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The
Report was issued by 'The
Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers'. Based in London. The Coalition was founded by six international NGOs – Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, the International Save the Children Alliance, Jesuit Refugee Service, the Quaker United Nations Office - Geneva, and International Federation Terre des Hommes – and later joined by Defence for Children International, World Vision International, and regional NGOs from Latin America, Africa, Asia and the Pacific. It has also established partners and national coalitions which are engaged in advocacy, campaigns and public education in nearly 40 countries. The Coalition has established and maintained active links with UNICEF, the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement, UNESCO, UNHCR, UNHCHR and the Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict. Nigel Fisher, the Regional Director for South Asia of UNICEF has alleged that the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) had broken promises to end training, indoctrination and recruitment of child soldiers. In 1998, the LTTE pledged to UN Secretary General’s Special Representative on Children and Armed Conflict, Olara Otunnu not to use children below 18 years of age in combat and not to recruit children less than 17 years old. According to Global Report 2001, Olara Otunnu speaking of “his own experience in Sri Lanka” on how children had been drawn into armed conflict, called on concerned governments and other international organisations to use their collective weight and influence to deny political legitimacy, diplomatic recognition, and the supply of weapons or flow of funds for those responsible for committing atrocities and abuse against children. Otunnu had urged all states to ratify the Rome Status of the International Criminal Court and ensure their own courts could exercise “universal jurisdiction.”
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