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1 1 (March 25, 2020)

handle is hein.crs/govcmyq0001 and id is 1 raw text is: 01;0~~'. Fee r~ Updated March 25, 2020 Child Soldiers Prevention Act of 2008: Security Assistance Restrictions The recruitment and use of children in armed conflict is broadly viewed as a human rights problem, a form of trafficking in persons, among the worst forms of child labor, and a war crime. The United Nations (U.N.) has identified the recruitment and use of child soldiers as among six grave violations affecting children in war and has established numerous monitoring and reporting mechanisms and initiatives to combat this practice. The U.N. Office of the Special Representative of the Secretary- General for Children and Armed Conflict affirmatively verified over 7,000 children as having been recruited and used as soldiers in 2018 alone; the total number of children serving as soldiers around the world is believed to be significantly higher. U.S. efforts to eradicate this phenomenon internationally are guided largely by the Child Soldiers Prevention Act of 2008 (CSPA, Title IV of P.L. 110-457), which defines the tern child soldier under U.S. law and restricts certain security assistance to countries that recruit or use child soldiers, among other provisions. The recruitment or use of persons under age 15 as soldiers is prohibited by both the U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) and the Additional Protocols to the Geneva Conventions, and is considered a war crime under the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court. In addition, the Optional Protocol to the CRC on the involvement of children in armed conflict further prohibits persons under age 18 from being compulsorily recruited into state or nonstate armed forces or directly engaging in hostilities (while permitting voluntary recruitment of persons at least 15 years old). The United States is a party to the Optional Protocol. Congress, through the CSPA, has defined child soldiers in a manner consistent with the Optional Protocol. Under the CSPA, the term child soldier refers to persons under age 18 who * take direct part in hostilities as a member of governmental armed forces, police, or other security forces; or * are compulsorily recruited into governmental armed forces, police, or other security forces (or are under 15 years old and are voluntarily recruited), including in noncombat roles; or * are recruited or used in hostilities by nonstate armed forces, including in noncombat roles. 2019 Amendments to the CSPA The Child Soldier Prevention Act of 2018 (Subtitle B of P.L. I 15-425), which became law in January 2019, strengthened some of the CSPA's provisions. Significant changes included ensuring that countries whose police or other security forces recruit and use children are among those potentially subject to security assistance restrictions; requiring that the President certify that countries receiving national interest waivers for security assistance restrictions are taking steps to address the problem of child soldiers; and requiring that the State Department publicly report on justifications for waivers and exceptions to security assistance restrictions. CSPA aims to combat the recruitment or use of children as soldiers by publicly identifying countries that recruit or use child soldiers and restricting certain types of U.S. security assistance to these countries. In particular, the law requires that the Secretary of State publish annually a list of countries within which governmental armed forces, police, or other security forces, or government-supported armed groups, including paramilitaries, militias, or civil defense forces, recruited or used child soldiers during the previous year. Pursuant to CSPA, the State Department, since 2010, has published a list of countries within the annual State Department Trafficking in Persons Report (TIP Report). The following types of security assistance are prohibited for countries designated pursuant to the CSPA (subject to exceptions and waivers, discussed below): * licenses for direct commercial sales (DCS) of military equipment; * foreign military financing (FMF) for the purchase of defense articles and services, as well as design and construction services; * international military education and training (IMET); * excess defense articles (EDA); and * peacekeeping operations (PKO). Department of Defense (DOD) train and equip authority for building the capacity of foreign defense forces, codified at 10 U.S.C. 333, may also be subject to prohibition for CSPA-listed countries. This authority is restricted where such security cooperation is otherwise prohibited by any provision of law. Presidential waiver determinations have also referenced the authority as being potentially restricted by the CSPA. Other forms of U.S. security assistance (not listed above) to CSPA-listed countries may continue to be gognpo 'popmm- , g-o g , q 'M M X 11LULANJILiM,

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