United States of America

In its annual reports on human rights in other countries, the US State Department condemns the use of children in armed conflict and prevent ing this global scourge remains a US foreign policy priorit y. The USA has rat if ied the Opt ional Protocol to the Convent ion on the Rights of the Child on the involvement of children in armed conflict (Opt ional Protocol) which among other things prohibits [...] Among the f laws of the military commissions are the following: The pre-requisite for t rial under the MCA is that the individual is an alien “ unlawful enemy combatant ” , a status as used by the USA that is unknown in internat ional law. [...] In March 2008, the Commit tee on the Eliminat ion of Racial Discrimination also obj ected to the USA’ s posit ion that the Internat ional Convent ion on the Eliminat ion of All Forms of Racial Discriminat ion did not apply to the t reatment of foreign detainees held as “enemy combatants” in the “war on terror”. [...] A memorandum from the Justice Department to the Pentagon in 2002 cited the view of the Supreme Court that the Fifth Amendment’s self- incrimination clause “has its roots in the Framers’ belief that a system of justice in which the focus is on the extraction of proof of guilt from the criminal defendant himself is often an adjunct to tyranny and may lead to the conviction of innocent persons.” The [...] Of this and other amicus briefs filed on the question of Omar Khadr’s age, the prosecution has stated that “the Government has declined to respond to each of the amicus briefs, largely because of the irrelevance of the materials cited therein”.