UN Human Rights Treaties

UNITED NATIONS ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COUNCIL Distr. GENERAL E/CN.4/NGO/265 1 February 1980 Original: ENGLISH COMMISSION ON HUMAN RIGHTS Thirty-sixth session Item 13 of the provisional agenda QUESTION OF A CONVENTION ON THE RIGHTS OF THE CHILD Written statement submitted by the Friends World Committee for Consultation, a non-governmental organization in category II consultative status The Secretary-General has received the following communication which is circulated in accordance with Economic and Social Council resolution 1296 (XLIV): [29 January 198O] The Friends World Committee for Consultation at its last triennial meeting in Switzerland considered and endorsed the following resolution of the Switzerland Yearly Meeting of Friends: In this International Year of the Child, we wish to go on record against the practices of training children to kill and maim other human beings. We regret that the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of the Child offers no protection even against the use of children in open fighting. We encourage the United Nations and the international organizations to press for measures against the participation of children in military training and action. We believe that it would be valuable for the Convention on the Rights of the Child, now under discussion by the United Nations Commission on Human Rights, to include a provision comparable to the provision set forth in the protocols adopted by the International Diplomatic Conference on Humanitarian Law in 1977: "(The Parties to the conflict) shall take all feasible measures in order that children who have not attained the age of 15 years do not take a direct part in hostilities and, in particular they shall refrain from recruiting them into their armed forces." GE.80-10356