text:
Cardiac pacemaker
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This article is about the natural pacemaker in the heart. For the medical device that simulates the function, see artificial cardiac pacemaker.
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Image showing the cardiac pacemaker or SA node, the normal pacemaker within the electrical conduction system of the heart.
The contraction of cardiac muscle (heart muscle) in all animals is initiated by electrical impulses known as action potentials. The rate at which these impulses fire controls the rate of cardiac contraction, that is, the heart rate. The cells that create these rhythmic impulses, setting the pace for blood pumping, are called pacemaker cells, and they directly control the heart rate. They make up the cardiac pacemaker, that is, the natural pacemaker of the heart. In most humans, the concentration of pacemaker cells in the sinoatrial (SA) node is the natural pacemaker, and the resultant rhythm is a sinus rhythm.
Sometimes an ectopic pacemaker sets the pace, if the SA node is damaged or if the electrical conduction system of the heart has problems. Cardiac arrhythmias can cause heart block, in which the contractions lose any useful rhythm. In humans, and occasionally in animals, a mechanical device called an artificial pacemaker (or simply "pacemaker") may be used after damage to the body's intrinsic conduction system to produce these impulses synthetically.
Contents
[hide]
1 Control
1.1 Primary (SA node)
1.2 Secondary (AV junction and Bundle of His)
2 Generation of action potentials
2.1 Phase 4 - Pacemaker potential
2.2 Phase 0 - Upstroke
2.3 Phase 3 - Repolarization
3 Clinical significance
3.1 Damage to the SA node
3.2 Artificial pacemakers
4 See also
5 References
Control[edit]
Schematic representation of the sinoatrial node and the atrioventricular bundle of His. The location of the SA node is shown in blue. The bundle, represented in red, originates near the orifice of the coronary sinus, undergoes slight enlargement to form the AV node. The AV node tapers down into the bundle of HIS, which passes into the ventricular septum and divides into two bundle branches, the left and right bundles. The ultimate distribution cannot be completely shown in this diagram.
Primary (SA node)[edit]
One percent of the cardiomyocytes in the myocardium possess the ability to generate electrical impulses (or action potentials) spontaneously.
A specialized portion of the heart, called the sinoatrial node (SA node), is responsible for atrial propagation of this potential.
The sinoatrial node (SA node) is a group of cells positioned on the wall of the right atrium, near the entrance of the superior vena cava. These cells are modified cardiomyocytes. They possess rudimentary contractile filaments, but contract relatively weakly compared to the cardiac contractile cells.[1]
The pacemaker cells are connected to neighboring contractile cells via gap junctions, which enable them to locally depolarize adjacent cells. Gap junctions allow the passage of positive cations from the depolarization of the pacemaker cell to adjacent contractile cells. This starts the depolarization and eventual action potential in contractile cells. Having cardiomyocytes connected via gap junctions allow all contractile cells of the heart to act in a coordinated fashion and contract as a unit. All the while being in sync with the pacemaker cells; this is the property that allows the pacemaker cells to control contraction in all other cardiomyocytes.
Cells in the SA node spontaneously depolarize, ultimately resulting in contraction, approximately 100 times per minute. This native rate is constantly modified by the activity of sympathetic and parasympathetic nerve fibers via the autonomic nervous system, so that the average resting cardiac rate in adult humans is about 70 beats per minute. Because the sinoatrial node is responsible for the rest of the heart's electrical activity, it is sometimes called the primary pacemaker.
Secondary (AV junction and Bundle of His)[edit]
If the SA node does not function properly and is unable to control the heart rate, a group of cells further down the heart will become the ectopic pacemaker of the heart. These cells form the Atrioventricular node (or AV node), which is an area between the left atrium and the right ventricle within the atrial septum, will take over the pacemaker responsibility.
The cells of the AV node normally discharge at about 40-60 beats per minute, and are called the secondary pacemaker.
Further down the electrical conducting system of the heart is the Bundle of His. The left and right branches of this bundle, and the Purkinje fibres, will also produce a spontaneous action potential at a rate of 30-40 beats per minute, so if the SA and AV node both fail to function, these cells can become pacemakers. It is important to realize that these cells will be initiating action potentials and contraction at a much lower rate than the primary or secondary pacemaker cells.
