(HRW) – US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson should return Burma and Iraq to the US list of governments using child soldiers, Human Rights Watch said today. Reuters reported that Tillerson overruled State Department officials and senior US diplomats in ordering the two countries to be removed from the list, which will be announced on June 27, 2017. The United Nations and nongovernmental organizations, including Human Rights Watch, have continued to report on the use of children by regular or militia forces in Burma and Iraq. The UN documented child recruitment by Burma’s armed forces in 2016, and just last week the Burmese army released dozens of child soldiers. Human Rights Watch has documented child recruitment by militias linked to Iraq’s government. In March, a State Department report said that at least a dozen children fighting with government-affiliated militia in Iraq had been killed in combat in 2016.
US: Return Burma, Iraq to Child Soldier List
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