ITHACA, N.Y. -- Photographs and news stories of young boys in uniform waving real guns may shock and dismay the world community but don't always lead to a deeper understanding or preventive actions.

Now a symposium at Cornell Law School offers an opportunity to find out more about what can be done to halt the heinous practice of using children as soldiers. "International Peacekeeping in Countries Utilizing Child Soldiers: Unique Problems of Security and Rebuilding" will take place at the Law School Feb. 20 and 21, The keynote address and panel discussions are in Myron Taylor Hall's MacDonald Moot Court Room and are free and open to the public. The symposium is sponsored by The Cornell International Law Journal, a journal produced by Cornell University law students. For further details, see this Web site: http://www.lawschool.cornell.edu/ilj .

The gathering addresses one of the most timely and heartbreaking issues in international law today, says CILJ symposium editor and law student Meredith Sheldon: the distinct problems of peacekeeping and rebuilding in nations where the presence of prolonged warfare has resulted in the depletion of adult troops and the recruitment of children as soldiers. Despite extensive international laws barring children under the age of 15 from combat, over 300,000 children in more than 30 countries continue to be exploited as soldiers, United Nations estimates show. The symposium's organizers hope to expose this growing problem as well as investigate possible international responses, Sheldon said.

The keynote speaker on Friday, Feb. 20, at 5 p.m. is Franklin Kargbo, executive secretary of the Sierra Leone Truth and Reconciliation Commission. He has served as chief of the Human Rights Office for the United Nations Peacekeeping Mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea (UNMEE), the deputy director of public prosecutions for the government of the Gambia, attorney general for the government of Sierra Leone and minister of justice for the government of Sierra Leone. On Saturday, Feb. 21, a panel from 9:30 to 11:30 a.m., "The Problem of Re-Acclimating Child Soldiers Into Society, Assuming Peacekeeping Is Successful," will examine the problems of building or rebuilding a society where most of the next generation have been robbed of normal childhoods and subjected to horrible abuse and violence. A panel from 1 to 3 p.m., "The U.N. Protocol Barring Child Soldiers in Combat: Problems in Enforcement and Accountability," investigates why the problem remains so widespread, despite extensive and clear international laws barring the use of children as soldiers. The panel also will discuss who should be held accountable for the children's actions and how, when and where they might be prosecuted. Participants will include Law School Professors Muna Ndulo, former chief legal adviser to the United Nations Mission to East Timor, and David Wippman, former director for multilateral and humanitarian affairs, National Security Council, and these participants: Ilene Cohn, U.N. Department of Peacekeeping Operations; Christine Knudsen, Save the Children; Kathleen Kostelney, Erikson Institute for Advanced Study in Child Development; E. Michael Southwick, U.S. Institute for Peace; Michael Wessells, Christian Children's Fund; and Kathy Vandergrift, World Vision Canada.

For more information, contact Sheldon at (607) 227-4457, e-mail: mls93@cornell.edu .