OTTAWA — Canada has been quietly championing an initiative aimed at preventing the recruitment and use of child soldiers, which is expected to be unveiled at a major peacekeeping summit in Vancouver next month. Those guidelines were developed in concert with the Romeo Dallaire Child Soldiers Initiative and were intended to ensure Canadian troops are properly trained and emotionally prepared for dealing with child soldiers. There were also more than 1,000 verified cases of children being recruited or used in South Sudan and 442 reported cases in Mali. Both those countries are considered to be strong candidates for a future Canadian peacekeeping mission. The high-level meeting is only supposed to be open to officials from countries that have made concrete pledges to peacekeeping missions.

Source: National Post October 26, 2017 19:23 UTC