Child Soldiers The Role of Children in Armed Conflict

by Cohn, Ilene; Goodwin-Gill, Guy S.

• ISBN13: 9780198259329
• ISBN10: 0198259328
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1994-11-10
• Publisher: Clarendon Press

Summary

1994 is the International Year of the Family, and debates about the rights of the child are once again at the top of the national and international legal and political agenda. Yet in places of armed conflict all over the world tens of thousands of children are recruited to fight in bloodyconflicts, and their rights are systematically ignored and abused. In this path-breaking study, Professor Goodwin-Gill and Dr Cohn assess the status of the Child Soldier in international law and highlight the ways in which international humanitarian law fails to provide effective protection, particularly in the internal conflicts which are the most commonbattlefields today. Based upon empirical data gathered from places of conflict all over the world, the authors examine the consequences for child soldiers, their families and community of their participation in armed conflict. They conclude their study with practical suggestions for preventingrecruitment, and call for a more coherent policy of treatment for those children who have participated in acts of violence. This report, on behalf of the Henri Dunant Institute, in Geneva, is a timely and much-needed contribution to a growing debate about the role of children in armed conflict.

Table of Contents

Selected Abbreviations	ix
Introduction & Background	1	(12)
Background and Objectives	3	(2)
Methodology	5	(1)
Who is the Child?	6	(3)
Organization and Issues	9	(4)
The Child Soldier: Why Children Participate in Armed Conflict	13	(32)
Recruitment of Children and Youth into Armed Forces and/or Groups	24	(6)
Why Children and Youth join Armed Forces or Groups	30	(15)
Preventing the Recruitment or Participation of Children and Youth in Armed Conflict: Law, Programmes, & Policy	45	(38)
The International Law of the Child: The Sources of the Law	55	(1)
International Law and the Child Soldier	56	(16)
Preventing the Recruitment or Participation of Children and Youth	72	(6)
Intervention to Reduce Volunteerism	78	(5)
Conditions & Consequences of Participation	83	(34)
Conditions of Participation	93	(5)
Short-term and Long-term Consequences of Participation	98	(19)
Responding to the Consequences of Participation: Law, Programmes & Policy	117	(26)
The Child as Protected Person	121	(5)
Responding to Detention Issues	126	(5)
Addressing the Psychological Consequences	131	(6)
Responding to Physical Injury	137	(1)
Education and Training for Ex-Combatants	138	(3)
Additional Considerations	141	(2)
Developing the Protection of Child Soldiers: The uses of Law & Process	143	(22)
Developing the Law	148	(2)
International Implementation	150	(10)
Politics and Pressure	160	(1)
Information and Application	161	(4)
Findings & Recommendations	165	(18)
Why Children Participate in Armed Conflict	167	(2)
Preventing Recruitment and Participation	169	(4)
Conditions and Consequences	173	(2)
Responding to Recruitment and Participation	175	(1)
The Need for further Research	176	(1)
Law and Process	177	(2)
Politics and Pressure	179	(1)
Knowledge, Dissemination and Access	180	(3)
Annex: Ratification of the Convention on the Rights of the Child-International Humanitarian Law & Human Rights Instruments - Voting Age & Military Age by Country	183	(26)
Select Bibliography	209	(12)
Index	221