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Child soldiers

Child soldiers. Children in Developing Countries Renata Serra – March 29 th 2007. Child soldiers. Under-18 attached to any government, regular or irregular armed force No reliable estimate of number exists Boys mainly but also girls

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Child soldiers

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  1. Child soldiers Children in Developing Countries Renata Serra – March 29th 2007

  2. Child soldiers • Under-18 attached to any government, regular or irregular armed force • No reliable estimate of number exists • Boys mainly but also girls • Africa seems to have the largest number of child soldiers • Conflicts in Burundi, Côte d'Ivoire, DRC, Rwanda, Somalia, Sudan and Uganda (and recently in Mozambique, Angola, and Sierra Leone) • Asia: Afghanistan, India, Indonesia, Laos and Philippines, and especially Sri Lanka • Myanmar: the only country where government armed forces forcibly recruit children from age 12 • Middle East: child soldiers reportedly used in Iran, Iraq, Israel, the Occupied Palestinian Territories and in tribal groups in Yemen • Latin America: Colombia (14,000?) • Europe: Chechen Republic of the Russian Federation

  3. International standards and initiatives • 2002: the Optional Protocol to the CRC on the involvement of children in armed conflict outlaws the involvement of children < 18 in hostilities • Thus raising the previous standard of age (15) set by the CRC, the 1949 Geneva Conventions and their 1977 Additional Protocols • 2002: the Statute of the International Criminal Court makes the conscription, enlistment or use of children under 15 in hostilities a war crime • First prosecution in 2006 against Thomas Lubanga Dyilo, the leader of a militia group based in the northeast of the DRC • 2007: UNICEF sponsored Paris Meeting with 58 countries

  4. The issues • 1. How can these “new wars” emerge? What made possible such human tragedies? • 2. Children: Innocent or guilty? Agents or victims? • 3. Can children be prosecuted for their war acts? What initiatives and programs for children after the wars?

  5. The “new wars” • Warfare versus war • Multiple connections between wars • Sierra Leone & Liberia • Central Africa region • Total societal crisis • Predation of natural and other resources

  6. Children in war • Child-soldier is an oxymoron: difficult to comprehend • Liminal and interstitial space, in-between states • What are the features and steps of the initiation into a new culture of terror and violence? • Are there ‘other’ spaces/spheres the child can cut out for herself? • What are the possibilities and limits for child agency?

  7. After-war trajectories • Trauma and healing • DDR programs (disarmament, demobilization and reintegration) • Re-acceptance by community and family? • The extraordinary experience of Ishmael Beah, former child soldier in Sierra Leone • Read his newly published book “A long way gone” • Click here for a video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p3OcYVQ9o3o

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