1. CHILD SOLDIERS
RATIFICATION AS RECOGNITION OF THE RIGHTS, WORTH, AND DIGNITY OF THE CHILD
Ratification refers to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child

2. What feelings and ideas does this image evoke?

4. Defining Child Soldiers and Where are They Used?

5. What is a Child Soldier?
“A person under the age of 18 who directly or indirectly participates in an armed conflict as part of an armed force or group.”

6. Historical Tradition 1861 US Civil War 1914 WWI 1964 Vietnam War
1846 Mexican American War
1967 Cambodia
1918 Russian Civil War
1943 Hitler Youth in Nuremburg

7. A Global Issue Afghanistan Sri Lanka Congo Chechnya Thailand Nepal
Sudan
Iraq
Columbia
Somalia
Palestine

10. Child Soldiers in Africa

11. Child Soldier Definition
Defined as any person under 18 years of age who is engaged in deadly combat support as part of an armed force
In the last decade of warfare:
Two million children have been killed
Six million have been disabled
25 million have been driven from their homes

12. What is a Child Soldier?
Although many children are directly involved as a soldier, others are used in “combat support.” This includes roles as:
Messengers
Spies
Cooks
Mine clearers
Porters
Sexual slaves.

13. Child Soldiers Who is a child soldier?
“Any child – girl or boy – under the age of 18,
who is part of any kind of regular or irregular
armed force or armed group, including but
not limited to combatants, cooks, porters,
messengers, and anyone accompanying
such groups other than as family members. This includes girls and boys recruited for sexual purposes and/or forced marriage” (UNICEF).

14.     Thousands of children in more than 40 countries across the globe are being forced or tricked into becoming soldiers. 
     
    

15. Who are Targeted?

16. Who?
Both boys and girls are subject to child soldiering, although girls are more likely to be used as sexual slaves
Most child soldiers are aged between 14 and 18.
However, many countries recruit children as young as 7 to 9 yrs old.

17. Who?
Most soldiers under 15 are from non-governmental military organizations
“The number of children under the age of 18 who have been coerced or induced to take up arms as child soldiers is generally thought to be in the range of 300,000.” – United Nations
The average age in two separate surveys are 12 years old

18. FACTS AND FIGURES
300,000 children under the age of eighteen are currently participating in armed conflicts, 120,000 of whom are in Africa.
Child soldiers are recruited in more than forty different countries on nearly every continent.
1.5 million children dead; 4 million disabled or maimed in conflicts.
While most child soldiers are in their teens, some are as young as seven years old.
I just want you first to realize that children being used as soldiers is indeed a global phenomenon of immense proportions.

19. There are 300,000 children involved in armed conflicts around the world.
Child soldiers are used in more than 30 countries around the world and range in age from 5 to 17 years old.
There are approximately 70,000 children in Myanmar’s (Burma’s) government armed forces.
Between 1986 and 1996 alone, 2 million children were killed in armed conflict and over 6 million children were injured.
In past conflicts percent of casualties were adult soldiers; today, percent of casualties are women and children.
Source: “Child Protection: Armed Conflict,” < (3 March 2004).
Source: “Special Report: Child Soldiers,” 12 December 2003, United Nations: Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs,< (3 March 2004).
Source: “Child Soldier Use 2003: A Briefing for the 4th UN Security Council Open Debate on Children and Armed Conflict,” January 2004, Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers.
Source: “Special Report: Child Soldiers,” 12 December 2003, United Nations: Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, < (3 March 2004).

20. Children at War Around the World
Source: UN

22. Reasons/Causes for Child Soldiers

23. “The Perfect Weapon” adults can resist warlords; children can’t
available in great numbers
easily manipulated
intensely loyal
fearless
expendable

24. Causes
Poverty – Leaders find it easier to recruit young children when there is widespread poverty. Many will consider they have nothing to lose by entering into war, especially if they get meals, clothing, and medical care
Manipulation – Children are easier to manipulate and are cheaper than adults
Environment – Children who grow up with a country that has been at war see it as a way of life
Light Weapons – Weapons have become lighter, so anyone can use them. With the end of the Cold War, many weapons were sold cheaply on the world market

25. REASONS FOR CHILD RECRUITMENT
Cheap assistance—children do not demand salaries as adults do
Children less likely to run away during long, drawn-out conflicts
Regarded as more expendable than adult counterparts
Easier to condition into fearless killing and unthinking obedience
Proliferation of light weapons that are easily manipulated and assembled by children

26. Child Soldiers Why are there child soldiers?
Child soldiers increase the number of fighters.
Children are more easily manipulated and controlled – they are more likely to follow orders without question – than adults.
Children can hide in tight quarters because they are physically smaller than adults.
People generally do not suspect children to be soldiers, so they can slip through many security checks unexamined.
Advances in technology have produced weapons light and cheap enough to be used by children.

