MILITARY USE OF CHILDREN

1
MILITARY USE OF CHILDREN

• AFRICA

2
AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL

• Around the world, children are singled out for
  recruitment by both armed forces and armed
  opposition groups, and exploited as combatants.
  
• Children are sometimes coerced to commit grave
  atrocities, including rape and murder of
  civilians using assault rifles such as AK-47s and
  G4s.
• Forced to injure or kill members of their own
  families or other child soldiers.
  
• Others serve as porters, cooks, guards,
  messengers, spies, and sex slaves.

3
STATISTICS

• Over 41 countries are reportedly using children
  as government and/or rebel soldiers.
  
• An estimated 300,000 child soldiers worldwide.
• An estimated 120,000 or 1/3 are in Africa.
• Another 500,000 children worldwide are believed
  to be in paramilitary organizations.
  

4
Africa Asia Middle East Europe North
America Latin America
5
AFRICA

• Burundi
• Central African Republic (CAR)
• Chad
• Cote dIvoire
• Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC or Congo)
• Rwanda
• Sierra Leone
• 10,000 KNOWN TO HAVE FOUGHT IN ARMED FORCES

• Somalia
• Sudan
• USE CHILD SOLDIERS SINCE 1983
• OVER 2,500 RELEASED IN 2001
• ESTIMATED 9,000 OTHER CHILDREN STILL USED
  ACCORDING TO UNICEF
  
• Uganda
• 15,000 CHILDREN ABDUCTED SINCE 1986
• 1,500 WERE REUNITED WITH THEIR FAMILIES IN 2003
• Zimbawe

6
MILITARY USES

• Child soldiers
• Support soldiers
• Spies
• Messengers
• Lookouts
• Sexual slaves
• Political Advantage
• Human shields
• Propaganda

7
Children are cheap, expendable, and easier to
condition into fearless killing and unthinking
obedience- The Coalition to Stop the Use of
Child Soldiers

• http//www.cnn.com/interactive/world/0701/slidesho
  w.audio.soldiers/frameset.exclude.html (VIDEO)
  
• Africa Renewal formerly "Africa Recovery". Africa
  Recovery Vol. 15 3. Retrieved on September 30,
  2007. http//www.un.org/ecosocdev/geninfo/afrec/vo
  l15no3/153chil2.htm

8
REGULATION ATTEMPTS

• UNITED NATIONS

• The United Nations Convention on the Rights of
  the Child, Art. 38, (1989) "State parties shall
  take all feasible measures to ensure that persons
  who have not attained the age of 15 years (18
  years as of 2002) do not take a direct part in
  hostilities."
• Art 4, Optional Protocol obligates states to
  "take all feasible measures to prevent such
  recruitment and use, including the adoption of
  legal measures necessary to prohibit and
  criminalize such practices."
• Art 6(3) Optional Protocol demobilize children
  within their jurisdiction who have been recruited
  or used in hostilities, and to provide assistance
  for their physical and psychological recovery and
  social reintegration.

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REGULATION ATTEMPTS cont.

• AMNESTY INTL
• AND
• THE UNITED STATES

• The Child Soldier Prevention Act of 2007
  (Democratic senator Durbin-IL and republican
  senator Brownback KS)
  
• Restricts U.S. military assistance to governments
  that are implicated in supporting the recruitment
  or use of children in government armed forces or
  government-allied armed groups
• Countries that are clearly identified in the
  Human Rights Report in violation of international
  standards would be eligible only for military
  assistance to address the issue of child soldiers
  and otherwise professionalize their armed forces
  until the problem is remedied.

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UNITED NATIONS- MONITORING AND REPORTING MECHANISM

• Killing or mutilation of children
• Recruiting or using child soldiers
• Attacks against schools or hospitals
• Rape and other grave sexual violence against
  children
  
• Abduction of children
• Denial of humanitarian access for children.

