CETO To Hold Seminar On Child Soldiers And Implications For U.S. Forces

6/4/2002

From: Erin O'Connell of the Center for Emerging Threats and Opportunities, 703-784-0437

News Advisory:

Examining ways that U.S. forces can deal with the phenomenon of child soldiers is the aim of an upcoming seminar on June 11. The Center for Emerging Threats and Opportunities (CETO) is sponsoring the seminar being held at Liversedge Hall, Marine Corps Base, Quantico, Va. from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.

The phenomenon of child soldiers affects every theater where Marines and soldiers may deploy. As many as seventy-five percent of conflicts worldwide may involve children engaged in the roles of soldiers. In January 2002, U.S. Army Special Forces Sergeant Nathan Chapman, the first American serviceman killed by hostile fire in Afghanistan, reportedly was killed by a 14-year old boy. Child soldiers are fighting and dying every day in Colombia, Chechnya, the Middle East, Africa and Sri Lanka, and in other conflicts throughout the world.

CETO's seminar will examine the exploitation of children as soldiers. Panelists will discuss ways that Marines and soldiers can better plan and deal with the child soldier phenomenon, so neither children nor U.S. forces are killed unnecessarily. The seminar also will address the optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the involvement of children in armed conflict.

Panelists include:

-- Kati Marton, Chief Advocate, Children and Armed Conflict, United Nations -- Ishmael Beah, former child soldier -- Ian Levine, Chief of Humanitarian Policy Development and Advocacy, UNICEF -- Jo Becker, Children's Rights Division, Human Rights Watch -- Peter Singer, John M. Olin Post-Doctoral Fellow, Foreign Policy Studies, Brookings Institution -- Major Jim Gray, Royal Marine Staff Officer on the British Naval Staff, Embassy of the U.K.

RSVP: Media interested in attending the seminar should contact Erin O'Connell, CETO Communications Director, at 703-784-0437 or oconnelle@mcwl.quantico.usmc.mil.

------ CETO is a partnership between the U.S. Marine Corps and the Potomac Institute for Policy Studies dedicated to identifying, examining, and determining solutions to emerging national security threats. The center conducts research and provides solutions to issues of concern to the Marine Corps operating forces. For more information about the event and CETO, see www.ceto.quantico.usmc.mil.