The SA node controls the rate of contraction for the entire heart muscle because its cells have the quickest rate of spontaneous depolarization, thus they initiate action potentials the quickest. The action potential generated by the SA node passes down the electrical conduction system of the heart, and depolarizes the other potential pacemaker cells (AV node) to initiate action potentials before these other cells have had a chance to generate their own spontaneous action potential, thus they contract and propagate electrical impulses to the pace set by the cells of the SA node. This is the normal conduction of electrical activity in the heart.
Generation of action potentials[edit]
There are 3 main stages in the generation of an action potential in a pacemaker cell. Since the stages are analogous to contraction of cardiac muscle cells, they have the same naming system. This can lead to some confusion. There is no phase 1 or 2, just phases 0, 3, and 4.
Phase 4 - Pacemaker potential[edit]
The key to the rhythmic firing of pacemaker cells is that, unlike other neurons in the body, these cells will slowly depolarize by themselves and do not need any outside innervation from the autonomic nervous system to fire action potentials.
As in all other cells, the resting potential of a pacemaker cell (-60mV to -70mV) is caused by a continuous outflow or "leak" of potassium ions through ion channel proteins in the membrane that surrounds the cells. However, in pacemaker cells, this potassium permeability (efflux) decreases as time goes on, causing a slow depolarization. In addition, there is a slow, continuous inward flow of sodium, called the funny current.These two relative ion concentration changes slowly depolarize (make more positive) the inside membrane potential (voltage) of the cell, giving these cells their pacemaker potential. When the membrane potential gets depolarized to about -40mV it has reached threshold (cells enter phase 0), allowing an action potential to be generated.
Phase 0 - Upstroke[edit]
Though much faster than the depolarization of phase 4, the upstroke in a pacemaker cell is slow compared to that in an axon.
The SA and AV node do not have fast sodium channels like neurons, and the depolarization is mainly caused by a slow influx of calcium ions. (The funny current also increases). Calcium enters the cell via voltage-sensitive calcium channels that open when the threshold is reached. This calcium influx produces the rising phase of the action potential, which results in the reversal of membrane potential to a peak of about +10mV. It is important to note that intracellular calcium causes muscular contraction in contractile cells, and is the effector ion. In heart pacemaker cells, phase 0 depends on the activation of L-type calcium channels instead of the activation of voltage-gated fast sodium channels, which are responsible for initiating action potentials in contractile (non-pacemaker) cells. For this reason, the pacemaker action potential rising phase slope is more gradual than that of the contractile cell (image 2).[7]
Phase 3 - Repolarization[edit]
The reversal of membrane potential triggers the opening of potassium leak channels, resulting in the rapid loss of potassium ions from the inside of the cell, causing repolarization (Vm gets more negative). The calcium channels are also inactivated soon after they open. In addition, as sodium channels become inactivated, sodium permeability into the cell is decreased. These ion concentration changes slowly repolarize the cell to resting membrane potential (-60mV). Another important note at this phase is that ionic pumps restore ion concentrations to pre-action potential status. The sodium-calcium exchanger ionic pump works to pump calcium out of the intracellular space, thus effectively relaxing the cell. The sodium/potassium pump restores ion concentrations of sodium and potassium ions by pumping sodium out of the cell and pumping (exchanging) potassium into the cell. Restoring these ion concentrations is vital because it enables the cell to reset itself and enables it to repeat the process of spontaneous depolarization leading to activation of an action potential.
Clinical significance[edit]
Damage to the SA node[edit]
If the SA node does not function, or the impulse generated in the SA node is blocked before it travels down the electrical conduction system, a group of cells further down the heart will become its pacemaker.[2] This center is typically represented by cells inside the atrioventricular node (AV node), which is an area between the atria and ventricles, within the atrial septum. If the AV node also fails, Purkinje fibers are occasionally capable of acting as the default or "escape" pacemaker. The reason Purkinje cells do not normally control the heart rate is that they generate action potentials at a lower frequency than the AV or SA nodes.
Artificial pacemakers[edit]
Main article: Artificial pacemaker
See also[edit]
Cardiac action potential
Electrical conduction system of the heart
References[edit]
Jump up ^ Neil A. Campbell ... [et al.] (2006). Biology : concepts & connections (5th ed.). San Francisco: Pearson/Benjamin Cummings. p. 473. ISBN 0-13-193480-5.
