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This week on 'Daily News Debate' we continue the discussion commenced last Wednesday on 'the use of children as soldiers'.

Accordingly, today's page features an insight into the international law regarding the use of children in armed conflict provided by a legal academic, and an examination of the plight of Sri Lankan child soldiers by a well-known child rights activist.

'Daily News Debate' is your forum. You are welcome to voice your opinion on the above topic through 'Daily News Debate' with articles not exceeding 1,500 words. The articles should be confined to the selected issue and sent before November 30, 2006.

As December is drawing near, we have decided to invite your views on Christmas for 'Daily News Debate' during December. Thus, the 'Daily News Debate' topic for next month is 'the commercialisation of Christmas'.

Your views on both the above topics can be sent by post to 'Daily News Debate', Daily News, Associated Newspapers of Ceylon Limited, PO Box 1217, Colombo or via e-mail to [email protected].

 

 

 

 

International legal standards applicable to child soldiers

YOUNGSTERS: Children in the areas of armed conflict are generally at risk of being recruited as child soldiers. Child soldiers are youngsters under the age of 18 who directly or indirectly participate in military or political armed conflict.

Research indicates that those most at risk are either the displaced, separated from their families, economically and socially deprived, or members of marginalized groups such as minorities.

When children are caught in the chaos of conflict they may either opt to become soldiers of war or may be forced into military recruitment; this might be their only chance of survival.


LTTE’s ‘Baby Brigade’

The objective of this article is to discuss the problem of recruiting children as soldiers of war and to discuss the international legal standards that govern the practice of child soldiering.

At present, more children bear arms in armed conflict than ever before. Nearly 300,000 children are serving as soldiers in a number of countries despite the legal provisions, which prohibit recruiting children as combatants in warfare.

Sometimes children as young as 7 years have been recruited as soldiers. This problem is most prevalent in Africa and Asia although many countries in Europe and the Americas still accept children into their armed forces.

Very young children are forcibly recruited as soldiers, spies, porters, lookouts etc in Colombia, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Sierra Leone, Ethiopia, Burundi and several other war affected countries sin Africa.

In Asia, tens of thousands of child soldiers have been widely deployed by non-State armed groups as well as State armed forces. The worst affected countries in Asia are Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, Burma, and Nepal.

There are several reasons for the conscription of children as soldiers. By virtue of their immaturity children can be employed in dangerous situations with brief training.

Some commanders prefer to conscript children rather than adults because they are more obedient and do not question orders, and are thus easier to manipulate than adult soldiers.

In situations of armed conflict, when children are left orphaned or responsible as heads of the household if one or both parents are killed or are away fighting, they are more susceptible to being recruited as soldiers, or opt to become soldiers because they have to find their own means of survival.

As a result, 'a gun is often a meal ticket' and a more attractive option than waiting helplessly.

Sometimes, war affected children join military service voluntarily without being forced to do so. However, the word 'voluntarily' is not accurate in the sense that these children do not really have a choice.

Whatever the reason that compels children to be recruited forcefully or voluntarily as soldiers, it deprives them of all the basic rights of the child, which are formulated in the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child of 1989 or any other international legal instrument.

The lives, well-being and education of children are necessarily at great risk once they become soldiers, as they are required to engage in dangerous work, which exposes them not only to the risks of warfare but also to other forms of abuse.

The impact of conscripting children as soldiers in times of war is massive. In addition to being physically affected the tenace of war causes serious psychological damage.

In consideration of their special needs such as education, re-establishment of family ties and the development of a post war identity, the costs to society of the demobilization and reintegration of child soldiers is also very high.

The problem of child soldiers in Sri Lanka

In Sri Lanka, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) used a large number of child soldiers in fighting against the Sri Lankan armed forces, and the signing of the cease-fire agreement between the two warring parties did not put a stop to the recruiting of child soldiers by the LTTE.

UNICEF has pointed out that the continued recruitment of children by the LTTE, despite its promise to end this practice, is one of the most serious violations of Sri Lankan children's rights. ICRC, UNICEF and other international organisations attempt to deal with the problem.

UNICEF and the LTTE signed a MOU in April 2003, and that included the issue of child conscription.

Accordingly, a joint LTTE/UNICEF press release was issued at the end of talks in Killinochchi, where the LTTE once more reiterated its commitment not to recruit persons under 18 years of age.

