(Human Rights Watch) – US President Barack Obama announced yesterday that he will allow several governments that recruit and use child soldiers to continue receiving US military assistance – aid that is supposedly subject to child soldier-related restrictions. The decision wasn’t unexpected. After all, it’s what he has done during his entire two terms in office. Soon after Obama became president in 2009, the Child Soldiers Prevention Act took effect. It prohibits certain forms of US military aid for governments implicated in child soldier use and was meant to send a powerful message: if you want this military aid, you can’t use child soldiers.