27. Why do Children do it? In many wars in the world children are used.
They are forced from their homes and told if they try to leave the army they will be shot or even worse.
They are forced to kill.
Hooked on drugs so they barely know where they are.
Frightened and alone they have no where else to go.
They become so used to the violence and horror it starts to mean nothing to them.

28. Many may “choose” to join an armed group
Hunger
Poverty
Loss of family / home
Protection
Tricked
Vengeance
Defining their identity

29. Some Volunteer promise of safety sense of community
motivated by poverty & hunger

30. USAID copyright

31. When Ishamael Beah was 14, he was recruited into the Sierra Leone Army
When Ishamael Beah was 14, he was recruited into the Sierra Leone Army. He remained a soldier for almost three years. In his book ; The long way gone’ he described his first experience at the front line. He is now studying in the U.S.
“When we got there we were in an ambush, the rebels were attacking where we were in a bush. I did not shoot my gun at first, but when you looked around and saw your schoolmates, some younger than you, crying while they were dying with their blood spilling all over you, there was no option but to start pulling the trigger. I lost my parents during the war, they told us to join the army to avenge our parents.”

32. Child Soldiers Which children are affected?
Children in extreme poverty who are desperate for food and shelter.
Children without identification papers.
Orphans and children with weak family structures.
Children living in refugee camps or conflict zones.
Source: UN

33. Homeless Children
These children are a particular risk because they are vulnerable to sweeps aimed at them, which prompts less public outcry
The most frequent targets are secondary schools, orphanages, or villages just across the borders

34. Why Children? Impressionable No alternatives Easy to brainwash
Given drugs
Uneducated
Obedient
No alternatives
No family
Needs protection
Needs money to support themselves or loved ones
Sense of order

35. Why Children? - Socio-Economic Changes
- Technology Developments (small arms cheaper, easier to use, lighter, faster, more available)
- New type of warfare (no morals, goal is money
Cost effective
- children eat less
- occupy less space
- more are available
- don’t have to pay them

36. How are Child Soldiers Acquired?

37. Exploitation Recruited Abducted Forced to serve
propaganda
poverty
Abducted
kidnapped from families
taken from orphanages
Forced to serve
Uganda: Lord’s Resistance Army
teaches child soldiers to burn
huts and beat infants to death
Iran: child soldiers used to
clear mine fields in 1980s
Palestine: children from the
West Bank & Gaza used
as suicide bombers
"No one is born violent. No child in Africa,
Latin America, or Asia wants to be part of war.”
— Ishmael Beah at a Paris conference, author of A Long Way Gone

38. Recruitment / Targets abduction secondary schools or orphanages
surround the public bazaar
homeless or street children
refugee and IDP (internally displaced persons) populations

39. How Are They Acquired? Rebels (36 Countries – Human Rights Watch)
- Abduction/Force
- Threatened to cut off limbs
- Invisible Children of Uganda
- Atrocities against own communities (excommunication)

40. How Are They Acquired? Governments (17 Gov’ts – HRW)
- Recruited lost/poor children (invisible children)
- Persuasion (magical powers, brotherhood)
- Cultural (juju will protect)

41. Roles/Jobs of Child Soldiers

42. How Are They Used?
Males for (in addition to mentioned before) fighting, suicide missions, supplies carriers.
Females for sex, cooking, cleaning, etc.
Training Camps teach duties
- ex. Smallest boys closer to the enemy

43. Roles infantry shock troops raiders sentries spies trench diggers
porters

45. Child Soldiers What do child soldiers do?
Child soldiers often fight on the front lines of conflict.
They serve as scouts, spies, trainers, saboteurs, decoys, couriers, guards, and landmine clearers.
Child soldiers also work indirectly as porters and domestic servants.
Girl soldiers are often used as sexual
slaves or are given as rewards to
male soldiers as “wives.”
Source: MSNBC

46. 40% of all child soldiers are female.
Life for girls particularly hard because of the shame attached to what happens to them. They often find it difficult if they do return to their communities because they are less visible they often get ignored after the conflict.