It was agreed to set up transit centers for children affected by war that are to be co-managed by international and national agencies, including UNICEF and the Tamil Rehabilitation Organization (TRO), an LTTE front organization.

Analysts in the media have already pointed out that the transit centers will amount to another mere token gesture in view of the fact that access to LTTE camps is being denied, and the period of the children's stay at these transit centers is not defined.

International legal standards: conscription of child soldiers

A plethora of international instruments include legal provisions proscribing the use of children in war.

The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), Protocols I and II, additional to the Geneva Conventions of 1949 and the Optional Protocol to the CRC on the Involvement of Children in Armed Conflict contain numerous provisions proscribing this practice.

However, in spite of these legal standards children are still widely conscripted as soldiers worldwide.

(a) The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child of 1989 (CRC)

Article 38 of the CRC provides that State Parties should undertake to respect, and to ensure respect, for rules of international humanitarian law applicable in armed conflicts which are relevant to the child.

It further clarifies that children under he age of 15 years should not be recruited for active warfare. State Parties are obliged to endeavour to give priority to take those who are oldest.

Article 38 has been subjected to vigorous criticism since it has set the age as 15 years for the enrolment of children as soldiers in hostilities. This is contradicted by the definition of the child articulated in the CRC.

Article 1 of the CRC defines a child as a human being below the age of 18 years, except where, under the law applicable to the child, majority is attained earlier. Consequently, all provisions spelled out in the CRC apply to persons up to 18 years of age except standards delineated in paragraph (2) and (3) of Article 38, which apply only to children up to the age of 15.

It is unacceptable that persons who in every other sense are regarded as children under he Convention, are recruited into the armed forces and permitted to participate in armed conflict in accordance with this provision.

It is a clear exception, and several legal experts have commented on this anomaly. As a result there was apathy against the age limit included in the CRC for the conscription of soldiers in hostilities.

This led to the formulation of a new Protocol on the Involvement of Children in Armed Conflict, which will be discussed later.

Another weakness of the provisions of the CRC is that it cannot deal directly with the recruitment and participation of children in non-State armed groups, because only State Parties are bound to respect the provisions of the Convention.

(b) Additional Protocols I and II to the Geneva Conventions of 1949

These two Protocols contain significant provisions pertaining to the recruiting of child soldiers. Differences are seen in the phraseology of the provisions of the two Protocols regarding the conscription of child soldiers. These two Protocols apply in different situations.

Article 77 (2) of the Protocol I of 1977, which is applicable to international armed conflicts, stipulates "the Parties to the conflict shall take all feasible measures in order that children who have not attained the age of fifteen years do not take a direct part in hostilities and, in particular, they shall refrain from recruiting them into their armed forces.

In recruiting among those persons who have attained the age of fifteen years but who have not attained the age of eighteen years, the parties to the conflict shall endeavour to give priority to those who are oldest."

This provision allows children below the age of 15 should not take a direct part in hostilities. On the other hand, this appears to allow indirect acts of participation.

Considering this fact, the similar provision included in Protocol II of 1977 does not specify the type of participation in hostilities of under-aged children.

So that according to Article 4 (3) of Protocol II, which is applicable to non-international (internal) armed conflict, prohibits any type of participation, direct or indirect.

This Article proclaims that "children who have not attained the age of fifteen years shall neither be recruited in the armed forces or groups nor allowed to take part in hostilities".

Accordingly, this Article neither specifies that only States Parties should take feasible measures to guard against recruitment and participation of under-aged children, nor as in Protocol I, refers to the direct taking part in hostilities.

Therefore, Protocol II allows no exceptions to the proscribed conduct. It is significant that Protocol II extends the recruitment restrictions to groups other than the armed forces of a State.

The provisions of both Protocols certainly represent greater progress in developing international standards, which proscribe the use of child soldiers in warfare.

However, these provisions too are criticized on the grounds that the two Protocols have not been universally ratified, and that there are anomalies and gaps owing to their inconsistent application and disparities in levels of protection, i.e. types of prohibited participation and application to non-governmental groups.

The failures and anomalies seen in the CRC as well as in the Protocols to the Geneva Conventions led to the development of a new legal instrument, banning the use of children below the age of 18 in hostilities.

(c) Optional Protocol to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child on the Involvement of Children in Armed Conflict of 2000.

Taking a historic step to wipe out the use of children as soldiers, the new Optional Protocol on the Involvement of Children in Armed Conflict to the CRC was brought in on 21 January 2000.

