cs center

1S a y P e a c e F i r s tCS CenterC o n f l i c t S t u d y C e n t e rPO Box 11374, 214 Rohini Marg, Purano Baneswar, Kathmandu, Nepal. Tel: +977-1-6218777Email: cscenter.nepal@gmail.com/cscenter@wlink.com.np; URL: www.cscenter.org.npSituation Update 89 (Unedited Version) December 16, 2009Child Soldiers: Crime against Humanity• Pawan Bimali* and Bishnu Pathak, PhD**Executive SummaryEach year thousands of children under 18-year have been affected by armed conflict, directly andindirectly. They are recruited on the hope (of better future), fear, and insecurity. Child soldier iswidely practiced in the form of spies, porters, messengers, cooks, lay or clear landmines, training orguarding other children, weapons transport workers, etc. in conflict-prone countries. Girl child isalways at high risk of rape and other forms of cruel, inhumane and degrading treatment. Such formsrob their childhood and expose to terrible endangers through the psychological, physical and socioculturalsufferings.Due to these consequences, child soldiers are deprived of their basic and constitutional fundamentalrights such as right to life, liberty, security and so forth. Most of them die or badly injured during thebattle. In case of their rescue, socio-cultural reintegration is difficult. Child soldiers are doublevictimized while most of the relatives are reluctant to accept them and the surrounding community isnegative and biased to them. The situation is even worse for the girl soldiers.The issue of child soldiers has been a global problem where around 300,000 children are serving inmore than 30 countries. Internal armed or socio-cultural conflict, poverty, illiteracy, ignorance,insecurity and religious, social and political causes are some of the major reasons for its prevalence.Easily and cheaply available small arms and light weapons (SALW) fuel this problem further. Thedesire of authoritarian regimes, along with bad governance, injustice, ethno-cultural identity-basedinterests, unequal distribution of resources and ideology are its root causes.Unpaid service, easily available (capture to children), obedient, dependent and easy to use indifferent circumstances are the attractions for the warlord(s) to choose children. So they arevulnerable. Some commanders believe that children are more efficient and better fighter than theother soldiers. They are not easily noticeable by the enemies.Child soldiering is not a problem of single community. The negative effects are not limited in theconcerned country, only. In some of the war torn countries, it seems that majority of futurepopulation will be mentally and physically injured ex-combatants. This is a serious global threat.Therefore, each and every leader of the whole world has to be serious on this matter. Otherwise, this2problem can be a catastrophe to the entire human kinds. Child soldier is the worst form of modernslavery. It seems a local problem of conflicting countries, at present, but it is a global consequenceand it causes global effects in the long run. It is true that “Injustice anywhere is a challenge tojustice everywhere.”The end of this problem is possible but it requires both national and global level-programs,strategies and attentions. Children not to be recruited by both state and non-state armed forces intoarmies, armed forces, revolts, militias, guerrillas, etc. are the sole desire of humankind. UN GeneralAssembly has passed a convention and a protocol to end this cruel and hideous crime. But there isno substantial change. Almost all the countries, except two, have signed and ratified the conventionand majority members have signed protocol of child rights but they lack effective enforcement body.1. IntroductionThe tragic case of "Child Soldiers" is still a less attentive, but a global issue. Children are brutallyforced to fight the bloody battles for the interest of adult warlords on civil war1, rebellion2, revolt andinsurrection3, bandit warfare4, partisan or orthodox guerrilla warfare5. Although there have beenvoices to prevent children being recruited, they are equally neglected by both developed anddeveloping countries. Conventions on the Rights of Child 6 (CRC) have fixed 18-year as theminimum age for recruitment. Eben Kaplan writes:“The United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF) defines child soldiers as any child—boy orgirl—under eighteen years of age, who is part of any kind of regular or irregular armedforce or armed group in any capacity." This age limit is relatively new, established in 2002by the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child. Prior to 2002, the1949 Geneva Conventions and the 1977 Additional Protocols set fifteen as the minimumage for participation in armed conflict. While some debate exists over varying culturalstandards of maturity, nearly 80 percent of conflicts involving child soldiers includecombatants below the age of fifteen, with some as young as seven or eight."7However, it has not been implemented in many countries yet. Most of the countries have signed oneor both conventions, some