Children at War

Child Soldiers. Most of these children are illiterate, but know how to fire a gun. Democratic Republic of Congo, 2008 © ILO/Marcel Crozet

Among many other things, the Covid 19 pandemic has disrupted the vitally important work of monitoring violations of children’s rights in the context of armed conflict, according to a new report issued by the Office of the Special Representative of the Secretary General for Children and Armed Conflict. The report was based on surveys of humanitarian workers in five hotspots for armed conflict, Afghanistan, The Central African Republic (CAR), Colombia, The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and the Sudan. These five conflicts represent twenty percent of armed conflicts across the globe. Like the rest of the world, the UN Country Task Forces on Monitoring and Reporting on Grave Violations against Children (CTFMRs) were forced to shut down and move their operations online as much as possible in the second quarter of 2020. Collecting and verifying reports of grave violations of children’s rights became much more difficult. Mass killings like the bombing that claimed the lives of scores of Hazara schoolgirls in Kabul two days ago are relatively easy to verify. Reporting of more intimate human rights violations like abductions, rape, or recruitment of children into armed groups will have to wait until face-to-face interviews are possible again.

What does it take for people to understand that we have the right to our own dreams?

Former child soldiers who have graduated from the ILO/IPEC programme to reintegrate youth into civilian life. The pirogue and fishing nets have been given to them at the end of their training. Lake Kivu, Democratic Republic of Congo © 2008 ILO/Marcel Crozet

When it comes to children sucked into armed conflict, prevention is much easier than dealing with the trauma once the children are successfully separated from the armed group. Dr. Virginia Gamba, Special Representative of the Secretary General for Children and Armed Conflict, has a relatively simple recommendation for protecting vulnerable children. “We did it in my country”, she says, meaning Argentina. “Pay the family a bolsa, a stipend, for the kid to go to school.” The Bolsa Familia has been a remarkably successful intervention in countries all over the world. But what if school is no place of safety?

There was no space to send people seeking refuge

Speaking at a symposium sponsored jointly by War Child UK and Alliance 8.7, ENDING THE RECRUITMENT AND USE OF CHILD SOLDIERS BY 2025, Jorge Macias discussed the lacerating effects of 36 years of civil war in Guatemala. He himself joined a guerrilla organization after the assassination of his father when he was twelve years old. “There were no monitoring organizations during the war,” he says. “That happened only after the peace treaty was signed.” Government forces turned against the civilian population seeking democracy and hid massive violations against civilians under the guise of anti-Communist initiatives. Many sought refuge by leaving the country if they could. Whole families joined the fight. “We tried to avoid them joining, but there was no space to send people seeking refuge. Boys and girls had nowhere else to go.” The guerrilla organization would employ kids in logistics to keep them off the front line, but in truth, there is no safe job in an armed group, no safe place in the middle of war.

Nathalie, a former child soldier, has graduated from an ILO/IPEC programme aimed at the reintegration of youth into civilian life. She trained as a mechanic and was given a toolbox at the end of her training. Bukavu, Democratic Republic of Congo © 2008 ILO/Marcel Crozet

Dr. Gamba maintains a sturdy sense of optimism that with enough political will and financial support, children can be pulled out of armed groups and reintegrated into civilian life. There are programs to provide therapy for PTSD and vocational training for the children to have a means of earning a living. Even during the pandemic, training programmes that were already underway continued. Engagement with armed groups is essential and must be nuanced. For a group that maintains it is representing the people, it is possible to appeal to their sense of solidarity with the young civilians caught up in the fight. For groups that are purely motivated by the desire to destroy and disrupt and spread terror, it is still possible to deploy the threat of a war crimes trial as a deterrence.

But in any case, consistency of funding is critical, as seen in the report by the Global Coalition for Reintegration of Child Soldiers, Financing Support for Child Reintegration. Chérubin of the Central African Republic remarked that demobilizing kids alone is not enough. After short-term reintegration projects, staff leave and there is no follow-up with the kids, who remain vulnerable to re-recruitment. A community-based approach is critical - and far more efficient.

Jorge Macias recalled a question he was asked by Chepito, a 14-year-old child soldier he met in the 1980s. “If there are laws to stop me from going to war,” he asked, “why are there no laws to prevent war?”