Jump up ^ Junctional Rhythm at eMedicine
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Anatomy of the heart
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borders
right
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Internal
atria
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pectinate muscles
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ventricles
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trabeculae carneae
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valves
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cardiac skeleton
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(venae cavae, coronary sinus) → right atrium (atrial appendage, fossa ovalis, limbus of fossa ovalis, crista terminalis, valve of inferior vena cava, valve of coronary sinus) → tricuspid valve → right ventricle (infundibulum, moderator band/septomarginal trabecula) → pulmonary valve → (pulmonary artery and pulmonary circulation)
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Layers
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text:
Optional Protocol on the Involvement of Children in Armed Conflict
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search
Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the Involvement of Children in Armed Conflict
Signed
25 May 2000[1]
Location
New York[1]
Effective
12 February 2002[1]
Condition
10 ratifications
Signatories
130[1]
Parties
167[1]
Depositary
UN Secretary-General
Languages
Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian and Spanish
Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the Involvement of Children in armed conflict at Wikisource
The Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the Involvement of Children in Armed Conflict (OPAC) is a multilateral treaty whereby states agree to: 1) prohibit the conscription into the military of children under the age of 18; 2) ensure that military recruits are no younger than 16; and 3) prevent recruits aged 16 or 17 from taking a direct part in hostilities. The treaty also forbids non-state armed groups from recruiting anyone under the age of 18 for any purpose.
The United Nations General Assembly adopted the treaty as a supplementary protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child by resolution 54/263 on 25 May 2000.[2] The protocol came into force on 12 February 2002.
As of February 2018, 167 states were party to the protocol and a further 13 states had signed but not ratified it.[1]
Contents
[hide]
1 Background
2 The campaign for a new treaty
2.1 Initial negotiations
2.2 The Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers
2.3 Final negotiations
2.4 Extent of ratification and the straight-18 position
3 Provisions of the OPAC treaty
3.1 Main obligations
3.2 Other provisions
4 Commentary of the International Committee of the Red Cross
5 National responses
5.1 Australia
5.2 United Kingdom
6 See also
7 References
8 External links
Background[edit]
Main article: Children in the military
The Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989) defines a child as any person under the age of 18.
Throughout history and in many cultures, children have been extensively involved in military campaigns.[3] In World War I, in Great Britain 250,000 boys under 18 managed to join the army.[4] In World War II, child soldiers fought throughout Europe, in the Warsaw Uprising,[5] in the Jewish resistance,[6] and in the Soviet Army.[7] After the Cold War ended, the number of armed conflicts grew and the use of children for military purposes surged, affecting as many as 300,000 children worldwide annually by the end of the 1990s.[8]
Progress towards ending the use of children for military purposes has been slow, partly because many national armed forces have relied on children to fill their ranks.[9][10][8] Initial efforts to limit the participation of children in armed conflict began with the adoption of the Additional Protocols to the 1949 Geneva Conventions, adopted in 1977 (Art. 77.2).[11] The new Protocols prohibited the military recruitment of children aged under 15 and their direct participation in hostilities, but continued to allow state armed forces and non-state armed groups to recruit children from age 15 and use them in warfare.[12] In addition, the Protocols did not prohibit belligerents from using children younger than 15 in hostilities when their participation was not "direct"; for example, as scouts, porters, informants, spies, message-carriers and in other support roles.
When the same limited standards were incorporated into the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) in 1989, children's rights advocates were left frustrated, believing that a treaty establishing the fundamental rights of children ought to protect them from all forms of military involvement.[8] To achieve this, a small group of human rights campaigners and sympathetic governments began a global campaign for a new treaty, which was adopted in 2000 as the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the involvement of children in armed conflict (OPAC).[8]
The campaign for a new treaty[edit]
Initial negotiations[edit]
By 1994, five years after the Convention on the Rights of the Child was adopted, children's rights advocates and sympathetic governments had persuaded the international community to establish a working group of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights.[8][13] Its mandate was to begin negotiations on a new protocol to the Convention that would raise standards regarding the use of children for military purposes.
