The continued use of child soldiers is testimony that the presence of international norms alone is ineffective in protecting children because conditions within sovereign states to enlist often supersede international norms. In a period of fewer than fifteen years, two international treaties specifically designed to protect children were adopted by the United Nations General Assembly: the Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989) and its Optional Protocol on theinvolvement of children in armed conflict (2002). Despite these actions, the recruitment and use of child soldiers in wars and conflicts continues to take place globally in many countries and
territories. This work examines the challenges to the development, implementation, and enforcement of the Optional Protocol to the CRC on the involvement of children in armed conflict.
The Optional Protocol drafting process reflects states' self interests, which causes its outcomes to fall short of protecting all children against recruitment and use in hostilities. In this thesis, extensive research based on a multi-method study of statistical analysis and case studies reveals that it is not only the insufficiency in the Optional Protocol's provisions that perpetuate the use of child soldiers but also underlying conditions within sovereign states negatively affect
the enforcement and implementation of international norms.