Ten years after international guidelines were established to stamp out the recruitment and use of child soldiers, under-age fighters are still actively being recruited.
Fighting forces are recruiting and using child soldiers in Burundi, Chad, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ivory Coast, Somalia, Sudan and Uganda. Government forces are also implicated in countries such as Sudan, where the SPLA is re-recruiting children who have already been released from their own ranks.
In Uganda 1,500 children are still being held by the Lord's Resistance Army, LRA. Another 10,000 children associated with the LRA are still unaccounted for.
· An estimated 11,000 children are currently involved with militias in DRC.
Children as young as eight are being recruited by the government army of southern Sudan.
· Around 75 per cent of former girl soldiers in Liberia reported having suffered sexual abuse or exploitation.
· In 2005 over 8,000 children were still fighting in West Africa, with another 20,000 in the process of or waiting to be released.
Despite the fact that the Cape Town Principles, guidelines to eradicate the use of child soldiers and protect those released, were established by the international community in 1997, the situation is still dire. Hundreds of thousands of children are still living in misery due to association with armed groups and forces.
Child soldiers are subjected to brutal intimidation, often forced to commit atrocities as military ‘training’, and then used on the frontline. Whether violently abducted, coerced into signing up or ‘volunteering’ because they have no safe alternative, they get no access to school or healthcare and are exposed to abuse and exploitation. Girls taken to become army 'wives' are often subjected to physical, sexual and emotional abuse. When released, ex-child soldiers are frequently rejected by society, refused access to school, and find it impossible to re-enter 'normal' life after being immersed in violence for so long. Girls as young as 12 have to deal with rape and care for babies in isolation without any support from the community.
Bisimwa, 14, Democratic Republic Congo
“When I went to war it wasn’t a good life because I carried guns. I don’t know how many people I killed. Some of my friends died. I left the armed group because I was about to die of cold. Here we suffer too much.”
On 5 February, the international community has a crucial chance to improve the lives of all children associated with armed groups when they meet in Paris to establish new guidelines - the Paris Principles - to help eradicate the use of child soldiers.
Johanna MacVeigh, Protection Advisor, Save the Children, said “Being recruited by armed forces has a devastating effect on children’s lives. They are immersed in violence, are subject to terrible abuse and are forced to forfeit love, play, education and hope. It is inconceivable that ten years after international guidelines were set up to protect children from recruitment, so many are still being horrifically exploited. Children can’t wait. Governments and the UN must show their support for the Paris Principles and commit to stamping out the use of child soldiers and looking after those who have been released.”
Save the Children is calling on:
· All governments and armed groups to immediately release all children associated with fighting forces, and to put a stop to all on-going recruitment and re-recruitment. This must not be dependent on a ceasefire or permanent peace agreement.
· All governments to ensure they have signed and ratified all relevant international law to protect children from unlawful recruitment and use, and to adhere to The Paris Principles.
· The UN General Assembly and the UN Human Rights Council to adopt the Paris Principles by way of resolution, recognising these bodies as the leading mechanisms that can ensure states and others, including UN and international agencies, fulfill their obligations in this area.
· Donors adequately to fund programmes to ensure released and demobilised children can return to normal life. Current reintegration programmes are not protecting them sufficiently. Funding for such activities should be set at a minimum of five years.
· The international community to ensure special provisions are made for former girl soldiers and their children, to lessen the risks of forced early marriage, isolation, re-recruitment or health implications of sexual violence.
Free Children from War conference in Paris
African nations participating in an international conference on child soldiers have pledged to do their utmost to prevent children from being used as fighters, although the commitment is not legally binding.
The 'Free Children from War' conference, which ended in Paris on Tuesday, was hosted by France and UNICEF. It included delegates from nearly 60 nations, other UN agencies and 30 nongovernmental organisations. African nations that signed the 'Paris Commitments' included Congo, Liberia and Sierra Leone. For the first time, donor countries, NGOs and nations that use or have recruited child soldiers united to address the issue.
To help end the use of child soldiers, the signatories vowed "to spare no effort to put an end to the illegal use and recruitment of children by groups or armed forces".
Observers said the action was an important moral step toward stopping the use of child soldiers in African countries as well as those in Asia, the Middle East and Latin America.
· An estimated 250,000 children - some as young as seven years old - are fighting in conflicts worldwide, according to the French Foreign Ministry.
· Another 95,000 have recently been demobilised and reintegrated into their communities.
"Today it is our responsibility and in our common interest to break this vicious circle, which continues to feed in almost indifference the enlistment [of child soldiers] and the spread of conflicts," said French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy.
The conference devoted special attention to young girls, who make up 40 percent of the ranks of armed groups in some cases. Human rights groups say girls are often used as domestic servants and sex slaves during conflict and that their needs following demobilisation require further attention.
The Paris Commitments include detailed guidelines for protecting children from recruitment and for providing assistance to those already involved with armed groups. The new measures aim to complement political and legal mechanisms already in place at the UN Security Council, the International Criminal Court and other organisations involved in trying to protect children from exploitation and violence, UNICEF said.
Save the Children said in a report last week that 10 years after international guidelines were established to stop the recruitment and use of child soldiers, fighters under the age of 18 were still actively being recruited in at least 13 countries. They included Cote d'Ivoire, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Chad, Sudan and Uganda. The Cape Town Principles established in 1997 included guidelines to eradicate the use of child soldiers and protect those released.
"Hundreds of thousands of children are still living in misery due to association with armed groups and forces," Save the Children said. "Child soldiers are subjected to brutal intimidation, often forced to commit atrocities as military 'training', and then used on the frontline."