Washington: The United States on Thursday added Pakistan and Turkey to its Child Soldiers Prevention Act (CSPA) list, a designation that could lead to stricter sanctions with regards to military assistance and listed countries’ participation in peacekeeping programmes, Dawn reported on Friday.
The designation is included in the US State Department’s annual Trafficking in Persons (TIP) report, which ranks countries in various tiers in accordance with their efforts for eliminating human trafficking.
The US Child Soldiers Prevention Act requires publication in the annual TIP report of a list of foreign governments that have recruited or used child soldiers during the previous year (April 1, 2020, to March 31, 2021). The entities reviewed for this designation include armed forces, police, other security forces and government-supported armed groups.
The 2021 CSPA list already includes the following countries, Afghanistan, Burma, Democratic Republic of Congo, Iran, Iraq, Libya, Mali, Nigeria, Pakistan, Somalia, South Sudan, Syria, Turkey, Venezuela and Yemen. (UNI)