HYDERABAD, Feb 21: The secretary general, Amnesty International Pakistan, Iqbal Ahmed Detho, in a communication addressed to President Gen Pervez Musharraf, has expressed the hope that his government would ratify the optional protocol for setting the minimum age of 18 years for all forms of military recruitment.

He said that Feb 12, 2002, had marked an important milestone in the international efforts to stop the recruitment of children as soldiers.

He said that the optional protocol on the involvement of children in armed conflicts prohibits the use of children under 18 in hostilities.

Mr Detho said that the treaty was strong expression of the international consensus against the use of children as soldiers which had been signed by 94 states and ratified by 14.

The optional protocol build upon other international standards including the African charter on the rights and welfare of the child which ban all forms of military recruitment under the age of 18, the international labour organization’s convention 182 which prohibits forced or compulsory recruitment of children under 18 for use in hostilities and the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court which defines the recruitment and use as soldiers of children under 15 as a war crime.—Bureau