UN SG supports straight 18 protocol.
Nordic states follow international trend - issue declaration against child soldiers.
The UN Secretary-General applauds recent efforts to end the use of child soldiers and urges the international community to support the proposal to raise the minimum age for recruitment and deployment to 18 years in an Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child. Such initiatives comprise the International Labour Organization Convention No. 182 on the Prohibition and Immediate Action for the Elimination of the Worst Forms of Child Labour which prohibits forced or compulsory labour, including the forced or compulsory recruitment of children under the age of 18 for use in armed conflict. It also comprise the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court in which conscripting or enlisting children under the age of fifteen into national armed forces or using them to participate actively in hostilities is characterized as a war crime. Recent efforts to stop the use of children as soldiers include the UN Secretary-General report to the Security Council on the Protection of Civilians in Armed Conflict on September 8 1999. I demand that non-state actors involved in conflict not use children below the age of 18 in hostilities, or face the imposition of targeted sanctions if they do not comply .