Day Four: Freeing Children from Armed Conflict

There are over 300,000 child soldiers around the world; boys and girls under the age of 18 who are involved in armed conflict.

Facts about children in armed conflict

(information taken from Human Rights Watch)

• Some children as young as eight years old are taken to be child soldiers.
• Children are vulnerable to be taken as child soldiers because of their emotional and physical immaturity they can be easily manipulated.
• Both girls and boys are used as child soldiers. In some countries, like Nepal, Sri Lanka and Uganda, a third or more of the child soldiers were reported to be girls. In some conflicts, girls may be raped, or given to military commanders as "wives."
• Children are most likely to become child soldiers if they are poor, separated from their families, displaced from their homes, living in a combat zone or have limited access to education.
• Once recruited, child soldiers may serve as porters or cooks, guards, messengers or spies. Many are pressed into combat, where they may be forced to the front lines or sent into minefields ahead of older troops. Some children have been used for suicide missions.
• The ILO Convention on the Worst Forms of Child Labor prohibits the forced or compulsory recruitment of children under the age of 18 for use in armed conflict. It has been ratified by over 150 countries.
• Children are sometimes forced to commit atrocities against their own family or neighbors. Such practices help ensure that the child is "stigmatized" and unable to return to his or her home community.

What is a Child Soldier?

A child associated with an armed force or armed group refers to any person below 18 years of age who is, or who has been, recruited or used by an armed force or armed group in any capacity, including but not limited to children, boys and girls, used as fighters, cooks, porters, spies or for sexual purposes. It does not only refer to a child who is taking, or has taken, a direct part in hostilities.(Source: Paris Principles and guidelines on children associated with armed forces or armed groups, UNICEF, February 2007.)

Why do children become involved in armed conflict?

• War / Civil War
• Poverty
• Lack of Education
• Displacement
• Abducted from home
• Rebel/Guerilla recruitment
• Government/ Paramilitary recruitment
• Volunteer under false promises of economic or political freedom

Children who are child soldiers may...

• become engaged in armed conflict
• have physical harm or even death
• endure severe sexual and physical abuse
• forced use of drugs
• have severe lifelong emotional and psychological damage
• endure severe sexual and physical abuse
• forced use of drugs
• have severe lifelong emotional and psychological damage
• forced to attack and harm own community and family
• be outcast from communities upon returning home
• involved in trafficking arms and drugs
• no access to education

Stories of Child Soldiers

Colombia

"They give you a gun and you have to kill the best friend you have. They do it to see if they can trust you. If you don't kill him, your friend will be ordered to kill you. I had to do it because otherwise I would have been killed. That's why I got out. I couldn't stand it any longer." (17-year-old boy, joined paramilitary group aged 7, when a street child.)

Israel/Occupied Palestinian Territories
"I was detained on 18 March 2003... We are in a very small room with 11 people... We are allowed to use the bathroom only three times a day at specific times. Once a week we are allowed to take a 30-minute recess. The prison guards force us into shabeh position: they tie our hands up and one leg and then we have to face the wall." (15-year-old boy arrested by Israeli forces, reporting on detention conditions in an Israeli settlement outside Ramallah, April 2003.)

What Can We Do?

There are so many ways you can get involved to stand up against the use of child soldiers!

• The first way you can get involved is educating yourself about the issue of children in armed conflict. Check out these links below to learn more!
• Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers
• Download the Child Soldiers Global Report by HRW
• Amnesty International - Read information, Watch Video, and See Photo Exhibit
• Educate others! Share the things you learn with your family, friends, your classes and your community!
• Put a face to the issue of child soldiers. Bring a speaker to your student group, church,school or organization. BSU Free the Children brought Michel Chikwanine, a former child soldier from the Democratic Republic of Congo to Bridgewater State University. His story was able to reach people in a meaningful and powerful way.
• Check out our blog on Red Hand Day to learn about how our chapter is involved in standing against child soldiers!

This blog was written for Child Rights Awareness Week at BSU by Katie Wilber, FTC President.

Check back tomorrow to learn about another child rights issue and how you can help!

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