Recruiting or using child soldiers

Children are uniquely vulnerable to military recruitment and manipulation into violence because they are innocent and impressionable. They are forced or enticed to join armed groups. Regardless of how they are recruited, child soldiers are victims, whose participation in conflict bears serious implications for their physical and emotional well-being. They are commonly subject to abuse and most of them witness death, killing, and sexual violence. Many participate in killings and most suffer serious long-term psychological consequences.

Evidence indicates that the recruitment and use of children has become the means of choice of many armed groups for waging war. At root there are numerous and often interrelated factors that drive the recruitment and use of child soldiers. Children are either recruited by force or may "voluntarily" join armed groups to safeguard themselves and their families. Many are compelled by poverty and lack of livelihood opportunities, domestic violence or lack of parental care altogether. Some children have seen family members killed in conflict and may be motivated by a desire for retribution or revenge. For some the lack of legitimate avenues for political dissent and participation or ideologies of nationalism or ethnic identity become powerful motivating factors. Particularly in situations of protracted conflict that may have lasted for several decades and decimated the adult male population, the recruitment of children becomes a calculus of urgent "demand" for fighters and ready "supply" of children.

Compared with adults, children are comparatively easier and cheaper to recruit. Where you often have to pay adults, children may be compelled by promises of protection and basic sustenance. As children they are easily indoctrinated, manipulated and exploited by adults wielding guns and authority. For many children these adults represent the only role models.

Fighting groups have developed brutal and sophisticated techniques to separate and isolate children from their communities. Children are often terrorized into obedience, consistently made to fear for their lives and well-being. They quickly recognize that absolute obedience is the only means to ensure survival. Sometimes they are compelled to participate in the killing of other children or family members, because it is understood by these groups that there is "no way back home" for children after they have committed such crimes.

The considerable challenges in healing and reintegrating children into their communities in the aftermath of conflict is sometimes further compounded by severe addiction and dependency of children to hard drugs such as cocaine. In Sierra Leone, for instance, a volatile mixture of cocaine and gunpowder was often given to children to make them fearless in battle. And, because children are now also the instruments of brutality, sometimes committing the very worst atrocities, reintegration is often a complex process of community healing and atonement, and negotiation with families to accept their children back. All these dimensions of the experience of child combatants carry significant implications and challenges in terms of design and resources needs for psychosocial and other reintegration programming. The Paris Commitments and the Principles and Guidelines on Children Associated With Armed Forces or Armed Groups provide guidelines on the disarmament, demobilization and reintegration of all categories of children associated with armed groups.