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IRIN Web Special on child soldiers
I N T R O D U C T I O N - Continued
Recent progress despite the odds
Not all is lost, however, in the battle to protect children from involvement in combat. Recent years of campaigning have both strengthened the framework for protection of children from armed conflict, and altered general perceptions around the practice, according to Otunnu. Not so long ago, he has noted, governments and rebel forces were proudly displaying young fighters; now they are at pains to deny the presence of child soldiers in their ranks and sometimes agree to demobilise them.
The entry into force of the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the Involvement of Children in Armed Conflict in February 2002 is regarded as a particular landmark in that it specifically prohibits the use of child soldiers.
The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child contained specific provisions for the protection of children under 15 years from recruitment into armies. The Optional Protocol - now signed by 115 countries and ratified by 63 - has strengthened the Convention in several ways and raised the ceiling from 15 to 18 years.
The Protocol
- Outlaws compulsory recruitment of children under 18 years of age by armed forces (government and non-government)
- Obliges ratifying states to ensure that members of their armed forces under age 18 do not take direct part in combat
- Raises the minimum age for voluntary enlistment into armed forces to 16 years and includes specific measures requiring proof of a wish to enlist by the volunteer and his/her parents
- Outlaws the recruitment or participation of anyone under 18 years in insurgency groups and rebel forces "under any circumstances"
Those states that ratify the protocol are expected to enact national legislation to comply with its standards and, importantly, to submit regular reports on implementation to the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child. The Protocol also urges states to work for the rehabilitation and social reintegration of former child soldiers, and calls on donors to provide increased resources for demobilisation, disarmament and reintegration of those children still being forced to fight in war.
With the Optional Protocol, according to Otunnu, there is now "a universal standard" to aim for and a rallying point for the international community to really tackle those parties that continue to use children as weapons of war.
Another landmark development was the adoption of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC), which classifies conscription, enlistment or use in hostilities of children below 15 years of age as a war crime in both international and internal armed conflicts.
The Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers has reported that the ICC is likely to investigate war crimes, including the recruitment and use of child soldiers, in the DRC, where tens of thousands of child soldiers have been used - and that the court's first prosecution may soon be expected.
Higher political profile
More generally, the political profile of the problem has grown. The UN Security Council has recognised it as a particular threat to international security and addressed it in four resolutions, while child protection has been incorporated in UN peacekeeping mandates.
In January 2003, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan identified to the UN Security Council 23 parties to five conflicts on the Council's agenda (in Burundi, the DRC, Liberia, Somalia and Afghanistan) where the recruitment and use of children in combat was practised, by governments (Burundi, the DRC and Liberia) as well as armed groups.
The report also contained information about many other conflicts (including Colombia, Myanmar/Burma, Sudan, northern Uganda and Sri Lanka) where children continued to be used as combatants, but which were not on the Security Council's agenda, as well as recently-ended conflicts (Angola, Kosovo, Republic of Congo, Sierra Leone and Guinea-Bissau) where demobilisation and/or reintegration programmes were under way.
This was the first time a report presented to the Security Council specified groups that recruit or use child soldiers in armed conflict, but many conflicts beyond its scope also feature the routine use of child soldiers (the recent civil war in Cote d'Ivoire, for instance) and many other combatants groups that are guilty of such practices.
Shaming the bad eggs
There have been calls for the UN to "name and shame" offending belligerents in all conflicts on a yearly basis, in order to keep the spotlight on the international agenda and spur punitive action against those who continue to abuse children in this way. Such measures might include diplomatic isolation, curtailment of arms supplies or sources of financing, and criminal prosecution.
The UN's list has "put on notice parties to conflict that exploited and brutalised children that the international community was watching and would hold them accountable", according to Otunnu. The challenge now is to ensure the protection of children from combat, through prevention, demobilisation, disarmament, rehabilitation and reintegration programmes.
At the heart of the proposed "era of application" is the need for as many states as possible to sign, ratify and implement the terms of the Optional Protocol on child soldiers.
New efforts to monitor and report on situations where children are used in armed forces will prioritise the killing and maiming of children; the recruitment or abduction of child soldiers; the deliberate use of sexual violence as a strategy of warfare; and the denial of humanitarian access to children in distress, Otunnu told the UN General Assembly in October.
The "era of application" will then require international action (from the Security Council, the ICC and UN Commission on Human Rights), including consideration of targeted measures against those who continue to flout their international obligations.
"Children are not expendable," notes UNICEF executive director Carol Bellamy. "They belong in schools and in their families. It is our responsibility to ensure that they are protected from the horrors of warfare."
[Ends]
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