The Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the involvement of children in armed conflict was adopted and opened for signature, ratification and accession by the UN General Assembly in resolution 54/263, in New York on 25 May 2000, at the 97th plenary meeting. It is not the 1989 Convention, which it supplements, and it is not the other optional protocol annexed to the same resolution, on the sale of children. Depositary: the Secretary-General. Authentic texts: Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian and Spanish. Physical signature began at later Assembly sessions, from June.

The preamble reaffirms special protection for children, condemns the targeting of children in conflict and attacks on protected places, recalls the Rome Statute and ILO Convention No. 182, and seeks to raise the age of recruitment and of participation in hostilities, with the best interests of the child as a primary consideration. Article 1: states parties shall take all feasible measures to ensure that members of their armed forces who have not attained the age of 18 years do not take a direct part in hostilities. Article 2: persons under 18 shall not be compulsorily recruited into the armed forces.

Article 3 raises the minimum age for voluntary recruitment above article 38, paragraph 3, of the Convention; upon ratification each state deposits a binding declaration stating the minimum age it will permit and the safeguards that such recruitment is not forced. Schools operated by or under the control of the armed forces remain, at framework level, outside that age-raising requirement, in keeping with the Convention's education articles. An enlistment regulation is not set out here. Article 4: armed groups distinct from the armed forces of a state should not, under any circumstances, recruit or use in hostilities persons under 18; states take all feasible measures to prevent such practices, including criminalization. The article does not affect the legal status of any party to an armed conflict.

Article 5 preserves more favourable domestic or international standards. Article 6: measures of implementation, dissemination of the protocol and, at the level of principle, demobilization or release of persons recruited or used contrary to the protocol, with assistance for recovery and reintegration. Article 7: cooperation, including technical and financial assistance. Article 8: a comprehensive report to the Committee on the Rights of the Child within two years of entry into force for that state, then periodic information.

Article 9: open for signature by any state that is a party to the Convention or has signed it; ratification and accession, deposited with the Secretary-General. Article 10: entry into force three months after the tenth instrument; for later states, one month after their own instrument. It entered into force on 12 February 2002. Article 11: denunciation effective after one year, postponed if the denouncing state is engaged in armed conflict. Article 12: amendments through a conference and General Assembly approval. A demobilization or recruitment handbook is not transcribed.

Cover: United Nations Headquarters in New York, place of adoption; no photographs of children. Wikimedia Commons, free licence.

Sources consulted: Optional Protocol on the Involvement of Children in Armed Conflict; Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the involvement of children in armed conflict (UN Treaty Collection).