11
CUT HANDS

• Drawings by former child soldiers from Sierra
  Leone at an interim care centre in Lungi. AI,
  RETRIEVED September 27, 2008, http//www.amnestyu
  sa.org/children/child-soldiers/about-child-soldier
  s/page.do?id1021176n13n278n31270

12
SEXUAL ABUSE

• Drawings by former child soldiers from Sierra
  Leone at an interim care centre in Lungi. AI,
  RETRIEVED September 27, 2008, http//www.amnestyu
  sa.org/children/child-soldiers/about-child-soldier
  s/page.do?id1021176n13n278n31270

13
CHILDREN AND MACHINE GUNS

• Drawings by former child soldiers from Sierra
  Leone at an interim care centre in Lungi. AI,
  RETRIEVED September 27, 2008, http//www.amnestyu
  sa.org/children/child-soldiers/about-child-soldier
  s/page.do?id1021176n13n278n31270

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TESTIMONIES

• "I remember the day I decided to join the
  mayi-mayi. It was after an attack on my village.
  My parents, and also my grand-father were killed
  and I was running. I was so scared. I lost
  everyone I had nowhere to go and no food to eat.
  In the mayi-mayi I thought I would be protected,
  but it was hard. I would see others die in front
  of me. I was hungry very often, and I was scared.
  Sometimes they would whip me, sometimes very
  hard. They used to say that it would make me a
  better fighter. One day, they whipped my
  11-year-old friend to death because he had not
  killed the enemy. "
• -Jacques, DRC, recruited into an insurgent group
  at age 10

• When the mayi-mayi attacked my village the
  soldiers captured all the girls, even the very
  young. Once with the soldiers, you were forced to
  "marry" one of the soldiersIf you refused, they
  would kill you... They would slaughter people
  like chickens. They would not even bury the
  bodies they slaughtered... I even saw a girl who
  refused to be "married" being tortured...
  Wherever we were fighting, along the way, they
  would take the women and girls working in the
  fields...They would take young girls, remove
  their clothes, and then would rape them...My
  "husband" did not beat me too often. ..But one
  day, he was killed in an attack. I felt I was in
  danger and I should leave. On the way, as I was
  pregnant, I had my baby. I was alone in the bush,
  without medication. I still have pain from this.
  Then I went to the village of my "husband", but
  his parents rejected me and my child, after
  taking all my belongings. They blamed me for his
  death. I wanted to go to my home, but it is so
  far away, I was afraid the mayi-mayi would find
  me and capture me again."
• -JasMime, DRC, recruited June 2002 by an
  insurgent group at age 12. She is now 16 and has
  a four-month-old baby.
  

15
CHILD SOLDIER (CHILD SOLDIER PREVENTION ACT OF
2007)

• Any person under the age of 18 who takes a direct
  part in hostilities as a member of governmental
  armed forces
  
• Any person under age 18 who has been compulsorily
  recruited into governmental armed forces
  
• Any person under age 16 voluntarily recruited
  into governmental armed forces
  
• Any person under age 18 recruited or used in
  hostilities by armed forces distinct from the
  armed forces of a State
  
• Includes those serving in any capacity,
  including in support roles such as, but not
  limited to, cooks, porters, messengers, medics,
  guards, sex slaves, etc.

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Is the United States in violation of the Child
Soldier Act of 2007 since we let people at the
age of 17 enlist in our military?

• Includes those serving in any capacity, including
  in support roles such as, but not limited to,
  cooks, porters, messengers, medics, guards, sex
  slaves, etc.
• - Child Soldier Prevention Act of 2007

• The Optional Protocol allows government armed
  forces to accept volunteers into their armed
  forces from age 16, with certain safeguards such
  as parental permission and informed consent.
• - U.S. Constitution

17
REGULATION ATTEMPTS cont.

• INTL CRIMINAL COURT (ICC)

• Under Article 8.2.26 of the Rome Statute (adopted
  in July 1998, effective 1 July 2002)
  "Conscripting or enlisting children under the age
  of 15 years into the national armed forces or
  using them to participate actively in
  hostilities" is a war crime
• Following the civil wars of the 1990s (Sierra
  Leone) the age of 18 was the most widely
  recognized as the dividing line between childhood
  and adulthood.
• The ICC embodied this principle by refusing
  jurisdiction over anyone who committed crimes
  under the age of 18.
  
• Who should be held responsible for the
  killings that the children did under the age of
  18?

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RECRUITMENT, REHABILITATION DISPLACEMENT

• ENDLESS CYCLE
• RECRUITMENT AS CHILD SOLDIERS
• RELEASED
• REJOINING
• REHABILITATION CAMPS
• EDUCATION
• HEALTH CARE
• PSYCOLOGICAL/ PSYCHIATRIC HELP
• SKILL DEVELOPMENT

19
DDR

• DISARMAMENT- PHYSICAL REMOVAL OF MEANS OF COMBAT
  (WEAPONS, AMMUNITION, ETC.)
  
