Activities for Students

1. The Special Representative of the Secretary General has a website to follow the work of his office: http://www.un.org/children/conflict. The site offers updated information on this topic and overviews of country visits to Burundi, Colombia, The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia and Albania, Liberia, Mozambique, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, Sri Lanka, and Sudan; an excellent range of selected documents relevant to this topic; press releases; et. al. You are invited to send your comments to the Special Representative.

2. The United Nations General Assembly will hold a Special Session on Children in September 2001. In anticipation of that event, efforts are being made to have countries sign and ratify the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the involvement of children in armed conflict by that time. Students are encouraged to visit the website of the Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers, http://www.child-soldiers.org/ or links to agencies and organizations working on this topic available at http://www.cdi.org/atp/childsoldiers/links.html

and decide on what actions they wish to take in support of these efforts.

3. Track war crime proceedings. Follow the case of the war crimes tribunals on Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia to see what is happening. Consult your favorite news source for this information. Following research on this, hold a class debate on adjusting the laws in your country to define as a national crime those egregious violations of the rights of children in the context of armed conflict.

4. Find out more about the International Criminal Court. Has your country signed the Rome Statute? The Internet site (http://untreaty.un.org) will be helpful for this. Do you think it should? Write the officials of your country with your views on this issue.

5. From http://www.un.org/children/conflict. Read copies of the documents that have been prepared recently incorporating provisions on child soldiers. What are your opinions on what they say? The Secretary General's Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict has said that "words on paper could not save children and women in peril" and advocated a three-pronged approach to preventing the massive use of child soldiers:

(a) raising the age limit for recruitment and participation to 18;

(b) exerting international pressure on armed groups currently abusing children; and

(c) addressing those factors which cause children to become soldiers.

What are the recruitment policies in your country? Do you agree with them?

Do you think your country's policies should support the use of child soldiers in other countries?

What armed groups are currently abusing children?

How could pressure be exerted on these groups?

What groups are assisting in the rehabilitation of child soldiers?

Contact those organizations to find out more information about these programs. (The links on the http://www.cdi.org/atp/childsoldiers/links.html website will help you find these.)

6. Explore the Children and War portion of the UNICEF Voices of Youth website: http://www.unicef.org/voy. Add your views to those of other children worldwide. Read choices of actions to take and pick the one that suits you. Share the results of the actions you take with the class.

7. Using resources from the UNICEF site, look for the map from the State of the World's Children (http://www.unicef.org). Look for the Publications section, then Maps, then Children and Adolescents at Special Risk. Make an enlarged copy for your class. Some may wish to explore other aspects of child victims by focusing on landmines. Research into developments in specific regions can be made by groups or individuals. The Coalition website , http://www.child-soldiers.org provides handy sources for you to use.

8. Survey members of your school to find out attitudes regarding the use of child soldiers. Questions can include domestic policies as well as use of soldiers in wars in other countries. How well informed are people about this issue? As a result of the survey, your class might be interested in preparing a special program for the school to help others learn more about positive developments. The website www.itpolicy.gsa.gov/mkm/pathways/survey/scoop1.htm has ideas on how to design a survey. Share the results with the local media, your elected officials or with the Secretary-General.

9. Create a simulation in your class of discussions surrounding the Optional Protocol or any one of the recent agreements signed involving the issue of child soldiers, and explore various country responses and actions regarding your chosen international instrument. See http://www.un.org/Pubs/CyberSchoolBus/ for help in setting up a Model UN format. The website of the UN: http://www.un.org/ has a link to each of the Member States from which more information can be obtained. Don't forget to check out the Regional Reports found on the website of the Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers, http://www.child-soldiers.org/. Their Executive Summaries have particularly useful information.