military tribunals trials in order to make them appear legal? And they still haven't succeeded. Every one of those prisoners has now been granted habeus corpus in US courts. Now the Bush administration is scrambling to prevent them from exercising it. Shameful. They want to deny them habeus corpus on the grounds that they are too dangerous to allow into America for trial. I'm sure I don't need to deconstruct that one for you. You just have to laugh at it.

Peace.

Spencer