The Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers estimates that as many as 300,000 children under the age of eighteen are currently participating in armed conflicts in more than thirty different countries on nearly every continent.
Innocent Voices |
Amnesty International is proud to be working with the filmmakers of Innocent Voices to raise awareness on the issue of child soldiers. Luis Mandoki has directed a film that powerfully, poignantly and realistically tells the true story of 11 year-old Chava who is caught in the middle of the civil war in El Salvador in the 1980s.
On October 6, Artists for Amnesty and UNICEF co-hosted the New York premiere of Innocent Voices at the United Nations. The evening was hosted by Jennifer Connelly and His Royal Highness Prince Zeid Ra'ad Zeid Al-Hussein of Jordan. Artists for Amnesty presented the Excellence in Filmmaking Award to Director Luis Mandoki.
Amnesty International is part of the Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers, which works to pressure governments and armed groups around the world to sign on to and adhere to the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the involvement of children in armed conflicts - which sets 18 as the minimum age for all direct participation in armed conflict, all forced conscription, and all recruitment by non-state armed groups.
Innocent Voices opened in select cities on October 14th.
The use of child soldiers is an international concern that transcends continents.
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