of them still have not ratified. Even the countries that have ratified do nothave effective implementation of the existing legal system to protect and prevent children from beingrecruited as soldiers. It indicates the negligence and weak state machinery of those countries.Child soldering is one of the worst forms of the human civilization. It is brutality of human beings toinvolve children on wars. About 300,000 children are estimated to be serving for armed forces in theworld8. Girl child soldiers are estimated to share 40% of the total child soldiers9. It is difficult tocalculate the proportion of boys and girls involvement on armed forces. Neither is it possible to getaccurate data of total children recruited as child soldiers. The armed groups are reluctant to reveal thefact. Also there is no comprehensive research on it.Most of the child soldiers are fighting in African and Asian countries. However, Europe andAmerican continents also contribute on it (see tables). The youngest children found to be recruited isof 5-year10, one in Indian state force and another in LRA Uganda (Singer: 2006)11. There are manycases known about the children of below 10 years of age working for the armed groups. However,most of the child soldiers are found to start serving the rebellion groups from the age of early teens(Singer, 2006: 29):“In one survey taken of child soldiers in Asia, the average age of recruitment was thirteen.However, as many as 34 percent were taken under the age of twelve. In a separate study in Africa,60 percent were fourteen and under. Another study in Uganda found the average age to be 12.9.Indeed, many child soldiers are recruited so young that they do not even know how old they are.”123Case Study I“They filled the forms and asked my age, and when I said 16, Iwas slapped and he said, ‘You are 18. Answer 18’ He asked meagain and I said, ‘But that’s my true age’. The sergeant asked,‘Then why did you enlist in the army?” I said, ‘Against my will.I was captured.’ He said, ‘Okay, keep your mouth shut then,’and he filled in the form. I just wanted to go back home and Itold them, but they refused. I said, ‘Then please just let me makeone phone call’ but they refused that too.” Maung Zaw Oo ofMyanmar (Burma) describing the second time he was forcedinto the Tatmadaw Kyi (army) in 2005.Source: http://www.child-soldiers.orgBoth state and non-state armed forces are active to violate child rights by recruiting under agechildren. According to CRC, boys and girls below the age of 18 are children and their recruitment isillegal. Optional Protocol was introduced to ensure child rights more effectively. But there are someloop holes: (i) children can join armed force voluntarily; (ii) they can join such groups on theconsensus of their parents; and (iii) state can enroll children above the age of 15 for militarytrainings; not for the battles.There is nothing reliable to verifythose cases. Any child may beforcefully recruited but they couldhave been claimed otherwise. Statesecurity or armed groups can recruitthe children and they can claim thatthe children came to join the armedforce voluntarily. So it is confusing.Such instances indicate doublestandard of Optional Protocol to theCRC on the involvement ofchildren in armed conflict.Honwana (2006: 37) points out thedual sides of it as:“The new protocol also creates a double standard by prohibiting all recruitment of childrenunder eighteen, but allowing the recruitment of volunteers under eighteen. This exceptionraises an important issue with respect to the connection between voluntary and forcedrecruitment. In practice, the distinction between voluntary and forced recruitment is blurred; insome circumstances, it is entirely absent.” 13The CRC declares for the guarantee of children's protection from being used as armed combatants.Each state is responsible for the security of children and real enforcement of child rights in practice.But ironically, the convention is ignored in many countries, though it is signed and ratified. After thetragic report of growing use of children in armed conflict, UN General Assembly has brought aresolution "Optional Protocol to the CRC on the Involvement of Children in armed Conflict" aimingto improve the situation of child rights. But the effectiveness is inadequate yet.Why do people want to use the innocent children for the bloody battle? The answer is: The warlordsuse the child soldiers as they are easy to capture, handle and train and wash their brain for the sake oftheir own benefits and interests. It is not because of lack of adult manpower, neither is it for thebenefit of children. The children have the fundamental rights to grow, play and develop theircarriers. But when they are recruited as child soldiers, they are deprived of their fundamental rights.Instead, they have to suffer from bad health, malnutrition, serious injury, trauma, death, tortures,detentions, atrocities and the culture of hatred. They fall on the trap of never ending vicious cycle,which has less chances of prevention and high possibility of recurrence, if