Friday, September 28, 2007
Bill - Hon. Romnick Lacsamana Calaylay
Republic of the Philippines
YOUTH CONGRESS
Baguio City
Introduced by Hon. Romnick Lacsamana Calaylay
EXPLANATORY NOTE
The military use of children takes three distinct forms: children can take direct part in hostilities (child soldiers), or they can be used in support roles such as porters, spies, messengers, look outs, and sexual slaves; or they can be used for political advantage either as human shields or in propaganda.
Throughout history and in many cultures, children have been extensively involved in military campaigns even when such practices were supposedly against cultural morals. Since the 1970s a number of international conventions have come into effect that try to limit the participation of children in armed conflicts, nevertheless the Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers reports that the use of children in military forces, and the active participation of children in in armed conflicts armed conflicts is widespread.
The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, Art. 38, (1989) proclaimed: "State parties shall take all feasible measures to ensure that persons who have not attained the age of 15 years do not take a direct part in hostilities." The Optional protocol on the involvement of children in armed conflict to the Convention that came into force in 2002 stipulates that its State Parties "shall take all feasible measures to ensure that persons below the age of 18 do not take a direct part in hostilities and that they are not compulsorily recruited into their armed forces". The Optional Protocol further obligates states to "take all feasible measures to prevent such recruitment and use, including the adoption of legal measures necessary to prohibit and criminalize such practices." (Art 4, Optional Protocol) Likewise under the Optional Protocol states are required to demobilize children within their jurisdiction who have been recruited or used in hostilities, and to provide assistance for their physical and psychological recovery and social reintegration. (Art 6(3) Optional Protocol)
Under Article 8.2.26 of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC), adopted in July 1998 and entered into force 1 July 2002, "Conscripting or enlisting children under the age of fifteen years into the national armed forces or using them to participate actively in hostilities" is a war crime.
Hence, this bill seeks to combat the crime of military using the children and to protect the rights of children by providing them humanitarian and legal assistance.
ROMNICK LACSAMANA CALAYLAY
Representative
FOURTEENTH CONGRESS OF THE
YOUTH CONGRESS
Baguio City
Introduced by Hon. Romnick Lacsamana Calaylay
AN ACT
TO STOP THE USE OF CHILD SOLDIERS IN FIGHTING AROUND THE WORLD AND FOR OTHER PURPOSES.
Be it enacted by the house of Representative of the Philippines in Congress assembled.
SECTION 1. Short Title – This act shall be known as “ Child Soldier
Prevention.”
SECTION 2. Findings –
The author 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 1 and Armed Conflict, `In the last decade, two million children have been killed in situations of 11armed conflict, while six million children have been permanently
disabled or injured. Over 12250,000 children continue to be exploited as child
soldiers and tens of thousands of girls 13are being subjected to rape and other forms of sexual violence.’
(2) According to the Center for Emerging Threats and Opportunities
(CETO), Marine Corps War fighting 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 private army 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 private army commanders, and severe social stigma should they return home.
(6) Some military and private army 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 the year 2002, the Philippine Congress unanimously approved
the resolution advising and consenting to the ratification of the Optional
Protocol.
(10) More than 110 governments worldwide have ratified the optional
protocol, establishing a clear international norm concerning the use of children in combat.
(11) It is in the national security interest of the Republic of the
Philippines to reduce the chances that members of the Armed Forces of the
Philippines will be forced to encounter children in combat situations.
SECTION 3. Definition of Child Soldier –
In this Act 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.
SECTION 4. Role 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 Philippine 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 Philippine 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 inductees to resume normal lives in their communities; and
(C) providing educational and vocational assistance;
(4) that the Philippine Government should work with the international
community, including, where appropriate, nongovernmental organizations,
faith-based organizations, United Nations agencies, local governments, labor
unions, and private enterprise--
(A) 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 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, Philippines
diplomatic missions should include in their mission program plans a strategy to achieve the goals specified in such paragraph;
(6) that Philippines 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 Philippine
Government, Philippines diplomatic missions should give particular
consideration to those programs and candidates deemed to promote the end to this abuse of human rights.
SECTION 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, Export Financing, 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 the Philippines 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, private army, or civil defense forces, that recruit or use child
soldiers.
(b) Notification to Countries in Violation of the Standards of This Act- The local government shall formally notify any government units 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 Philippine Government.
(2) Publication and Notification- The President shall publish each
waiver granted under paragraph (1) and shall notify the Committee on Foreign Relations, 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.
SECTION 6. Reports –
(A) Preparation of Reports Regarding Child Soldiers- United States missions
abroad shall thoroughly investigate reports of the use of child soldiers.
(B) Committee on Human Rights shall pass an Annual Reports.
(C) Information for Annual Human Rights Reports - in preparing those
portions of the Human Rights Reports that relate to child soldiers, the committee on human rights 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.
(A)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.
SECTION 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 a report setting forth a strategy for achieving the policy objectives
of this Act, including a description of an effective mechanism for coordination of
Philippine Government efforts to implement this strategy.
SECTION 8. Effectivity Clause – 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.
Approved,Labels: family
0 comments --click to comment or view comments
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------