Child Soldiers Prevention Legislation

Child Soldiers Prevention Act in 2013

United States views on international law [1] in relation to Child Soldiers Prevention Act: Consistent with the Child Soldiers Prevention Act of 2008 (“CSPA”), Title IV of Public Law 110-457, the State Department's 2013 Trafficking in Persons report listed the foreign governments that have violated the standards under the CSPA, i.e. governments of countries that have been “clearly identified” during the previous year as “having governmental armed forces or government-supported armed groups, including paramilitaries, militias, or civil defense forces, that recruit and use child soldiers,” as defined in the CSPA. Those so identified in the 2013 report are the governments of Burma, Central African Republic, Chad, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Rwanda, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, Syria, and Yemen. The full text of the TIP report is available at (Secretary of State website) state.gov/j/tip/rls/tiprpt/2013/index.htm. For additional discussion of the TIP report and related issues, see Chapter 3.B.3. Absent further action by the President, the foreign governments designated in accordance with the CSPA are subject to restrictions applicable to certain security assistance and licenses for direct commercial sales of military equipment. In a memorandum for the U.S. Secretary of State dated September 30, 2013, President Obama determined, “that it is in the national interest of the United States to waive the application of the prohibition in section 404(a) of the CSPA with respect to Chad, South Sudan, and Yemen,” and that, with respect to the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Somalia it is in the national interest that the prohibition should be waived in part. 78 Fed. Reg. 63,367 (Oct. 23, 2013).

Resources

Notes

1. Child Soldiers Prevention Act in the Digest of United States Practice in International Law