While the large majority of states negotiating the protocol were willing to end all military recruitment of children under the age of 18 (the so-called "straight-18" principle), a small number were opposed: Bangladesh, Cuba, Israel, South Korea, Kuwait, Pakistan, the United Kingdom (UK) and the United States (US). According to Jo Becker, a human rights advocate actively involved in the negotiations:
"Governments began a series of annual negotiations in Geneva, but by 1998, negotiations floundered as it became clear that governments that had long used under-eighteens in their national armed forces, notably the United States and United Kingdom, were not willing to support a new standard that conflicted with their national practice."[14]
While some of the states opposed to the change said nevertheless that they would not block it, the US insisted on its position, according to Becker.[8]
Instrumental in gathering high-level support for the treaty was a proposal by children's rights advocates for a major study on the effect of armed conflict on children.[13] The study was proposed by the Committee on the Rights of the Child, commissioned by the UN General Assembly, and produced by Graça Machel in 1996: Impact of armed conflict on children.[15] The report was particularly concerned with the use of younger children as participants in armed conflict, presenting evidence that many thousands of children were being killed, maimed, and psychiatrically injured around the world every year. It also called for an end to the recruitment of children by all armed forces.[15]
The Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers[edit]
As negotiations on the new treaty stalled in 1998, the Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers (now known as Child Soldiers International) was established by six human rights and humanitarian organizations (Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, International Federation Terre des Hommes, Jesuit Refugee Service, the Quaker United Nations Office (Geneva) and Save the Children).[8] With the goal of incorporating the straight-18 principle into the new treaty, the Coalition quickly seeded national affiliates in more than thirty countries.[8] The Coalition worked in alliance with a small group of states actively advocating for the straight-18 principle internationally: Canada, Denmark, Ethiopia, Finland, Japan, Mozambique, Norway, Portugal, South Africa, Sweden, and Switzerland.[8]
With initial funding from the Canadian government, the Coalition organised a series of intergovernmental regional conferences; the African and Latin-American conferences strongly supported the straight-18 principle.[8] The European conference supported an end to the participation of children in armed conflict, but not their recruitment, due to opposition from Austria, France, Germany, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and the UK, which were all recruiting children aged 16 or 17 into their own armed forces.[8] (As of 2017, all except Luxembourg were still doing so.)[9]
By 1999, the straight-18 principle enjoyed the support of the large majority of states, as well as the Committee on the Rights of the Child, the International Committee of the Red Cross, the International Labour Organization, the European Parliament, the Organization of African Unity, and the World Council of Churches.[8][13]
Final negotiations[edit]
In the final negotiations, only five states still advocated against the straight-18 principle: Egypt, Kuwait, Singapore, the UK and, most trenchantly, the US.[16] The US, with British support, continued to insist that it would not support a treaty that prevented it from sending 17 year-olds into battle.[8][16] According to Becker, the US relented following an intervention from Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, although the US and UK continued to insist on their right to recruit children from age 16 (UK) and 17 (US).[8]
This change allowed a compromise consensus between the negotiating parties, in which the new treaty would not prevent states from recruiting children into their armed forces from age 16 or 17, but would require that "all feasible measures" be taken to ensure that children did not participate "directly" in hostilities.
Extent of ratification and the straight-18 position[edit]
The OPAC treaty has been widely ratified. As of February 2018, 167 states had ratified or acceded to the treaty; a further 13 states had signed but not yet ratified it.[1]
In addition, following OPAC's adoption the number of states restricting enlistment to adults aged over 18 has increased substantially, according to Child Soldiers International: from 83 in 2001 to 126 in 2016, which is 71 percent of countries with armed forces.[9] These include several states where child recruitment had been routine, including Colombia and Sierra Leone.[8] Approximately 60 non-state armed groups have also entered agreements to stop or scale back their use of children.[17]
Despite this trend, Child Soldiers International reports that the recruitment of children for military purposes remains widespread, including by armed forces in the three most populous countries - China, India and the United States - and the most economically powerful (all G7 countries apart from Italy and Japan).[10] A large number of non-state armed groups also recruit and use children routinely, especially following a recent surge in child recruitment by militant Islamist movements in Africa and the Middle East, as well as by militias opposing them.[9][18]
Provisions of the OPAC treaty[edit]
Main obligations[edit]
The main obligations of the OPAC treaty are as follows:[19]
No state party may recruit any person who has yet to attain a minimum age specified by the state (in a binding declaration deposited with the UN on ratification), and in all cases the minimum age must not be lower than 16 years.