once prevented. They livetraumatic life full of nightmares.There is no exact historical record of when and where child soldiers were first recruited. But it isheard that the children were involved equally as adults in the war, from long back. Human needs,attitude and interest to achieve and hold power led leaders to be dictators and to harm the others.Kaplan opines that children were used in the battlefield throughout history. He states, "Childcombatants have been found on battlefields throughout history. Perhaps the most notable example isthe Hitler Jugend (Hitler Youth) in the closing days of World War II. What is new is the extent towhich children can be found on the modern battlefield" (Kaplan: December 2005)14.4Case Study IIChild's experience of joining an armed group (Honduras)"At the age of 13, I joined the student movement. I had adream to contribute to make things change; so that childrenwould not be hungry ... later I joined the armed struggle. I hadall the inexperience and the fears of a little girl. I found out thatgirls were obliged to have sexual relations 'to alleviate thesadness of the combatants'. And who alleviated our sadnessafter going with someone we hardly knew? At my young age Iexperienced abortion. It was not my decision. There is a greatpain in my being when I recall all these things ... In spite of mycommitment, they abused me, they trampled my humandignity. And above all, they did not understand that I was achild and that I had rights."Source: Note by Secretary-General. August 26, 1996.From the beginning of human history; greed to power, politics, prestige, privilege and property hasspoilt and corrupted human minds to harm others for personal benefits. It could be by doing any kindof criminal and hazardous activities. They have greed and proud to get involved in some of thecraziest activities. War is an example of it and using children for the war is one of the cruelest ideas.So it is obvious to believe that children have been recruited for armed battle since long past, thoughthere is no clear record of when were the children first recruited for battle (Singer, 2006:14)15 furtherputs his findings, "… a few states sent children to fight in their last gasps of defeat. Perhaps the mostnotable instances were the Virginia Military Institute cadets who fought at the battle of New Marketin May 1864 and the arming of the Hitler Jugend (Hitler Youth) when Allied armies entered NaziGermany in the spring of 1945."Poverty and helplessness are the causes of vulnerability of children to fall on the trap of childsoldiers. Many of the child soldiers are abducted and recruited forcefully by the armed groups. It wasfrom the past and it is more intensified now. The systematic and official recruitment of child soldiersobserved during the time of Napoleon in Europe and during the time of Mao in China. Napoleon andBritish navy commander Nelson recruited the children of around fifteen. Honwana (2006: 27)mentions:“Children and youth swelled the ranks of Napoleon's army, which was one of the first militaryforces to recruit massive numbers of soldiers from the common classes; boys as young astwelve took active roles as soldiers. The British navy under Nelson included many navalcadets and midshipmen of fifteen, as well as younger cabin boys and ‘powder monkeys.’"16China has even horrible history of child solders. The children of eight and above were recruited assoldiers by Mao for his revolutionary purpose. Honwana (2006: 27) 17 further states, "During theChinese Cultural Revolution, Red Guards between the ages of eight and fifteen carried out some ofthe more violent acts."In addition to the above statedexample there is legendry saying ofusing all ages of people in thebattlefields of Nepal during theunification of it, in 1740s and duringAnglo-Nepal war in 1814-15. At thattime there was not anysystematically organized state armedforce to fight in the battlefields.Nepal did not have enough army tofight against the huge and wellequipped English army. All the localpeople, including women childrenand elderly people, of war affectedzones fought to defend Nepal. Theyserved as irregular battalions. Butthere is no well documented proof.In case of Africa, the children are recruited as soldiers after the African countries were independentfrom colonial power. Angola and Mozambique had child soldiers from the time of 1970s, for theliberation of their countries. Unfortunately, the trend to recruit child soldiers does not stop after thecountries got independent, too. The leaders continued to brutalize children in the civil wars followedby the independency of their countries. Child soldiers cannot be treated as all having the samecharacteristics – even in the same conflict area (Keairns: 2002) 18.5Case Study III"They give you a gun and you have to kill the bestfriend you have. They do it to see if they can trustyou. If you don't kill him, your friend will beordered to kill you. I had to do it because otherwiseI would have been killed. That's why I got out. Icouldn't stand it any longer." A 17-year-old boy,Colombia, joined paramilitary group aged 7, whena street child.