Submission to the Committee on the Rights of the Child on the United States

(HRW) – This submission focuses on the provision by the United States of military assistance to governments recruiting or using children as soldiers despite restrictions on such assistance under the US Child Soldiers Prevention Act of 2008. The Child Soldiers Prevention Act prohibits several categories of US military assistance to governments that recruit or use child soldiers, or support militias or paramilitaries that use child soldiers, unless the president issues a waiver. According to the Stimson Center, a nongovernmental policy institute, since the law was enacted in 2010, the president has used his authority to grant waivers to affected countries in nearly 60 percent of all cases, and allowed 95 percent of the military assistance otherwise prohibited by the law—more than US$1.2 billion—to go through.

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