ÀÏ°ÄÃÅ¿ª½±½á¹û

The United States is shirking its commitments under an international agreement and failing to protect the rights of vulnerable young people. In a report to the , the ÀÏ°ÄÃÅ¿ª½±½á¹û charges that the U.S. isn't upholding its obligations under the that it ratified in 2002.

For one thing, in this country the U.S. military is employing recruiting tactics that target youth under 17 and especially target low-income youth and students of color. While the U.S. entered a binding agreement under the protocol to raise the minimum age for recruitment to 17, recruiters still for recruitment purposes (the database has been improved slightly to protect student privacy after a lawsuit brought by the NYCLU but still collects information about 16-year-olds including race and ethnicity), students as young as 14 report , and the .

The U.S. also is failing to institute basic safeguards required by international law for recruitment of youth under 18. A forces schools to open their doors to military recruiters who , in violation of international law . And while international law requires that youths' recruitment be genuinely voluntary, exaggerated promises of financial rewards and coercion, deception, and other abusive recruitment practices undermine the so-called 'voluntariness' of recruitment.

The U.S. is also failing to protect the rights of foreign child soldiers. Alleged child soldiers such as are held at Guantanamo and U.S.-run prisons in Iraq and Afghanistan without any regard for their juvenile status. And former child soldiers seeking asylum in the U.S. because they can't safely return to their home countries - including those that were abducted and forced to fight in government armies and militias - are often .

The Committee on the Rights of the Child will review the ÀÏ°ÄÃÅ¿ª½±½á¹û report before questioning a U.S. government delegation on its compliance with protocol obligations May 22 in Geneva.