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Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child concerning involvement of children in armed conflicts

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 November 2010

International Committee of the Red Cross
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International Committee of the Red Cross
Information
International Review of the Red Cross (1961 - 1997) , Volume 38 , Issue 322 , March 1998 , pp. 107 - 125
Copyright
Copyright © International Committee of the Red Cross 1998

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References

7 The Movement comprises all the National Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, the ICRC and the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies.

8 Official Records of the Diplomatic Conference on the Reaffirmation and Development of International Humanitarian Law applicable in Armed Conflicts, Geneva, 1974–1977, Federal Political Department, Bern, 1978 (hereinafter “O. R.”), III, p. 301.Google Scholar

9 See Sandoz, Y., Swinarski, C., Zimmermann, B. (eds), Commentary on the Additional Protocols of 8 June 1977 to the Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949 (hereinafter “Commentary on the Additional Protocols”), ICRC, Geneva, 1986, p. 1377.Google Scholar

10 See below: II. A. a.

11 Report of the Human Rights Committee of 9 October 1992. UN doc. A/47/40, para. 13.

12 UN doc. E/CN.4/1995/100, para. 28(a) of the Recommendations.

13 European Treaty Series, ETS No. 160. See Article I. para. 1.

14 OAU document CAB/LEG/24.9/49 (1990), Article 2.

15 International Review of the Red Cross (IRRC), No. 310, January-February 1996, pp. 63–64.

16 Ibid., pp. 146–147. The Council of Delegates comprises representatives of the National Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, the ICRC and the International Federation.

17 See tables in Goodwin-Gill, G., Cohn, I., Child soldiers: The role of children in armed conflicts. Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1994, pp. 186–208 Google Scholar ; Brett, R., McCallin, M., Children: The invisible soldiers, Rädda Barnen (Swedish Save the Children), Stockholm, 1996, pp. 53–64.Google Scholar

18 For further information on the protection of child soldiers in international humanitarian law, see Dutli, M. T., “Captured child combatants”, IRRC, No. 278, September-October 1990, pp. 421–434.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

19 Commentary on the Additional Protocols, p. 1378.

20 Article 3 common to the Geneva Conventions.

21 Part III of Protocol II.

22 Article 6, para. 4, of Protocol II.

23 See above: I. A. b.

24 Examples of these physical and psychological traumas may be found in the following works: Goodwin-Gill/Cohn, op. cit. (note 11), pp. 105–112; Thulin, K. Hedlund (ed.), Children in armed conflict: Background document to the Plan of Action concerning children in armed conflict, Henry Dunant Institute, Geneva, 1995, pp. 35–41 Google Scholar ; UN doc. A/51/306: The impact of armed conflict on children: Report of the Expert of the Secretary-General, Ms Graça Machel (hereinafter “Machel report”), paras 162–165; Brett/McCallin, op. cit. (note 11), pp. 171–181; Human Rights Watch/Africa, Human Rights Watch Children's Rights Project, Easy prey: Child soldiers in Liberia, Human Rights Watch, New York/Washington/Los Angeles/London/Brussels, 1994, pp. 35–38.

25 See, for example, Easy prey: Child soldiers in Liberia, op. cit. (note 18). pp. 31–33.

26 Article 77, para. 2, of Protocol I and Article 4, para. 3(c), of Protocol II.

27 O. R. XV, pp. 63–75, CDDH/III/SR.45.

28 UN doc. E/CN.4/1988/28, paras 72–74.

29 UN doc. E/CN.4/1989/48, paras 611–616.

30 Krill, F., “United Nations Convention on the rights of the child: A controversial article on children in armed conflicts”, Dissemination, No. 12, August 1989, pp. 11–12 Google Scholar ; M.-T. Dutli, op. cit. (note 12), p. 426; Krill, F., “The protection of children in armed conflicts”, in Freeman, M., Veerman, P. (eds.), The ideologies of children's rights, Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, Dordrecht, 1992, p. 353.Google Scholar

31 Articles 43, para. 2, and 51, para. 3, of Protocol I.

32 Commentary on the Additional Protocols, pp. 516 and 619.

33 Commentary on the Additional Protocols, p. 619. The war effort has been defined as “all national activities which by their nature or purpose would contribute to the military defeat of the adversary” (O. R. XIV, p. 14, CDDH/III/SR.2, para. 8).

