Child Soldiers

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Child Soldiers
Youth Who Participate in Armed Conflict

• Youth Advocate Program International4545 42nd
  St. NW, Suite 209Washington DC 20016, USA
• www.yapi.org

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Child Soldiers What do you know?

• During what years of your life are you considered
  a child?
• How many countries would you guess use child
  soldiers in todays world? A few? A lot?
• Why would an army want to use child soldiers?
• Can children be accepted into the United States
  Armed Forces?

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Child Soldiers In Focus
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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).

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Child Soldiers Basic Facts

• 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
  Myanmars (Burmas) 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 80-90 percent of casualties
  were adult soldiers today, 80-90 percent of
  casualties are women and children.

Source Child Protection Armed Conflict,
lthttp//www.unicef.org/protection/index_armedconfl
ict.htmlgt (3 March 2004). Source Special
Report Child Soldiers, 12 December 2003, United
Nations Office for the Coordination of
Humanitarian Affairs,ltwww.IRINnews.org/webspecials
/childsoldiersgt (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, ltwww.IRINnews.org/webspecial
s/childsoldiersgt (3 March 2004). Source Special
Report Child Soldiers, 12 December 2003, United
Nations Office for the Coordination of
Humanitarian Affairs, ltwww.IRINnews.org/webspecial
s/childsoldiersgt (3 March 2004).
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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
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Child Soldiers Where are child soldiers?
Children at War Around the World
Source UN
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Child Soldiers Where are child soldiers?

• 300,000 children around the world are actively
  participating in more than 20 armed conflicts.
• More than 20,000 children have been abducted and
  trained as soldiers by the Lords Resistance Army
  (LRA) in Sudan since May 2002
• Some of countries that use child soldiers are
  Burma, Columbia, Sri Lanka, Rwanda, Liberia,
  Uganda, Sierra Leone, Sudan, and Cote d'Ivoire.

Source Child Protection Armed Conflict,
http//www.unicef.org/protection/index_armedconfli
ct.html (3 March 2004). Source UNICEF-led team
finds 163 Congolese child soldiers in Uganda, 22
November 2003, http//www.unicef.org/newsline/01pr
19.htm (3 March 2004). Source UNICEF-led team
finds 163 Congolese child soldiers in Uganda, 22
November 2003, http//www.unicef.org/newsline/01pr
19.htm (3 March 2004).
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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.

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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
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Child Soldiers Whats being done to stop the use
of child soldiers?

• The Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC)
  signed by the United Nations General Assembly in
  1989 protects children under the age of 15 from
  involvement in the armed forces.
• All countries but Somalia and the United States
  have ratified the CRC.
• A 2000 Protocol (optional addition) to the CRC
  raised the age from 15 to 18 years.
• This Protocol also prohibits non-governmental
  armed groups from recruiting soldiers under the
  age of 18.

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Child Soldiers Whats being done to help child
soldiers return to normal life?

• Disarmament to remove all weapons from the
  child.
• Demobilization the point at which the child
  leaves military life.
• Rehabilitation and Reintegration
• to prepare a child to return to
• normal life.
• Can be difficult for child to readjust.
• The UN and NGOs try to provide psychological
  support, education, and job training.

Source BBC
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Child Soldiers What you can do

• Educate yourself about Child Soldiers.
• Contact local, state, and national politicians
  for information about Child Soldiers.
• Write letters asking for their opinion on Child
  Soldiers
• Talk to your parents about Child Soldiers.
• Educate the adults in your life!
• Advocate for Child Soldiers awareness!
• Begin a social awareness/human rights club

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Child Soldiers For more information

• Center for Defense Information
• www.cdi.org/atp/childsoldiers
• Human Rights Watch
• www.hrw.org
• International Coalition to
• Stop the Use of Child Soldiers
• www.child-soldiers.org

• UNICEF
• www.unicef.org
• War Child
• www.warchild.org
• Youth Advocate Program International
• www.yapi.org