"Children need be the victims of war only if there is no will to prevent it. Experiences in dozens of conflicts confirm that extraordinary actions have been taken and can be taken to protect and provide for children.

Prepared and posted by : Kekutah Jarrah

CHILD SOLDIERS: AN AFFRONT TO HUMANITY

Within assistance programmes designed to promote health and nutrition, psychosocial well-being and education, attention must be given to the special circumstances created by armed conflict. This includes the millions of war-affected children and their families being forced to flee their homes, to be displaced within their countries or crossing borders as refugees. During armed conflicts, children and women also face a heightened risk of rape, sexual humiliation, prostitution and other forms of gender-based violence, which are downplayed as an unfortunate but inevitable side effect of war. Children are increasingly participating in war as combatants, and they are being deliberately recruited by government or rebel armies. Both during and after conflicts, children remain exposed to the dangers of landmines and millions of pieces of unexploded ordnance - bombs, shells and grenades that fail to detonate on impact. The special needs of adolescents are often neglected during times of conflict and in the post-conflict rebuilding of their societies.

Coupled with the rapid social change which often precedes or accompanies war, armed conflict leads to a breakdown in the family support systems so essential to a child's survival and development. Other forms of protection also slip away, particularly government and community support systems.An urgent priority is to demobilize everyone under 18 years of age from the armed forces. The participation of children must be recognized in all peace agreements so that effective planning can be made for reintegration programmes.

Demobilization and reintegration of child soldiers

The process of reintegration must help children establish new foundations in life. Re-establishing contact with the family and the community is important for former child soldiers who have grown up away from their families and who have been deprived of many of the normal opportunities for physical, emotional and intellectual development. Providing educational and vocational opportunities for former child combatants may prevent them from rejoining military units, and at the same time improve the economic security of their families. For a former child soldier, an education is more than a route to employment. It can also help to normalize life and to develop an identity separate from that of the soldier. A difficulty to be faced is the likelihood that former combatants may have fallen far behind in their schooling, and may be placed in classes with much younger children. Specific measures may be required, such as establishing special classes for former child soldiers, who can then be reintegrated into regular schools.

The progressive involvement of youth in acts of extreme violence desensitizes them to suffering. This experience makes children more likely to commit violent acts themselves and contributes to their break with society. The lure of ideology is particularly strong in early adolescence, when young people are developing personal identities and searching for a sense of social meaning. Child soldiers may find it difficult to disengage from the idea that violence is a legitimate means of achieving one's aims. The challenge for Governments and civil society is to channel the energy, ideas and experience of youth into contributing in positive ways to the creation of their new, post-conflict society.

Preventing the future use of children in armed conflict

Building on the principles of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, a number of organizations are working to raise the minimum age for recruitment and participation in armed forces to 18 years. In 1994, a United Nations working group was established to develop an Optional Protocol to the Convention in order to achieve this.

Several measures have been identified which can reinforce the local capacity to minimize or prevent the use of children as soldiers. For example, local communities should be made more aware of national and international laws governing the age of recruitment. 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 conflicts as unacceptable. In Sierra leone, forced recruitment drives Millions of Children into child soldiers causing vast damage and serious crimes to the general country. Similar thing erupted in Liberia, plunging the country into bloody civil war and dividing ethnic groups into serious racial intensions leaving thousands of mothers and children to flee for their safety

 

o Support should be given to the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child, Rädda Barnen, the Quakers, UNICEF, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement in their efforts to eradicate the use of children under 18 years of age as soldiers.

o States should ensure the early and successful conclusion of the drafting of the Optional Protocol to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, raising the age of recruitment and participation to 18 years.

Keks and the group looking for donation to support children going to School

o United Nations agencies and international civil society actors should pursue quiet diplomacy with Government and non-State forces and their international supporters to encourage the immediate demobilization of child soldiers and adherence to the Convention on the Rights of the Child. By rendering adequate support for the children such as: providing schools, Skill training centers and frame work for mutual understanding amongst them selves

o The media should be encouraged to expose the use of child soldiers and the need for demobilization. Without any treat or hindrance.

o All peace agreements should include specific measures to demobilize and reintegrate child soldiers into society. An amnesty should be granted to them freely without any fear or public segregation. There is an urgent need for the international community to support programmes, including advocacy and social services, for the demobilization and community reintegration of child soldiers, Providing training and Microfinance branches for Women and sustaining training for an expertise to them.