Red Hand Day Campaign activities took place in: Australia, Austria, Belgium, Cambodia, Canada, China, Colombia, Cote d'Ivoire, DRC, France, Germany, Guinea, India, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Liechtenstein, Luxemburg, Madagascar, Nepal, Netherlands, New Zealand, Philippines, Poland, Sierra Leone, South Korea, Spain, Switzerland, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey, Uganda, United Kingdom and the United States. These activities included marches, petition drives, special exhibitions, public awareness programs at schools, and presentations of red hands to members of congress and parliament. Young people organized hundreds of events in dozens of countries to highlight the continued use of child soldiers. In 2009 over 250,000 red hands were collected from at least 101 countries to demand stronger action by international leaders to end the use of child soldiers. Our goal is for every country in the world to ratify the optional protocol by 2012, the tenth anniversary of when the optional protocol took effect. The Red Hand Day Campaign will urge these countries to ratify the optional protocol and make clear their absolute commitment to ending the use of child soldiers. However, 61 countries have still not ratified the optional protocol. Since it was adopted ten years ago, 131 governments-two-thirds of the world's countries- have ratified it. The treaty, known as the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the involvement of children in armed conflict, prohibits the use of children under age 18 in hostilities or their forced recruitment.
This year, the Red Hand Campaign is pressing for universal ratification of the treaty banning the use of child soldiers.
In response, the Secretary-General pledged that the entire UN system would work to "stamp out" such abuse. They gathered over 250,000 "red hands"-the symbol of the global campaign against the use of child soldiers-and presented them to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in New York on February 12, 2009. In 2009, hundreds of youth and student groups from around the world called for stronger action to end the use of child soldiers. But too often, it is not enforced, and many countries have not yet ratified it. A UN treaty prohibits the participation of children under the age of 18 in hostilities. Boys and girls alike are forced into combat, exploited for their labor, and subjected to unspeakable violence. Lord Rodrik Harlaw similarly believes that Euron sounds too much like Urron, and that history is bound to repeat itself.Today, child soldiers are fighting in at least 14 countries around the world. Lord Baelor Blacktyde believes that Euron Greyjoy will descend on all those gathered for the kingsmoot and kill them all, as Urron Greyiron had once done. House Greyiron is said to have ruled the islands for a thousand years, until the coming of the Andals. Urron Redhand and his descendants had to deal with half a dozen major rebellions and at least two major thrall uprisings. Along with the kingsmoot, Galon Whitestaff's decree against ironborn making war upon each other ended. ĭuring Urron's reign of twenty-two years, the rulers of the various Iron Islands were reduced to lords, and several ancient lines that refused to bend the knee were extinguished. Calling himself simply King of the Iron Islands, Urron had his crown be made of black iron instead of the traditional driftwood. Urron put an end to the institution of kingsmoot when he descended with his axemen on Nagga's Hill on Old Wyk, slaying all captains, the thirteen salt and rock kings, and half a hundred priests and prophets assembled for the choosing. It was the dying Urragon's wish for Urron to succeed him, but the priests of the Drowned God were determined not to lose the power of kingmaking for a third time after Urragon's assumption of the throne and, before that, Torgon Greyiron's usurpation from Urrathon IV Goodbrother. Urron was the salt king of Orkmont during the rule of his great-uncle, Urragon IV Greyiron, who had assumed the title High King of the Iron Islands without being chosen in a kingsmoot.