USA er kun et af tre lande i verden med en skræddersyet lovgivning, der kan straffe lande, hvor børnesoldater florerer, men præsident Obamas regering har indført en stribe undtagelser, der holder nogle af de værste misdædere udenfor loven.
JOHANNESBURG, 5 November 2012 (IRIN): The Child Soldier Prevention Act (CSPA) was a prime example of US bipartisan human rights legislation: sponsored by Democratic and Republican senators and signed into law in 2008 by Republican President George Bush, the law entered into force under the Democratic presidency of Barack Obama.
But even armed with this political consensus, the US consistently shies away from using the full spectrum of the law, citing national security interests.
Richard Clarke, director of London-based NGO Child Soldiers International, told IRIN the law, which calls for the withholding of military assistance and arms exports from governments that continue to use child soldiers, can provide “powerful leverage (indflydelse)”.
“However, for three consecutive years (år i rap) since the CSPA entered into force, the president issued waivers (undtagelser fra loven) based on US national interests. With these repeated waivers, the potential impact of the CSPA is seriously reduced, particularly if the waivers are perceived to be the rule rather than the exception,” he said.
Waivers (undtagelserne)
The September 2012 presidential memorandum said:
“It is in the national interest of the United States to waive the application of the [CSPA’s] prohibition … with respect to Libya, South Sudan and Yemen; and further determine that it is in the national interest of the United States to waive in part the application of the prohibition… with respect to the DR Congo, to allow for continued provision of International Military Education and Training funds and nonlethal Excess Defence Articles, and the issuance of licenses for direct commercial sales of US-origin defence articles.”
In 2010, Chad, DR Congo, and Yemen were also excluded from enforcement of the act. In 2011, these countries again escaped any action, as did South Sudan.
Adotei Akwei, Amnesty International’s US government relations managing director, said in an October 2012 briefing, “Ending the Use of Child Soldiers: One Step Forward”:
“The administration’s argument that South Sudan is not technically subject to the CSPA because they were not a country until after the law went into effect might meet a legal standard of credibility, but it does not do much for the children of South Sudan nor does seem [to] portray US leadership on this critical issue in a very positive light.”
The government is aware of these countries’ continued use of child soldiers.
The US State Department said in its 2012 “Trafficking in Persons (TIP) report” that the DR Congo’s national army (FARDC) continues to forcibly recruit children and “some army commanders actively blocked – with complete impunity (straffrihed) – efforts to monitor and remove children from their units, an obstruction that has persisted for nearly three years.”
According to the act, governments that recruit or use child soldiers in armed forces or government-supported militias are only eligible (berettiget) for assistance to address the issue of child soldiers if they professionalize their military.
Undermining the act
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http://www.irinnews.org/Report/96714/Analysis-Is-US-action-against-use-of-child-soldiers-on-the-backburner