States parties whose armed forces recruit children aged 16 or 17 must:
not compel children to join their armed forces;
ensure that "reliable proof of age" is provided before enlistment;
ensure prior to enlistment that child applicants are "fully informed" of the duties of military service, that their choice to enlist is "genuinely voluntary", and that their parents or legal guardians give their "informed consent"; and
"take all feasible measures" to ensure that child recruits do not take part directly in hostilities;
Non-state armed groups "should not, under any circumstances, recruit or use in hostilities" any child under the age of 18 (the legal force of this is uncertain, however[13][20][17]).
States parties to the treaty must report periodically on its implementation to the Committee on the Rights of the Child.
Other provisions[edit]
Other provisions of the treaty include the following:
States parties must cooperate with each other in the implementation of the treaty and support financially and technically "in the rehabilitation and social reintegration" of persons who were recruited unlawfully as children.
Any state can leave the treaty at a year's notice, but not if engaged in armed conflict at the time.
The treaty does not prevent states from operating military schools, which are common in many countries,[9] provided that these comply with the legal requirements governing education in the Convention on the Rights of the Child.
The treaty allows states the option of raising their minimum enlistment age at any point and depositing an updated binding declaration to that effect with the United Nations; any state doing so is then bound by the revised minimum age and may not lower it.
Commentary of the International Committee of the Red Cross[edit]
The sentence "States Parties shall take all feasible measures to ensure that members of their armed forces who have not attained the age of 18 years do not take a direct part in hostilities" was adapted from Article 77.2 of the Additional Protocol I to the Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949, and relating to the Protection of Victims of International Armed Conflicts, adopted in 1977, with an alteration from fifteen years to eighteen years and some other minor modifications. ("The Parties to the conflict shall take all feasible measures in order that children who have not attained the age of fifteen years do not take a direct part in hostilities and, in particular, they shall refrain from recruiting them into their armed forces.")
The ICRC commentary on Protocol I makes clear that it does not require a complete ban on the use of children in conflict. The ICRC had proposed that the Protocol require parties to "take all necessary measures" but final text uses the wording "take all feasible measures" which is not a total prohibition on their doing so. Furthermore, refraining from recruiting children under fifteen does not exclude children who volunteer for armed service. During the negotiations over the clause "take a part in hostilities," the word "direct" was added, opening up the possibility that child volunteers could be involved indirectly in hostilities, gathering and transmitting military information, helping in the transportation of arms and munitions, provision of supplies, etc.[12]
National responses[edit]
Australia[edit]
The Australian Defence Force Cadets follows the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the Involvement of Children in Armed Conflict[21] but still accepts cadets between the ages of 13-18 (except staff) and sometimes brings them onto ADF bases.
United Kingdom[edit]
Main article: Selection and Training in the British Army
As noted above, at the time of OPAC's negotiation, the UK joined the US in actively resisting the majority view of negotiating states that 18 should be the minimum age for all forms of military recruitment.[8] Then, as now, the UK permits its armed forces to enlist from age 16, and allows children to apply aged 15 years, 7 months.[22][23]
On ratification of the treaty, the UK's binding declaration stated its understanding that, while it would endeavour not to use child recruits in hostilities, the protocol "...would not exclude the deployment of members of its armed forces under the age of 18 to take a direct part in hostilities where: a) there is a genuine military need to deploy their unit or ship to an area in which hostilities are taking place; and b) by reason of the nature and urgency of the situation:- i) it is not practicable to withdraw such persons before deployment; or ii) to do so would undermine the operational effectiveness of their ship or unit, and thereby put at risk the successful completion of the military mission and/or the safety of other personnel."[24]
According to Child Soldiers International, the UK deployed 22 armed forces personnel aged under 18 to Iraq and Afghanistan between 2003 and 2010.[25] The Committee on the Rights of the Child has urged the UK to alter its policy so as to ensure that children cannot take part in hostilities under any circumstances.[26]
See also[edit]
Children in the military, Military recruitment, Recruit training, and Military personnel
Convention on the Rights of the Child and Committee on the Rights of the Child
Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers (now Child Soldiers International)
International Committee of the Red Cross
List of international instruments relevant to the worst forms of child labour
Free Children from War conference (and the Paris Principles)
References[edit]
^ Jump up to: a b c d e f g "Signatories & Dates of Ratification of the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the Involvement of Children in armed conflict". UN. Retrieved 23 May 2016.
