Monitoring The UN

Monitoring The UN > The UN and Children's Rights

Child Soldiers

Approximately 300,000 children are currently involved in armed conflicts in over 30 countries around the world. Most of these children, called child soldiers, take a direct part in hostilities. Every day, the rights of these child soldiers are abused and neglected. In countries such as Angola, Colombia, Lebanon, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Sudan, Uganda, Mozambique, Rwanda, and the Democratic Republic of Congo, innocent children are kidnapped off the streets or from their schools and are forced to play an active role in battles they did not start.

Recruitment of Child Soldiers and the Abuses of Children's Right: There are a number of ways that children are recruited into armed groups. In some instances, children are forcibly conscripted from orphanages, schools, streets, or even homes. In other cases, parents who are hungry and poverty-stricken will offer their children to military groups; in these situations, payments for the child's service may be made directly to the family. Some children, particularly those separated from their families or living in poverty, believe that becoming a soldier is "the only way to guarantee regular meals, clothing or medical attention."

Whether children become child soldiers voluntarily or because they are forced to, they nevertheless fail to understand the consequences of their situation - a situation where their rights (to safety, health, free expression, free association, and so on) will be compromised.

Once children are recruited, they perform many different functions. Most children eventually serve in combat roles, either fighting with small arms and light weapons (SALW) or laying mines. Others serve as "cooks, porters, messengers, and spies. While these may seem to be less harmful, these functions entail great hardship and risk bringing all children under [the] suspicion" of enemy forces. All too often, female child soldiers are also expected to perform sexual services for older male soldiers; in many countries of conflict, girls in armed forces are claimed by militia leaders as "wives." [(For more on sexual exploitation, click here ' Sexual Exploitation and Sexual Assault.)]

No matter what role a child initially performs, he/she is likely to end up in a combat position, forced to observe and participate in truly horrendous acts. Information obtained from Sierra Leone indicates that "children forced to take part in atrocities were often given drugs to overcome their fear or reluctance to fight." Forcing children to witness such "atrocities" and subjecting them to conflict situations are massive human rights violations. Still, children's rights abuses continue in dozens of countries around the world.

Protecting Children's Rights: In recent years the plight of child soldiers, previously invisible because of children's lack of legal status and frequent lack of documentation, has become more visible. As a result, progress has been made in defending the rights of these children.

The first step in preventing youths from being conscripted involved institutionalizing the rights of children. In 1999, an International Labour Organization Convention (C-182) called for the elimination and prohibition of "work which, by its nature or the circumstances in which it is carried out, is likely to harm the health, safety or morals of children." An Optional Protocol on the Involvement of Children in Armed Conflict to the Convention on the Rights of the Child, which has been ratified by 22 countries and signed by another 78 (as of May 13 2002), raises the minimum age for voluntary recruitment into a military group from 15 to 18 and prohibits compulsory recruitment below the age of 18 as well. Hoping to lead this trend by example, in October 1998 the United Nations (UN) set 18 as the minimum age for UN peacekeepers, and Secretary-General Kofi Annan asked governments sending troops to peace-keeping missions to try and send troops 21 years of age and older.

Once the rights of children are enshrined in international treaties, practical steps must be taken to uphold those rights. As with all issues in the area of children's rights, education is a fundamental cornerstone of any productive efforts. As discussed above, education (which normally accompanies an affluent family) can help children avoid the desperation and the needs that drive many youths to become child soldiers. As well as preventing recruitment, education also plays an important part in reintegrating former child soldiers. Education can help those youths get a job; it can give them a sense of purpose; it can convey moral lessons (such as teaching former soldiers that non-violent conflict resolution is superior to violent methods.) For all these reasons, educational facilities geared towards the specific needs of former child soldiers are essential to the campaign for children's rights.

The UN has developed a number of different methods to help prevent children from being recruited into military groups:

(1)While many international treaties and national laws set 18 as the minimum age for military recruitment, this standard is not always enforced universally or consistently in the areas to which the laws apply. In reaction to this communication problem, the UN advocates programs to make "local communities more aware of national and international laws governing the age of recruitment."

