Child soldiers and noncompliance of international human rights law

This thesis examines the reasons why children continue to be used as child soldiers in developing countries even though their government is party to international law that prohibits this use. Human rights advocates maintain that states can "get away" with noncompliance because of weak monitoring mechanisms and that these states only ratify relevant treaties to enhance their international reputation. It is argued that many factors, other than only wanting to enhance reputations of states, exist to explain the lack of compliance of developing countries to the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the Involvement of Children in Armed Conflict. Lack of funding and resources, temporal dimensions, vagueness of treaty wording, weak monitoring mechanisms, and the "Westernization" of human rights all contribute to problems of enforcement. Weak governments, divided states, and the involvement in conflicts contribute significantly to this noncompliance.