(Source: http://www.child-soldiers.orgOn the course of child soldiers, two basic reasons and impacts can be assumed. The first is related tothe multiple reasons behind children being recruited as soldiers. Besides, lack of awareness,ethnicity, geography, poverty, interest of the rebel leaders, the most basic thing is the weakness ofthe nation. In some places children are recruited because there is lack of manpower. Dependency,obedience and fast learning capacity of the children are the other reasons for being recruited.Child soldiers are recruited by armed groups in many ways. The note of UN Secretary Generalstates:“Some are conscripted, others are press-ganged or kidnapped and still others are forced to joinarmed groups to defend their families. Governments in a few countries legally conscriptchildren under 18, but even where the legal minimum age is 18, the law is not necessarily asafeguard. In many countries, birth registration is inadequate or non-existent and children donot know how old they are. Recruiters can only guess at ages based on physical developmentand may enter the age of recruits as 18 to give the appearance of compliance with nationallaws.”19The second assumption is child soldiering plays a long term effect on the lives of children and for thenation. They always have a risk of death, serious injury, handicapped life and trauma. Furthermore,they are difficult persons to reintegrate and tolive a normal life. The gaps in physical,psychological and emotional behaviors of theex-child soldiers push them to socialmaladjustment. Girls have additionaldifficulties due to gender discrimination andmost of them return back with their children.They are physically weak due to forced sexrelation with multiple partners and repeatedThe listed books are good resources for thestudy about child soldiers: Child soldiers inAfrica20, Child soldiers21, Call for Action22,Stopping the Use of Child Soldiers23, Modeling the Integration of the Maoist combatants: DDR orSSR24 , Discrimination and racism: Root causes of trafficking in Nepal25 , Children at War 26 ,Realizing the Rights of the Child27, Child Soldiers In International Law28, Young Soldiers29, ChildSoldiers30, Innocents Lost31, Global Report 200832, Convention on the Rights of the Child33, etc.However it is very hard to get updated and exact information in this regards. Besides, thefundamental basic needs of girls who have been child soldiers have not been well documentedunderstood and addressed.2. Child Soldier: A Theoretical DebateState failure theory explains child soldiering clearly. It explains the problems that are needed to beaddressed on time but neglected due to the inappropriate leadership or lack of resources. Suchsituation shapes disturbed society of crime and creates social disorder. The consequence is conflictbegins in the community. Unsolved conflicting situation becomes violent and eventually leads toarmed conflict. Poverty is one of the leading factors for the absence of needs. Lack of basic needs;education, health care, security, employment, poor economy, shortage of food etc create social maladjustmentin the society and community.Diverse ethnic population and ignorance to the identity of ethnicity bring much trouble to the people.Negligence to fulfill the required facilities of basic education on their own language and employment6opportunities limit to the ethnic population that draw the lines of discrimination and limit the chancesfor survival on the ground of equality.Inappropriate political mechanism fails to offer equity and excludes certain number of citizens,mostly the ethnic groups. Furthermore, it creates inappropriate distribution of available resources andestablishes social injustice. As a result, some disadvantaged groups of people begin to react for theirrights. Negative pressure to stop such voices could bring the situation in stronger association of thedisadvantaged people. Such association may turn into armed conflict where children are vulnerableto be recruited for the battle. So the social system, legal standards, equal and inclusive chances to allpeople are essential parts for balanced social order. Only the equal treatment and proper socialsystem can ensure peaceful and cooperative society. Surrounding socio-religious, cultural andpolitical issues are another catalyst to emerge terrorism in the conflicting regions. For any reasons,state begins to lose legitimacy within its own territory and conflict rises. Robert I. Rotberg (2003)explains the management of political, economic and social dimension as the parts of stable nation.Imbalance on any of those dimensions creates state failure in long run. He further explains;“States succeed or fail across all or some of these dimensions. But it is according totheir performance - according to the levels of their effective delivery of the most crucialpolitical goods - that strong states may be distinguished from weak ones, and weakstates from failed or collapsed states.”34As mentioned by Robert, there are fair