The UN General Assembly passed a Resolution adopting this Protocol. The new Optional Protocol represents noteworthy progress over the provisions of the CRC on recruiting children as soldiers.

Article 1 of the Protocol stipulates "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."

This Article imposes an obligation on State Parties specifying the type of participation on warfare. Due to the term 'direct' there is space for children for indirect participation in hostilities.

Article 2 further states "State Parties shall ensure that persons who have not attained the age of 18 years are not compulsorily recruited into their armed forces."

While referring to Article 38 of the CRC, Article 3 (1) of the Optional Protocol delineates that States Parties should raise the minimum age for the voluntary recruitment of persons into their national armed forces from that set out in Article 38 (3) of the CRC, taking account of the principles contained in that Article and recognizing that persons under 18 are entitled to special protection under the Convention.

This Article further requires States Parties to deposit a binding declaration upon ratification of or accession to this Protocol, that set forth the minimum age at which it will permit voluntary recruitment into its national armed forces, and a description of the safeguards that it has adopted to ensure that such recruitment is not forced or coerced.

Article 3 (3) imposes strict requirements upon States Parties that permit voluntary recruitment into their national armed forces under the age of 18. Therein it specifies that safeguard must be maintained to ensure, as a minimum, that

(a) such recruitment is genuinely voluntary;

(b) such recruitment is with the informed consent of the person's or legal guardians;

(c) such persons provide reliable proof of age prior to acceptance into national military service.

These provisions are very important because in most cases voluntary participation, as stated earlier does not depict the real choice of children.

Thus the new Optional Protocol prohibits governments and armed forces from recruiting and using children under the age of 18 in hostilities, raises the minimum age, requires strict safeguards for voluntary recruitment and bans all forms of recruitment of the under 18s by armed groups.

The writer is a lecturer at the Fuculty of Law of the University of Colombo. She is an Attorney-at-law with LLB (Hons). This article was first published in the Sri Lanka Journal of International Law.

To be continued

Child soldiers in the name of martyrdom

MEDIA: The public and the media, both local and foreign may not always interpret armed conflict as detrimental to a child's proper development and they may consider the children as heroes or martyrs (BBC, Inside Story 1991).

Sri Lanka has faced a civil war for two decades, which counts more than 60,000 deaths. Several media reports have described child conscripts amongst the militant groups (Newsweek 1995; BBC inside story 1991).

In an effort to explore the effects of child conscription on the children involved, Several Research projects were done to identify problems of conscription. The children reported performing a variety of manual labors, involving varied degrees of dangers.

Two children had performed radio communication tasks, and fifteen had performed guard duty. Fifteen of the children had performed tasks such as digging trenches or doing kitchen work.

Seven of the children had engaged in front line fighting, five had manufactured bombs, and five had set land mines. Fifteen of the children had been trained in firearms use, and fourteen of them had been trained to commit suicide if captured.

According to the nineteen children interviewed, life with the militants was not pleasant. All of the children had to undergo some form of indoctrination designed, at least in part, to create a hatred of the enemy.

Twelve of the 19 had had run away or attempted to run away at least once, and 11 of the 19 reported arguing about or refusing to obey orders.

Disobedience led to various forms of punishment, including kitchen duty, beatings, imprisonment, blackmail, or death threats. A majority of the children felt sad and emotionally upset when they remembered their mother or family.

The 'inside story' by the BBC (1991), though not intentionally, illustrates many of the different methods adopted to 'motivate' children to volunteer to join armed groups.

Some of these methods include public address systems that continuously broadcast 'reasons' and 'justifications' for volunteering, and literature encouraging volunteerism is targeted at children and adolescents.

Model automatic rifles were attached to seesaws in one children's playground. The dead are glorified as martyrs with monuments built all over, and posters of martyrs on display.

School children and school bands parade at funerals of the dead 'martyrs'. Our interviews with child soldiers suggest these tactics (or a combination of factors) are often successful.

Some joined for the virtue of being a freedom fighter and martyr. Some joined for fear of being abducted by the enemy (soldiers), Others said they joined seeking to revenge a family member who had been killed by an enemy (or their own group).

Few indicated that they had joined for economic reasons, to support their family. Conscripting children is abuse Given the public's tendency to view these child soldiers as "heroes", it may be difficult for many to recognize the abusive effects of conscription.

