Military Training and Children in Armed Conflict: Law, Policy and Practice by JENNY KUPER [Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, Leiden and Boston, 2005, 299 pp, ISBN 90-04-13673-8, [euro]95/$128 (h/bk)]

Kupers premise is that although modern armed conflict might have changed, the basic principles of international humanitarian law and human rights law applicable to armed conflict in general and to children in particular have not changed and the rules resulting from these treaty provisions remain valid and relevant.4 * PhD candidate, University of Cambridge, sh407@cam.ac.uk. 1 J Kuper, International Law concerning Child Civilians in Armed Conflict (Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1997). Chapter 6, on government obligations, includes an analysis of humanitarian law, human rights law treaty obligations concerning child combatants and civilians, developments in soft law, and discussions of these issues by the Committee on the Rights of the Child. Kupers important conclusion is that treaty law, soft law and the determinations of the Committee on the Rights of the Child suggest that States duty to respect and ensure respect for international law regarding children includes as an essential component the obligation to provide military training regarding children.8 The final chapters of the book (chapters 79) cover training, and include analysis of the programmes provided by several different countries and the International Committee of the Red Cross.