34 Commentary on the Additional Protocols, p. 901.

35 Conference of Government Experts on the Reaffirmation and Development of International Humanitarian Law Applicable in Armed Conflicts, Report on the work of the Conference, Vol. I, ICRC, Geneva, 1972, p. 143.Google Scholar

36 For example, see Article 3 common to the 1949 Geneva Conventions, Articles 43, para. 2, 45, 47, para. 2, 51, para. 3, 67, para. 1, and 77, paras 2 and 3, of Protocol I and Articles 4, para. 3, and 13, para. 3, of Protocol II.

37 Haug, H., Humanity for all: The International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement, Henry Dunant Institute, Geneva/Paul Haupt, Bern, 1993, pp. 510–511.Google Scholar

38 Pictet, J.S. (general editor), Commentary on the Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War (hereinafter “Commentary on the Fourth Geneva Convention”), ICRC, Geneva, 1956, pp. 20–21.Google Scholar

39 Commentary on the Fourth Geneva Convention, p. 20.

40 Schindler, D., “The different types of armed conflicts according to the Geneva Conventions and Protocols”, Recueil des cours de l'Académie de droit international, 1979. Vol. 163, p. 131.Google Scholar

41 Commentary on the Fourth Geneva Convention, pp. 35–36.

42 Ibid., p. 36.

43 Commentary on the Additional Protocols, pp. 1351–1353.

44 O. R. XIV, p. 14, CDDH/III/SR.2, para. 8.

45 O. R. XV, p. 330, CDDH/III/224.

46 Article 45 of Protocol I.

47 Commentary on the Additional Protocols, pp. 618–619.

48 Commentary on the Fourth Geneva Convention, pp. 514–515.

49 “Recruitment” should be understood as encompassing not only formal recruitment but also any de facto recruitment involving no formalities. The relevant point is that the child is physically integrated into the armed forces or an armed group.

50 O. R. XV, p. 465, CDDH/407/Rev. 1, para. 61.

51 O.R. I, Part Three, p. 22.

52 See M.-T. Dutli, op. cit. (note 12), pp. 423–424, and Commentary on the Additional Protocols, p. 901.

53 See, for example, Thulin, K. Hedlund, “Child soldiers: The role of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement”, in Humanitäres Völkerrecht, No. 3, 1992, p. 143 Google Scholar ; Machel report, op. cit. (note 18), paras 38–43; Brett/McCallin, op. cit. (note 111), pp. 91–102.

54 Pictet, J.S. (general editor), Commentary on the Geneva Convention for the Amelioration of the Condition of the Wounded and Sick in Armed Forces in the Field, ICRC, Geneva, 1952, p. 25 Google Scholar ; see also Article 60, para. 5, of the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties of 23 May 1969, United Nations Treaty Series, Vol. 1155, p. 331.

55 The term “party” should be understood within the meaning of Article 2, para. 1(g) of the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties, namely as “a State which has consented to be bound by the treaty and for which the treaty is in force”.

56 Article 2 common to the Geneva Conventions, Article 4A, paras 1–3, of the Third Convention, Article 43, paras 1 and 3, of Protocol I.

57 Articles 1, para. 4, and 96, para. 3, of Protocol I.

58 Ipsen, K., “Kombattanten und Kriegsgefangene”, in Schöttler, H., Hoffmann, B. (eds), Die Genfer Zusatzprotokolle: Kommentare und Analysen, Osang Verlag, Bonn, 1993, p. 156.Google Scholar

59 Commentary on the Additional Protocols, pp. 1349–1350.

60 Article 1, para. 1, of Protocol II. The term “armed forces of a High Contracting Party” should be deemed to mean “all the armed forces — including those which under some national systems might not be called regular forces — constituted in accordance with national legislation” (O. R. X, p. 94, CDDH/I/238/Rev. 1).

61 See above: IV.

62 Article 1, para. 1, of Protocol II.

63 For further details of these criteria, see Commentary on the Additional Protocols, pp. 1351–1353.

64 Article 3, para. 2, common to the Geneva Conventions.

65 Article 4 of Protocol I. This provision is not expressly restated in Protocol II, but it is implied, inasmuch as Article 1 specifies: “This Protocol, which develops and supplements Article 3 common to the Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949 without modifying its existing conditions of application…”.

66 UN doc. E/CN.4/1997/96, para. 45.

67 Examples may be found in the Machel report, loc. cit. (note 18), para. 61.