Although children have always participated in armed conflicts, international law has only recently attempted to regulate their participation. Indeed, although the four Geneva Conventions of 1949 contain a number of provisions dealing with children as civilians, the first treaties including provisions about children's recruitment and use in hostilities were the two Additional Protocols of 1977 (the APs). This chapter examines those provisions. The provisions dealing with the participation of children in armed conflict in AP I appear in Section III, on the treatment of persons in the power of a party to the conflict. AP II departed further from the traditional norms of international humanitarian law than did AP I in that it is concerned with the regulation of non-international armed conflicts. The two APs marked the beginning of the legal regulation of children's participation in hostilities.

The array of mechanisms for the implementation of the World Trade Organization (WTO) code are varied, subtle and sophisticated. Under Article X of GATT 1994 all legislative instruments and international agreements relating to or affecting international trade are to be published in an expeditious fashion for the benefit of both traders and governments. In particular, all such legislation that results in increasing the burden on traders is to be effective only when officially published. Procedures to prevent the suspected import or export of goods infringing intellectual property rights are to be made available, particularly in relation to counterfeit trade mark or pirated copyright goods. The requirement that the WTO provide special information to developing countries, for example in the field of technical barriers, is of particular relevance in enhancing the capacity of developing countries to ensure implementation through the WTO.

Following the conclusion of the two APs, the locus of the development of the law relating to the recruitment and use of children in hostilities moved from the arena of international humanitarian law to that of international human rights law. An article regulating the participation of children in hostilities appears in the 1989 Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC). However, following dissatisfaction with the provisions contained in the CRC, in 2000 an Optional Protocol (OP) to the CRC on the Involvement of Children in Armed Conflict was adopted to cure their defects. Difficulties in the negotiation of the OP, however, meant provisions on child recruitment were also included in a 1999 ILO treaty, ILO Convention 182 on the Worst Forms of Child Labour. The African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child is the only regional human rights treaty specifically concerned with children's rights.

This chapter focuses on the Trade Policy Review Mechanism as a mechanism for the implementation of the World Trade Organization code, particularly as it affects 'developing' countries. It highlights some of the general problems with respect to mechanisms within the framework of GATT that facilitate the implementation of that agreement in so far as 'developing' countries are concerned. The analysis is based mainly on the experience of ten 'developing' countries, as follows: Morocco 1989; Colombia 1990; Thailand 1991; Nigeria 1991; Indonesia 1991; Ghana 1992; Egypt 1992; Brazil 1992; Bangladesh 1992; and Uruguay 1992. The relationship of developing countries to the international trading order and international enforcement mechanisms is influenced by the following: the availability of resources in relation to information and expertise; the trade-related institutional structure; and the interaction of the rest of the domestic economic structure with international trade-related issues.

One of the most exciting of the developments that has emerged in the institutional sphere from the Uruguay Round of Trade Negotiations is the focus on ensuring closer adherence by members to the WTO code through the newly created Trade Policy Review Mechanism (TPRM). The Uruguay Round Mid-Term Review agreement establishing the TPRM was arrived at in Montreal, Canada, by the Trade Negotiations Committee at Ministerial level in December 1988. The criterion for the assessment of a member's foreign trade regime under the TPRM is the impact a member's trade policies and practices make on the multilateral trading order. The agreement is not very transparent with respect to the criteria for the review. A fortiori, the agreement on the TPRM can only refer to economic and/ or legal criteria. Indeed, this was the understanding of the negotiating group.

The substantive law of the World Trade Organization (WTO) partakes more of the nature of a code than of a detailed regulatory system for state conduct in the sphere of international trade. The WTO code sets out a broad framework within which member states need to conduct their affairs. The code is aimed at eliminating discrimination in government regulations relating to international trade in goods and services and reducing and/or eliminating barriers to the flow of such international trade. The principle of non-discrimination is a fundamental tenet of the international trading system. The tariff is the principal form of tolerated policy instrument under the WTO code. Quantitative restrictions and tariffs are border control measures. The obligations under the WTO code in relation to these measures can be undermined through customs and allied procedures. The sanitary and phytosanitary measures must be based on scientific principles, and not be arbitrary.

Since 1998, when the issue of war-affected children was placed on the agenda of the Security Council, the progressive engagement of the Council has yielded significant gains for children. The United Nations (UN) has tended to consider the issue of child soldiers as a part of the broader issue of war-affected children. Resolution 48/157 marked the first time that the General Assembly had considered the issue of children affected by armed conflict in any specific way. Resolution 48/157 set out a plan of action and proved to be the beginning of a continuing commitment by the political organs of the UN to the issue of children's involvement in armed conflict. The General Assembly recommended that the Secretary-General appoint a special representative on the impact of armed conflict on children, and set out the Special Representative's mandate. From the late 1990s, Security Council resolutions began to make reference to conflict-affected children.

Precise statistics are impossible to come by, but more than 300,000 children are believed to be serving as soldiers in conflicts across the world today. Child soldiers have served in conflicts in Africa, Asia and South and Central America. If the statistics are accurate, the recruitment of children is growing. These statistics conceal considerable differences in the experiences of child soldiers, differences that are concealed by the stereotyped view of the child soldier as a pre-adolescent African boy toting an AK-47. Unable to conscript, as conscription is a governmental prerogative, insurgent groups frequently resort to forced recruitment to alleviate manpower shortages. There is a tendency to categorise children's motives for volunteering as permissible or impermissible depending on whether the observer agrees with them or not. International concern has concentrated on the recruitment and use of child soldiers in times of war. Yet many children serve in armed forces in peacetime.