47. Initiation Brutal beatings and threats of punishment Brainwashing
Branding
Force to kill
Given drugs and alcohol
Fear

48. TREATMENT OF CHILD SOLDIERS
Brutal initiations involving cannibalism
Used as human shields
Girls raped, physically abused, made sex slaves
Abducted, marched to physical exhaustion, tortured, beaten, and abused, then forced to do the same to family and members of community
Held in virtual slavery in clandestine camps, serving as guards, concubines, and soldiers

49. Intimidated by Fear extreme punishments death for desertion
rejection upon return
orphaned, homeless
no where else to go
"These are brutally thuggy people who don't want to rule politically and have no strategy for winning a war.''
— Professor Neil Boothby
Columbia University

50. Bound by Belief commanders conjure spirits magic & superstition
oils & amulets
"The commanders would wear certain pearls and said that guns wouldn't hurt us, and we believed it.''
— Beah
In the Congo, leaders told boys that if they
ate their victims they would grow stronger.

51. Fueled by Drug Use amphetamines marijuana “brown brown”
(cocaine and gunpowder)
“I shot at everything that moved.”
— Beah
Drawing by former child soldier Ishamel A. Kamara, age 18.

52. Trapped in Abuse mental & emotional physical sexual chemical
15-year-old soldier with
her infant in Liberia

53. Amputation
Rebels called the amputation of just four fingers “one love” after the rastafarian phrase “thumbs up.”
There are more than 6,000 amputees in Sierra Leone as a result of civil war. Former Liberian leader, Charles Taylor, is accused of backing a rebel group that cut off limbs, mutilated and raped thousands of civilians in Sierra Leone.

54. Effects of Child Soldiers

55. Many of the children are forced to take drugs and become addicted
The effects
Many of the children are forced to take drugs and become addicted
The children are separated from their families and many never find them again.
Child soldiers are forced to commit terrible acts of murder and left traumatised for years after the event.
Many of the children are left maimed or injured after the fighting.
Many thousands of children are killed in these wars.
Girls are used as well as boys
Many children are as young as 9 years old
Communities find it hard to accept some of these children back into society.
There is sometimes a strong negative stigma attached with being a child soldier.

56. Weakened by Deprivation
separated from families
denied educational opportunities
denied health care
denied a childhood

57. Results Creates refugee flows Become havens for terrorist groups
Lose of valuable financial assets
Prevalence of STDs, including AIDS
Schools stop
Disrupts the child’s psychological and moral development

58. Consequences
“Requiring children to commit heinous acts…alters identity: the children must…look to the commanders for survival”
“Headaches, irritability, tremors, digestive problems, difficulty sleeping”

59. Children: Affected by War as Soldiers and Civilians

60. Soldiers: As Children and Adults

61. Current Examples: Case Studies

62. Current Examples – Africa
Uganda – Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) went from 200 to 14,000 by recruiting children
Congo – Has more than 30,000-50,000 child soldiers that has been going on since 1996 and has left 3.8 million dead
Ethiopia – Oromo Liberation Front (OLF) has recruited children in order to promote liberation of the Oromo people from the Ethiopian government and have committed acts of terrorism
Child soldiers have also been prevalent in Somalia, Rwanda, Burundi, Sudan, Cote d’Ivoire, Sierra Leone, Angola, and others

63. The Problem: AFRICA
Northern districts of Uganda, 300,000 children abducted in 20 years: nobody does a thing.
Almost every family has been affected. 
Many families lost a child through abduction, or their village was attacked and destroyed by an army of abducted children known as The Lord’s Resistance Army.
Countryside virtually empty
People move to "safe villages" protected by the government
Said not done. 
At night the children of the north flee into towns to sleep, fearing that they might be abducted. 

64. Joseph Kony
Claims to make Uganda better place based on the Ten Commandments, but he has broken every one of them. 
Control of children and the doing of a crazy man. 
Known nothing else but death and destruction. 