chances for the states to learn about the political crisis indifferent countries for political, economic and social structures. But the vicious circle developedwithin and around them control over the improvement of the situation from being good to bad. Themission and vision of political leaders, their capacity and interest direct the state mechanism toimpart political goods. Mismanaged political culture and the system determine the continuation orend of potential conflicts. If a state cannot function properly, it lays ground to emerge multiplepower centers in different forms and structures. Most of the time such structures are violenceoriented and they develop as armed rebellion groups.John Robb, in a journal, talks about political goods delivery and forwarded some of the points tocorrect to strengthen weak states from being failed and collapsed. Nation-state success can bemeasured by its ability to deliver political goods. Here is hierarchy of political goods:• Security. This is the state's primary function. It provides a framework through which allother political goods can be delivered.• Law. A system of codes and procedures which regulate the interactions of the population andset the standards for conduct.• Medical and Health care.• Schools and Educational Instruction.• Critical infrastructure.• Money and banking system.• A business environment.• A forum for civil society.• A method of regulating environmental commons (John: 2004)35.The definition and elaboration of weak, failed and collapsed states, by John Robb, is very muchcontextual to many of the conflict torn countries. Examples of many African and Asian conflictingcountries have the ongoing conflict on the same ground. The political goods delivery is missing inthose countries. The central government is losing control and legitimacy from outside of the capitalcity and main cities. Newly emerged local, regional, religious and ethnic based political groups arepopular. Gradually in course of time they are turned into violent groups, which gain control over thelocal society.7Warlordism is one of the outcomes of failure in delivering political goods. Warlordism is understoodas the absence of the role of central government and having no or small influence over the country.In that case rebellion groups begin to act as the main actors to control over the area and population oftheir influence in illegal form. Sometimes it happens after the formation and domination of therebellion groups and its continuation of destruction. MacKinlay, Biro (2007: 15) clarifies it as:“… the classical depiction of the Chinese 1920s portrayal of the warlords occupying the vacuumbehind the collapse of central institutions as, 'mindless [that is "irrational"] barbarians bent ondragging the population which lived in the areas they controlled back to a dark age of tribalism.”36The study of different countries, having the problems of rebellions, clearly shows and supports theabove citation in the contexts of other countries too. Many African countries are controlled bywarlords. There are several root causes of the armed conflict due to geo-political interest. However,diverse ethnic and religious population is the main cause of having such social, regional and nationalchallenges. Lack of sufficient resources for the development and inefficient leadership are the maincauses of state to lose control over the nation. It lays foundation to the emergence of armed groups.Unequal or partial distribution of resources and opportunities are some other causes. Because of allthese causes lead a weak nation to failed state and it reaches to the situation of collapsed state,eventually. It is major challenge in many African countries. The consequences of conflicting statesare mismanagement, social disorder, lack of development activities and security. It is the same insome Asian countries like; Afghanistan, Cambodia, Philippines, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Nepal etc.Bishnu Pathak states that all ideological, socio-cultural and economic dimensions are the root-causesof the armed conflict and the people are attracted accordingly. A survey stated that 32 percent peoplejoined with the War due to economic cause, 26 percent politico-ideology and 25 percent social cause.(Pathak:2005:119)37The diversities of the population and the inappropriate classical type of state machinery to addressthe need of such population lead to vacuum in the many parts of the country. As a result of it,Warlordism gets chance to emerge, grow and develop.Citing from MacKinlay (Biro: 2007: 14) further argues the emergence of warlords as the alternativegovernance and some of such institutions may influence beyond the national boundaries. He citesDuffield (1998), "a leader of an armed band, possibly numbering up to several thousand fighters,who can hold territory locally and at the same time act financially and politically in the internationalsystem without interference from the state in which he is based".38Failure of states causes more criminal activities. People begin to involve in crimes for their