PET(4) SAR 27

Petitions Committee

Consultation on petition P-04-432 Stop the Army Recruiting in Schools

Response from M. Angharad Roberts

Dear friend,

I am writing to you since I consider it a disgrace that Great Britain is the only member state of      the 27 member states of the European Union that recruits children, as young as 16 years old, to the armed forces. Also, Britain is the only nation within NATO to do so.

We also know that it is the schools in our most deprived areas that are targeted by the armed forces in their recruitment campaigns. In 2008, I understand that the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child urged the UK Government to reconsider its policy in this regard.

  I sincerely hope that our National Assembly here in Wales will respond positively to our petition that calls for schools in Wales to stop the armed forces from recruiting children.

Yours faithfully

M. Angharad Roberts