• DEMOBILIZATION- DISBANDING OF ARMED GROUPS
• REINTEGRATION- PROCESS OF REINTEGRATING FORMER
  SOLDIERS INTO CIVIL SOCIETY
  
• REINTAGRATION PROCESS IS NOT EFFECTIVE UNLESS
  CONFLICT IS OVER. MANY CHILD SOLDIERS ARE
  REINTEGRATED INTO A PRE-EXISTING AND ONGOING
  CONFLICT AREA

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CONSEQUENCES

• PHYSICAL
• MUTILATION
• SEXUAL ABUSE
• LOSS OF LIMBS
• LOSS OF HEARING/ SIGHT
• PSYCHOLOGICAL
• SENSE OF GUILT
• POST TRAUMATIC STRESS DISORDER
• SOCIAL
• DISTRUST
• INABILITY TO SOCIALIZE
• ENABLES CONFLICT TO CONTINUE WITHIN THE REGION

21
TESTIMONIES

• "They took us as wives straightaway. We had to
  cook for them. If a cow was killed, we had to
  cook it...When they came back, they would eat and
  drink, then they would call for you. They were so
  many. It was so painful...If they went to attack
  somewhere or to loot, there was always someone
  who stayed behind. Then hed call you. If you
  refused, they used sticks to whip you...We mostly
  stayed in the forest but sometimes we had to go
  with them and carry what they looted...They all
  had sex with me. I dont know how many people had
  sex with me. A man would come, then another and
  another. I wasnt even the youngest. Some girls
  were even younger than me. Even the commanders
  called for you. You couldnt refuse...They said
  theyd kill you if you ran away. Some people fled
  and didnt come back. We didnt know if theyd
  got away or had been killed."
• -Burundi, in 2001, F., then aged 13, was forced
  to accompany a group of around 30 combatants.
  

• "I was working on the farm and heard that
  soldiers were coming, so my father told me to
  hide. But I was caught. The soldiers tied me and
  beat me and took me to a barracks in Lofa County.
  There were many small boys in Lofa, more than the
  adults. Many were killed by bullets and rockets.
  They gave me an arm and told me how to use it I
  used an AK 47 the adults used RPGs and other
  bigger weapons. I fired the gun but am not sure
  if I killed people. On the road enemy soldiers
  came and I tried to run away but a rocket hit my
  leg. Four people were wounded and some others
  died in the attack. Government soldiers came and
  took me to Phebe hospital. After a week and two
  days an ambulance from JFK hospital came to pick
  me up. At JFK they amputated my leg. The soldiers
  gave me a little money while I was in hospital so
  I paid my way to come to Titanic from JFK. I
  want to go to school and start a small
  business."
• - J.K., a 14-year-old boy from Bong County,
  Liberia, was captured by former government forces
  in June 2003
  

22
VILLAGE RAID

• Drawings by former child soldiers from Sierra
  Leone at an interim care centre in Lungi. AI,
  RETRIEVED September 27, 2008, http//www.amnestyu
  sa.org/children/child-soldiers/about-child-soldier
  s/page.do?id1021176n13n278n31270

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RESPONSIBILITY

• VOLUNTARY CHILD SOLDIER PARTICIPANTS
• WHEN REINTEGRATION PROCESS IS NOT EFFECTIVE
• HOPELESSNESS- FAMILIES ARE KILLED AND VILLAGES
  ARE DESTROYED
  
• NO OTHER MEANS OF SURVIVAL
• PROTECTION
• WHO SHOULD BE HELD RESPONSIBLE FOR THE CRIMES
  COMMITED BY CHILD SOLDIERS?

24
HAPPY ENDINGS

• In March 2006, the International Criminal Court
  announced the indictment of Thomas Lubanga Dyilo,
  founder and leader of the Union of Congolese
  Patriots in the Ituri region of the Democratic
  Republic of the Congo, for commission of war
  crimes, conscription and enlistment of children
  under the age of 15 and the use of children for
  active participation in hostilities.
• The Democratic Republic of the Congo recently
  convicted and sentenced of Major Jean-Pierre
  Biyoyo of the Mudundo Forty armed group by the
  National Military Tribunal in South Kivu, for the
  recruitment and use of children in armed
  conflict.
• Also for the first time, a former head of State
  Charles Ghankay Taylor of Liberia, was
  transferred into the custody of the Special Court
  for Sierra Leone under indictment on 11 counts of
  war crimes and crimes against humanity, including
  "conscripting or enlisting children under the age
  of 15 years into armed forces or groups, or using
  them to participate actively in hostilities".