Pact to end use of children in war

Photograph: Reuters / Jacky Naegelen

Governments and armed groups that recruit children into their military ranks should no longer be allowed to “slip through the net,” French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy told a 5–6 February conference in Paris. He warned that such “lost children” represent a time bomb that could threaten stability and growth in Africa and beyond.

Mr. Ishmael Beah, a former child soldier from Sierra Leone, elaborated. If young ex-combatants are not rehabilitated, he said, they are at risk of becoming mercenaries. “They know how to use a gun. [If] there is a conflict next door offering $100 a day and all you can loot, they will go back to that.” While rehabilitating child soldiers is not easy, he cited his own experience: “I’m living proof that it is possible.” (See box.)

Called the Free Children from War conference, the event was organized by the French government and the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF). Fifty-eight governments and dozens of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) signed a set of principles known as the Paris Commitments, in which they vowed to “spare no effort to end the unlawful recruitment or use of children by armed forces or groups in all regions of the world.”

The UN estimates that about 300,000 children (defined as those under 18 years of age) are currently engaged in military conflicts in a score of countries, nearly half of them in Africa. While the Paris Commitments are not legally binding, they do carry significant moral and political weight, conference participants noted. Foreign Minister Youssouf Bakayoko of Côte d’Ivoire called the agreement a “breakthrough.”

State responsibilities

Ever since 1996, when Ms. Graça Machel, Mozambique’s former minister of education, submitted a major UN-commissioned report on the impact of conflict on children to the General Assembly, much of the campaign against recruiting child soldiers has been waged by the UN and NGOs.

But in Paris, for the first time, numerous governments signed on to that effort, including a number from countries where significant numbers of children still serve in military forces. The African signers, for example, included Burundi, Chad, Côte d’Ivoire, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Somalia, Sudan and Uganda.

“States bear the primary responsibility” for protecting children and reintegrating them into civilian life, argues the Paris Commitments document. Concretely, doing that includes identifying and securing the release of all children recruited by armed groups, “unconditionally at all times, including during armed conflict.” In other words, the act of freeing children from military service should not be dependent on a cease-fire or peace agreement, nor should armed groups be allowed to use the presence of children in their ranks to gain leverage in peace negotiations.

In addition, states the document, peace agreements must not grant amnesty to commanders or others who have recruited or committed other crimes against children. Governments and courts must seek to prosecute those guilty of such acts. Encouraging such efforts, the International Criminal Court announced just a week before the Paris conference that it was opening its first trial, that of a militia leader from the eastern DRC accused of recruiting child soldiers.

Meanwhile, the conference participants agreed, child soldiers who have committed crimes should not be regarded only as perpetrators, but “primarily as victims of violations against international law.” In line with international standards for juvenile justice, authorities should seek alternatives to judicial proceedings.

Attention to girls

The conference singled out the plight of girls, many of whom have been abducted by fighting forces to serve as domestic slaves, and who suffer rape and other sexual abuse and sometimes are compelled to fight. In some groups, girls make up 40 per cent of the children recruited, according to UN estimates.

“Girls in particular are forced to perform sexual services,” noted UNICEF Executive Director Ann Veneman. As a result, she added, they are deprived of “their rights and their childhood.” The Paris Commitments call on governments and other actors to “meet the specific needs of girls and their children for protection and assistance.”

For both girls and boys who have been freed from military service, long-term support is essential for their rehabilitation and reintegration, conference participants emphasized. Poor African countries often lack the resources to carry out the task on their own. “We are calling on the international community to assist us in reintegrating the child soldiers into society,” appealed Ms. Qamar Aden, president of Somalia’s parliamentary human rights committee. She estimated that some 70,000 children have been recruited by all sides in Somalia’s most recent conflict.

While some children may “voluntarily” join an armed group — usually to obtain food or protection — “no one is born violent,” Mr. Beah noted in Paris. “No child in Africa, Latin America or Asia wants to be part of war.”