Statement made on 10 February 2011 by Senator Roméo Dallaire
Hon. Roméo Antonius Dallaire:
Honourable senators, I would like to draw your attention to an extremely disgraceful side of humanity.
Honourable senators, I rise today to inform the chamber that February 12, this Saturday, is the International Day against the Use of Child Soldiers. It commemorates the day on which the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the involvement of children in armed conflict entered into force as international law. Canada ratified the optional protocol in 2000 and has been joined, to date, by 138 other countries in a commitment to protect children from armed conflict and its impact. Canada has not, however, put that into legislation.
Today we recognize the hundreds of thousands of children, of whom 40 per cent are girls, who have been killed, maimed, raped, drugged and otherwise abused, and forced to do the same to their families and communities while under the direction of adult combatants.
Soldiering is not a noble career option for nine-year-olds, barely taller than the gun she or he can even carry. This day exists for a reason. The task is not yet complete. Children continue to be recruited and used as soldiers. They continue to be exploited by adults, despite the prohibition that exists in international law.
Currently, Côte d'Ivoire is recruiting former child soldiers from Sierra Leone and Liberia to sustain that friction and potential catastrophe-in-the-making. They continue to be used despite the obligation of governments to protect children from involvement in and the effects of armed conflict.
Honourable senators, we know that children do not save their weekly allowance to pay for flights to far-off places to fight wars. Generally speaking, children do not save their earnings, made at their part-time jobs after school, to buy AK-47s. The funding still comes primarily from blood diamonds and Canada's weak support of the Kimberley Process is not abating that source.
If you buy a diamond, I must insist that you buy a Canadian diamond.
Some Hon. Senators: Hear, hear!
Senator Dallaire: They are clean. They are ethical. They are like the oil exercise that is being used in this country.
Children do not start wars. They are intentionally used as weapons of wars. Their involvement in armed conflict is not their violation against international law. The violation has been committed against them by adults.
[Translation]
There was a time when Canada was on the forefront of developing an international framework to protect children's rights. But we have regressed and for too long we have even abandoned one of our own, despite the international laws to which Canada subscribes. A former Canadian child soldier continues to languish at Guantanamo Bay. On this important day, we have the duty to humbly acknowledge Canada's position on the world stage and to make good on the commitment we have made to children.
The use of child soldiers is a crime against humanity. Adults hire, recruit and abuse child soldiers. Blood diamonds sustain these crimes. Buy Canadian diamonds.