Jump up ^ United Nations General Assembly Session 54 Resolution 263. Optional protocols to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the involvement of children in armed conflict and on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography A/RES/54/263 25 May 2000. Retrieved 20 July 2008.
Jump up ^ Wessels, Michael (1997). "Child Soldiers". Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. 53 (4): 32.
Jump up ^ "How did Britain let 250000 underage soldiers fight in WW1?". BBC News.
Jump up ^ Norman Davies, Rising '44: The Battle for Warsaw, Pan Books 2004 p.603
Jump up ^ David M. Rosen (January 2005). Armies of the Young: Child Soldiers in War and Terrorism. Rutgers University Press. pp. 54–55. ISBN 978-0-8135-3568-5. The participation of Jewish children and youth in warfare was driven by a combination of necessity, honor, and moral duty.
Jump up ^ Kucherenko, Olga (13 January 2011). Little Soldiers: How Soviet Children Went to War, 1941–1945. OUP Oxford. p. 3. ISBN 978-0-19-161099-8.
^ Jump up to: a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Becker, J (2013). "Campaigning to stop the use of child soldiers". Campaigning for justice: Human rights advocacy in practice. Stanford, California: Stanford University Press. pp. 11–31. ISBN 9780804774512. OCLC 837635842.
^ Jump up to: a b c d e Child Soldiers International (2017). "Where are child soldiers?". Retrieved 2018-01-25.
^ Jump up to: a b Child Soldiers International (2012). "Louder than words: An agenda for action to end state use of child soldiers". Retrieved 19 January 2018.
Jump up ^ International Committee of the Red Cross (1977). "Protocols additional to the Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949" (PDF). Retrieved 2018-01-28.
^ Jump up to: a b ICRC Commentary on Protocol I: Article 77 website of the ICRC ¶ 3183–3191 also ¶ 3171
^ Jump up to: a b c d Brett, R (2005). "Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on Involvement of Children in Armed Conflict (OP/CAC)" (PDF). International Council on Human Rights Policy & International Commission of Jurists. Retrieved 2018-02-04.
Jump up ^ Becker, J (2013). Campaigning for justice: Human rights advocacy in practice. Stanford, California: Stanford University Press. p. 14. ISBN 9780804774512. OCLC 837635842.
^ Jump up to: a b Machel, G (1996). "Impact of armed conflict on children" (PDF). Retrieved 2018-01-28.
^ Jump up to: a b Olson, Elizabeth (2000). "U.S. Fights Tide on a Move to Raise the Military Service Age". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2018-02-04.
^ Jump up to: a b Child Soldiers International (2016). "A law unto themselves? Confronting the recruitment of children by armed groups". Retrieved 19 January 2018.
Jump up ^ United Nations Secretary-General (2017). "Report of the Secretary-General: Children and armed conflict, 2017". www.un.org. Retrieved 2018-01-24.
Jump up ^ Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (2000). "Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child". www.ohchr.org. Retrieved 2018-02-04.
Jump up ^ Geneva Call (2012). "Engaging nonstate armed groups on the protection of children: Towards strategic complementarity" (PDF). Retrieved 2018-01-28.
Jump up ^ "Australian Defence Force Cadets". Wikipedia. 2017-06-17.
Jump up ^ Gee, David; Taylor, Rachel (2016-11-01). "Is it Counterproductive to Enlist Minors into the Army?". The RUSI Journal. 161 (6): 36–48. doi:10.1080/03071847.2016.1265837. ISSN 0307-1847.
Jump up ^ British Army (2018). "Age". mod.uk. Retrieved 2018-02-05.
Jump up ^ United Nations (2018). "United Nations Treaty Collection: 11. b Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the involvement of children in armed conflict". Retrieved 2018-02-05.
Jump up ^ Child Soldiers International. "Letter from UK Minister of Defence regarding deployment of under-18s on combat operations". Child Soldiers International. Retrieved 2018-02-05.
Jump up ^ UN Committee on the Rights of the Child (2008). "Consideration of Reports submitted by States Parties under Article 8 of the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the Involvement of Children in Armed Conflict. Concluding observations: United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland". Retrieved 2018-02-05.
External links[edit]
The full text of this convention
List of ratifications
Guide to the Optional Protocol on the involvement of children in armed conflict UNICEF, Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers, 2003
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Optional_Protocol_on_the_Involvement_of_Children_in_Armed_Conflict&oldid=827481367"
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