(2)As was mentioned above, moral education is an important aspect of the fight against child soldiers: "Non-governmental organizations, religious groups, and civil society in general can play important roles in establishing ethical frameworks that characterize children's participation in armed conflict as unacceptable."

(3)Children who, once separated from their families or other legal guardians, become refugees or internally-displaced persons (IDPs) are extremely susceptible to recruitment. These children can very easily "disappear" (from refugee camps and camps for internally-displaced people) without anyone noticing or acting on the disappearance. To remedy this situation, the UN encourages "the active and early documentation and tracing of unaccompanied children."

(4)The fourth UN suggestion for protecting children from recruitment is closely related to the third. The UN asserts that if camps for refugees and IDPs are located far from sites of conflict (and far from the camps and headquarters of military groups), children will be less accessible to warring groups and will be less likely to be recruited into conflict situations.

Small Arms and Light Weapons, and the Link with Child Soldiers: (Note: Small arms (revolvers, sub-machine guns, assault rifles, and others) are weapons "designed for personal use, while light weapons [heavy machine-guns, grenade launchers, portable anti-aircraft and anti-tank guns, and others] are designed for use by several persons serving as a crew.")

While the UN pursues the measures described above to protect children from involvement in armed conflict, it is also in the middle of a campaign against the illicit trade of SALW. SALW are light and easy to use without training, making them ideal weapons for child soldiers as young as eight years old. The global proliferation and illicit trade of SALW are responsible for the conscription and deaths of millions of children.

At the Millennium Summit (6 to 8 September 2000), the UN issued the Millennium Declaration, part of which called for "concerted action to end illicit traffic in small arms and light weapons, especially by making arms transfers more transparent and supporting regional disarmament measures." The UN Conference on the Illicit Trade in Small Arms and Light Weapons in All its Aspects, [commissioned] in December 1998 and held between 9 and 20 July 2001, reiterated calls for improved transparency surrounding and monitoring of arms trading as well as multinational agreements to destroy confiscated weapons.

As with many issues involving children's rights, the campaign against SALW has gained momentum in recent years. Nonetheless, the seemingly endless supply of weaponry ending up on the global illegal arms market continues to threaten the rights of children around the world. As of the UN's 2001 conference, there were approximately 10 million SALW in Afghanistan, 7 million in West Africa, and 2 million in Central America. The battle against these weapons is in many ways a battle for children; thankfully, the commitment to this campaign and to the elimination of illicit weapons continues to grow, particularly as a result of growing awareness about the potentially devastating power of non-state groups following September 11 2001 and subsequent rogue attacks.

UN Website: Impact of Armed Conflict on Children, Special Concerns, Child Soldiers: An Affront to Humanity: http://www.un.org/rights/concerns.htm#soldiers

Human Rights Watch Website: Children's Rights, Stop the Use of Child Soldiers: http://www.hrw.org/campaigns/crp/index.htm

Human Rights Internet Website: Text of ILO Convention 182 concerning the Prohibition and Immediate Action for the Elimination of the Worst Forms of Child Labour: http://www.hri.ca/children/texts/C182.htm

Government of Canada's War-Affected Children Website: Education and Conflict: http://www.waraffectedchildren.gc.ca/eduandcon-e.asp

UN Website: Impact of Armed Conflict on Children, Special Concerns, Child Soldiers: An Affront to Humanity: http://www.un.org/rights/concerns.htm#soldiers Ibid. Ibid. Ibid.

Small Arms: United Nations Conference on the Illicit Trade in Small Arms and Light Weapons in All Its Aspects Pamphlet (New York: United Nations, 2001)

UN Website: United Nations Millennium Declaration, adopted by the General Assembly: http://www.un.org/millennium/declaration/ares552e.htm

Small Arms: United Nations Conference on the Illicit Trade in Small Arms and Light Weapons in All Its Aspects Pamphlet (New York: United Nations, 2001) 5.