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Only Somalia and the United States have yet to ratify the United Nations' optional protocols designed to protect children from war and sexual abuse. President Clinton signed these agreements last week. "Every day tens of millions of children work in conditions that shock the conscience," Clinton told United Nations members. "Every day, thousands of children are killed and brutalized in fighting wars that adults decided they should fight in. Every day around the world and even here in the United States, children are sold into virtual slavery or traffic for the worst forms of sexual abuse." The documents signed by Clinton are optional additions to the 1989 Convention on the Rights of the Child and may be signed by any country that has ratified or signed the 1989 treaty. Since the approval of the optional protocols on May 25, all but two countries, the United States and Somalia, have ratified. It remains to be seen whether the United States Congress will ratify these additions. The deputy United Nations secretary-general, Canadian Louise Frechette, showed some doubt as to whether Congress would accept the new treaty agreements. States that join must ensure that no minors,
people under the age of 18, engage in combat or are recruited by force.
Also, states are required to take action to prohibit the sale of children,
child pornography and prostitution. Other offenses under the protocols
include transferring the organs of a child for profit and engaging a child
in forced labor of any kind RELATED LINKS:
Society
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