News // Nicolas Cage Donates $2 Million to Help End Suffering of Child Soldiers

photo:amnesty internationale

 

Nicolas Cage Donates $2 Million to Help End Suffering of Child Soldiers
Amnesty International Will Administer Funds for On-the-ground Efforts to Rehabilitate Young Combatants

(New York) — Amnesty International USA announced today that actor and filmmaker Nicolas Cage is donating $2 million to establish a fund to help former child soldiers, which will include support for rehabilitation shelters, medical services and psychological and reintegration services, and to support Amnesty International’s work on child soldiers. Amnesty International, a member of the Coalition Against the Use of Child Soldiers, will administer the funds to service providers on the ground. Amnesty International, Oxfam and International Action Network on Small Arms are focusing on encouraging the United States to lead efforts to establish strict guidelines on the international transfer of small arms and light weapons.

News / Movement to stop military use of children

Red Hand Day on 12 February is an annual commemoration day to draw public attention to the practice of using children as soldiers in wars and armed conflicts.
Recently, a strong international movement has emerged to put an end to the practice. See, for example, Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers.

The Coalition’s goal is to promote the adoption and adherence to national, regional and international legal standards (including the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the involvement of children in armed conflict) prohibiting the military recruitment and use in hostilities of any person younger than eighteen years of age; and the recognition and enforcement of this standard by all armed groups, both governmental and non-governmental.

The Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers was formed in May 1998 by leading international human rights and humanitarian organizations. It has regional and national networks in Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin America and the Middle East. The International Coalition has its headquarters in London.

News

2007 State Department Human Rights Reports on the Use of Child Soldiers

April 2, 2008

On March 11, 2008, the U.S. State Department released its annual Country Reports on Human Rights Practices. The 196 reports detail information on the “nature and extent of the compulsory recruitment and conscription of individuals under the age of 18” by all armed groups in every country, and the steps that have been taken by the governments of the respective countries to eliminate such practices. CDI provides these excerpts as well as an analysis of the reports and the findings.