However, considering the different aspects of emotional abuse, conscripted child would face the following: conscription "corrupts" a child by making him engage in violent, destructive, and anti-social behavior, such as killing and destruction of property, thus making him unfit for normal social experience.

Conscription "terrorizes" a child with verbally assaults, bullying, blackmail and death threats, all in the name of 'discipline'. Conscription isolates a child from the normal social experience, and ignores his emotional and developmental needs by removing him from normal family life and schooling.

Any of these circumstances would adversely affect the child's right to unhindered growth and identity as a child.

Moreover, conscription may lead children to commit suicide, an act of self-destruction that cannot be fully comprehended.

Traditionally, all conscripts, irrespective of age wear cyanide capsules at all times, which they are trained to bite on during "suicide missions" or if they are captured (BBC - 'inside story' 1991).

The prominent place given to martyrs and the oath taken by the child soldier in which he vows to sacrifice his life are likely contributing factors to this phenomenon.

Indoctrinating and convincing a child to commit suicide for any cause should constitute both emotional abuse and intentional poisoning. These findings lead us to propose a new definition of child abuse.

When an adult persuades a child to commit suicide - an act the child cannot comprehend - for personal, social, economic, or political reasons that the child cannot understand, that persuasion constitutes a form of child abuse that may be called "suicide by proxy".

Moreover, we propose that conscription itself - the involvement of dependent, developmentally immature children and adolescents in an armed conflict that they do not truly comprehend, to which they are unable to give consent, and which adversely affects the child's right to unhindered growth and identity as a child - should also be viewed as a form of child abuse.

Defining conscription as a form of child abuse does not require a great leap of imagination, as many of the traditional elements of child abuse are already contained within it.

Severe physical punishment in the name of discipline clearly constitutes physical abuse.

Getting a child to perform guard duty, involving the child in military operations, making the child manufacture bombs and set sea mines increases the likelihood that the child will suffer serious injury or death, and subjects the child to intense psychological and emotional pressure.

The exploitation of child labor is yet another form of abuse. There is a need for the public in affected areas and societies to recognise the long-term implications that childhood conscription will have on their society.

There should not be any political bias when such a call for awareness is made. The common objective should be to protect children whatever the race, religion or political group from the physical and emotional trauma including death, and initiate a program to rehabilitate these children who are deeply damaged emotionally.

The writer is a former chairman of the National Child Protection Authority. This is an extract from his address at the second International Conference of the World Alliance for Peace in Sri Lanka.

Child Soldiers in the world

REPORT: Today, as many as 300,000 children under the age of 18 serve in government forces or armed rebel groups. Some are as young as eight years old.

* The participation of child soldiers has been reported in 33 on-going or recent armed conflicts in almost every region of the world. Child soldiers are used by armed opposition forces, although many are used by Government armies.

* Children are uniquely vulnerable to military recruitment because of their emotional and physical immaturity. They are easily manipulated and can be drawn into violence that they are too young to resist or understand.

Technological advances in weaponry and the proliferation of small arms have contributed to the increased use of child soldiers. Lightweight automatic weapons are simple to operate, often easily accessible, and can be used by children as easily as adults.

* Children are most likely to become child soldiers if they are poor, separated from their families, displaced from their homes, living in a combat zone or have limited access to education. Orphans and refugees are particularly vulnerable to recruitment.

* Many children join armed groups because of economic or social pressure, or because children believe that the group will offer food or security. Others are forcibly recruited, "press-ganged" or abducted by armed groups.

* Both girls and boys are used as child soldiers. In case studies in El Salvador, Ethiopia, and Uganda, almost a third of the child soldiers were reported to be girls. Girls may be raped, or in some cases, given to military commanders as "wives."

* Once recruited, child soldiers may serve as porters or cooks, guards, messengers or spies. Many are pressed into combat, where they may be forced to the front lines or sent into minefields ahead of older troops. Some children have been used for suicide missions.

* Children are sometimes forced to commit atrocities against their own family or neighbours. Such practices help ensure that the child is "stigmatized" and unable to return to his or her home community.

* Few peace treaties recognize the existence of child soldiers, or make provisions for their rehabilitation and reintegration into society.

Many former child soldiers do not have access to the educational programs, vocational training, family reunification, or even food and shelter that they need to successfully rejoin civilian society.

As a result, many end up on the street, become involved in crime, or are drawn back into armed conflict.

Extracted from the Human Rights Watch fact sheet on child soldiers.

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