65. Example: Liberia
The typical child soldier in Liberia was a boy in primary school when he joined the faction (s).
After spending a considerable time of 3-5 years fighting, he disarmed when he was between the ages of 15 and 17”
“In Liberia, planning for the first formal attempt to demobilize combatants began in November Soon after, the Disarmament, Demobilization and Reintegration (DDR); a Task Force chaired by UNOMIL with representatives from the transitional government, ECOMOG, NGOs and donors was created. Meanwhile, the Technical Working Group on Child Soldiers, jointly chaired by UNICEF and the national NGO Children's Assistance Program (CAP) was convened to make special recommendations on the demobilization of child soldiers. As the first significant population of Liberian child soldiers accessible to humanitarian community, it was decided thorough assessments be under taken of their condition. Thus, a round-the-clock staff of caregivers one for every 10 children to look after their basic needs while social workers help to trace their families and facilitate their reintegration into the community and counselors helped them come to terms with their past.”

66. Child Soldiers and Street Children

67. Special Court in Sierra Leone, formed by UN in 2000
Formed to try “persons who bear the greatest responsibility” for war crimes under international law as well as crimes committed under Sierra Leone domestic law: murder, extermination, enslavement, rape, sexual slavery, forced prostitution and pregnancy, and conscripting and recruiting children under the age of fifteen into armed forces or groups or using them actively in hostilities
13 suspects indicted, including the principal leaders of the warring factions and their immediate subordinates: Foday Sankoh, Charles Taylor, Johnny Paul Koroma, and key field commanders
Charles Taylor being arrested in Nigeria, April 2006, to be brought to Special Court

68. Should child soldiers be prosecuted for war crimes?
Most humanitarian groups lobbied hard against prosecuting anyone below the age of 18 at the time he or she committed a war crime
Sierra Leone government and many Sierra Leoneans who had suffered felt that justice could not be served unless some children were put on trial for their crimes
UN adopted middle ground: court had jurisdiction to try those aged as “juvenile offenders”; imprisonment would be inappropriate punishment; rather, foster-care institutions, child-protection agencies, approved schools
Because Court is trying only major war criminals, no children will be tried for war crimes, but neither will thousands of adults

70. What is being Done to Protect Children?

71. What Has Been Done The Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989)
The African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child
(Adopted by Organization of African Unity (OAU) in 1990, not entered into force until 1999)
The Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court
(Adopted in 1998, entered into force in 2002)
Acknowledges that every child has certain basic rights both in peace time and conflict
Rights established:
A right to life
A right to a name and identity
Protection from exploitation and violence
Protection against torture or other inhumane treatment
Convention also asks governments to apply the rules of international humanitarian law and “ensure protection and care of children who are affected by armed conflict.”
“Prohibits the recruitment or direct participation in hostilities or internal strife of anyone under the age of 18”
Other regional organizations have also adopted “child protection agendas,” which includes not using child soldiers. Some of these organizations include:
Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE)
The Organization of African Unity (OAU)
The European Commission
The Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly
The Heads of Government of Commonwealth
The Organization of American States (OAS)
The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS)
Established the International Criminal Court (ICC)
Article :
“Conscripting or enlisting children under the age of fifteen years into the national armed forces or using them to participate actively in hostilities" is a war crime.”
More specifically, “intentional attacks on civilian populations, humanitarian assistance personnel and vehicles, hospitals and educational buildings” are also war crimes.
As of January 2008, 105 states are part of the statute

72. What Has Been Done
The ILO Convention on the Elimination of the Worst Forms of Child Labour (1999)
The Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child
(Adopted in 2000, came into force in 2002)
Defines the worst forms of child labor
“Prohibits the forced or compulsory recruitment of children under 18 for
use in armed conflict”
“It has been ratified by over 150 countries.” – Human Rights Watch
Strengthens the Convention:
1. It sets the minimum age for compulsory recruitment or direct participation in hostilities at 18;
2. It calls upon States parties to raise the minimum age for voluntary
recruitment to at least 16 and to provide special protection and safeguards
for those under 18;
3. It categorically prohibits armed groups from recruiting or using in
hostilities anyone under 18; and
4. It calls upon States’ parties to provide technical cooperation and financial
assistance to help prevent child recruitment and deployment, and to
improve the rehabilitation and social reintegration of former child soldiers.
“To date, it has been ratified by more than 110 countries.” – HRW

