IV
105TH CONGRESS
2D SESSION
H. CON. RES. 309
Condemning the forced abduction of Ugandan children and their use as
soldiers.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
JULY 24, 1998
Mr. PAYNE (for himself, Mr. BERMAN, Mr. GILMAN, Mr. SMITH of New Jer-
sey, Mr. MENENDEZ, Mr. LANTOS, and Mr. HASTINGS of Florida) sub-
mitted the following concurrent resolution; which was referred to the
Committee on International Relations
CONCURRENT RESOLUTION
Condemning the forced abduction of Ugandan children and
their use as soldiers.
Whereas the rebel Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) has ab-
ducted approximately 10,000 children, some as young as
8 years old, in northern Uganda to support its efforts to
overthrow the Government of Uganda;
Whereas the United Nations Commission on Human Rights
in March 1998 condemned ‘‘in the strongest terms’’ the
LRA’s child abductions;
Whereas children kidnapped by the LRA are forced to raid
and loot villages, fight in the front lines against the
Ugandan army, serve as sexual slaves to rebel command-
•HCON 309 IH
ers, and help kill other abducted children who try to es-
cape;
Whereas the LRA, led by Joseph Kony, has continued to kill,
torture, maim, rape, and abduct large numbers of civil-
ians, virtually enslaving numerous children;
Whereas LRA child abductees serve as surrogates for Suda-
nese government forces against the south;
Whereas Sudanese government soldiers deliver food supplies,
vehicles, ammunition, and arms to LRA base camps in
government-controlled southern Sudan;
Whereas children who manage to escape from LRA captivity
find their families displaced or deceased and have little
access to rehabilitation programs, and in many instances
their families are afraid for their children turned toy sol-
diers to return home;
Whereas children are conscripted, coaxed, or tricked into vol-
unteering for the armed forces and are sometimes sold to
armies and armed groups by impoverished families;
Whereas the United Nations has established, through the Op-
tional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the
Child, 18 as the minimum age for recruitment and par-
ticipation of individuals in armed forces; and
Whereas the International Committee of the Red Cross, the
United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the United
Nations High Commission on Refugees, and the United
Nations High Commissioner on Human Rights, as well
as many nongovernmental organizations such as Amnesty
International and Human Rights Watch, also support the
establishment of 18 as the minimum age for military re-
cruitment and participation in armed conflict: Now,
therefore, be it
•HCON 309 IH
Resolved, That the House of Representatives—
(1) condemns the abduction of children by the
Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) in northern Uganda
and calls for the immediate release of all LRA child
captives;
(2) urges Olara Otunnu, the recently appointed
United Nations Special Representative on Children
and Armed Conflict, to take appropriate measures to
resolve the LRA problem;
(3) encourages the United Nations Committee
on the Rights of the Child to investigate the situa-
tion in northern Uganda;
(4) calls on the Al-Bashir government to cease
supporting the LRA in the abductions and kidnap-
ping of children in Northern Uganda;
(5) calls on the President and the Secretary of
State to support efforts to end the abduction of chil-
dren by the LRA and obtain their release;
(6) asks the President to provide more support
to United Nations agencies and nongovernmental or-
ganizations working to rehabilitate former child sol-
diers and reintegrate them into society; and
(7) encourages the President to appoint a Spe-
cial Humanitarian Envoy for Sudan.
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