73. UN CONVENTION ON THE RIGHTS OF THE CHILD
States Parties shall take all feasible measures to ensure that persons who have not attained the age of fifteen years do not take a direct part in hostilities.
States Parties shall refrain from recruiting any person who has not attained the age of fifteen years into their armed forces.
States Parties undertake to respect and to ensure respect for rules of international humanitarian law applicable to them in armed conflicts which are relevant to the child.
Concentrate on age 15—applicable to both compulsory and voluntary recruitment. IHL deals with eradication of the abuses subsumed under the rubric of “Treatment of Child Soldiers” on the PP slide.

74. OPTIONAL PROTOCOL ON THE INVOLVEMENT OF CHILDREN IN ARMED CONFLICT
States Parties shall take all feasible measures to ensure that members of their armed forces who have not attained the age of 18 years do not take a direct part in hostilities.
States Parties shall ensure that persons who have not attained the age of 18 years are not compulsorily recruited into their armed forces.
States Parties shall raise in years the minimum age for the voluntary recruitment of persons into their national armed forces.
Focus on age 18. The OP does not require that all States Parties limit voluntary recruitment to those under 18, but does highly encourage doing so (banned for armed groups).

75. RATIFICATION OF THE UN CONVENTION AND THE OPTIONAL PROTOCOL
Ratified by 191 countries
Only two countries have not ratified: the United States, which has signaled its intention to ratify by formally signing the Convention, and Somalia.
The Optional Protocol on the involvement of children in armed conflict will enter into force on 12 February.
To date, 93 countries have signed and 13 have ratified this Protocol.
U.S. undertakes an extensive examination and scrutiny of treaties before proceeding to ratify. This examination, which includes an evaluation of the degree of compliance with existing law and practice in the country at state and federal levels, can take several years – or even longer if the treaty is portrayed as being controversial or if the process is politicized. Moreover, the US Government typically will consider only one human rights treaty at a time. Isolationist stance of US. Convention On the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women—current top priority.

76. RATIFICATION—A JOINT U.S.-SOMALIA VENTURE
The Convention on the Rights of the Child is the most widely and rapidly ratified human rights treaty in history.
Somalia and the United States are obliged to ratify the Convention.
Pressure must be placed on both countries to facilitate ratification through cooperation among human rights organizations, peace and conflict research institutes, academicians, governments, and INDIVIDUALS.
The world must embrace the Optional Protocol.

77. Issues with Current Programs
Lack of infrastructure in many countries
Cultural Taboos--Girls, especially, are not welcomed back home
NGOs doing a majority of work
1. Given the immediacy and magnitude of the issues relating to the reintegration of former child soldiers and the fact that up-to-date sources are few and far between presents a significant challenge.
2. Lack of access to many areas of the countries affected by armed conflict prevent reunification of many former child soldiers in the interim care programs whose families could not be traced. More emphasis was placed on development of alternative care structures to provide long-term care and the expansion of mass tracing programs internally and with bordering countries.
3. High turnover of internationals staff within NGOs partners as well as strategy of excluding of usage of traditional methods of child protection result in delays in the reintegration process. This strategy should be reviewed and new partners involved in education and community development were identified to facilitate the reintegration of separated children into their mainstream programs.
4. The weak economy, continued insecurity and frequent displacements in the former conflict zones has eroded the capacity of many families to take care of their children or to accept foster children.
5. Lack of commitment by the rebel commanders to release children as stipulated in previous agreements.
6. Lack of commitment by the rebel forces to disarm, and the resulting insecurity, would mean that the rebel held areas are still inaccessible to child protection agencies.
7. The disarmament, demobilization and reintegration of former combatants in countries emerging from conflict encompass five distinct features: political, military, security, humanitarian and socio-economic development. It is difficult to integrated DDR of former child soldiers closely into the whole without the consideration of these five dimensions.
8. The challenge too is that it is essential to explore how other partners beyond the parameters of the UN system

78. Child Soldiers For more information
Center for Defense Information
Human Rights Watch
International Coalition to
Stop the Use of Child Soldiers
UNICEF
War Child
Youth Advocate Program International