survivalor for the interest of their own. Organized crimes are extreme criminal cases and using children for itis serious one. Violation of legal measures is crime. In this context, breaching the internationalprinciples of Convention on the CRC and Optional Protocol on the CRC are criminal activities.Child soldiering is against the principles of fundamental human rights. Therefore, recruiting childrenfor armed force is a serious crime and crime against humanity. There are different aspects thatinfluence human beings to involve in criminal activities. The psychological, economic, sociologicaland political factors escalate humans to be involved in criminal activities. When desire and interestof an individual or group are not fulfilled, the individual or group gets frustrated and frustration takesthe shape of alienation and aggression. It results crime as its outlet interaction. Gottfredson andHirschi explain; "Finally, aggression seems uniquely relevant to the explanations of crime,suggesting as it does the source of differences among people in their inclination to resort to force inpursuit of private interests" (Gottfredson, Michael R. and Travis Hirschi: 1990)39.The reasons for recruiting children differ in different situations. In some countries there are politicalmotives for conflict and the armed groups recruit children to fight for them. But there is less chancefor the children to get any benefit of the war eventually. As soon as the war is over, the children are8Box ISome bitter realities of child soldiers• The problem is most critical in Africa, where children as young as nine have been involved in armedconflicts. Children are also used as soldiers in various Asian countries and in parts of Latin America,Europe and the Middle East.• The majority of the world's child soldiers are involved in a variety of armed political groups. Theseinclude government-backed paramilitary groups, militias and self-defense units operating in manyconflict zones. Others include armed groups opposed to central government rule, groups composed ofethnic religious and other minorities and clan-based or factional groups fighting governments and eachother to defend territory and resources.• Most child soldiers are aged between 14 and 18, while many enlist "voluntarily" research shows thatsuch adolescents see few alternatives to involvement in armed conflict. Some enlist as a means ofsurvival in war-torn regions after family, social and economic structures collapse or after seeingfamily members tortured or killed by government forces or armed groups. Others join up because ofpoverty and lack of work or educational opportunities. Many girls have reported enlisting to escapedomestic servitude, violence and sexual abuse.• Forcible abductions, sometimes of large numbers of children, continue to occur in some countries.Children as young as nine have been abducted and used in combat.• Demobilization, disarmament and reintegration (DDR) programs specifically aimed at child soldiershave been established in many countries, both during and after armed conflict and have assistedformer child soldiers to acquire new skills and return to their communities. However, the programslack funds and adequate resources. Sustained long-term investment is needed if they are to beeffective.• Despite growing recognition of girls' involvement in armed conflict, girls are often deliberately orinadvertently excluded from DDR programs. Girl soldiers are frequently subjected to rape and otherforms of sexual violence as well as being involved in combat and other roles. In some cases they arestigmatized by their home communities when they return. DDR programs should be sensitivelyconstructed and designed to respond to the needs of girl soldiersSource: http://www.child-soldiers.org/childsoldiers/some-factsleft helpless and forgotten. The autobiography of China Keitetsi, a former child soldier of Uganda,reflects it in the letter to her commander, the current president of Uganda (Keitetsi, 2004)40.In some countries, armed groups are fighting to capture natural resources or mine for the money.Some of the African armed forces are involved on it. They have captured the gold and diamondmines. Some of them are still struggling for the trade of blood diamond. All these examples reflectpsychology, economy and sociology of human beings to involve in crimes. Indeed such violentconflict ultimately leads the corrosion of failed state.3. Present Status of Child SoldiersThe world leaders seem more concerned to prevent children from being recruited into armed forces.The cheaply available deadly and powerful small weapon is another major reason to multiply thevulnerability of children. The production of small arms and light weapons (SALW) is a great threatto intensify child soldering. They are deadly, easily portable and more powerful. The effectiveness ofthose weapons is too terrific. Between the time of 2000 and 2003, over 200,000 Congolese metviolent death, over 90 percent of this number, from gunshots41. People are more tempted for thepursuit of power, prestige and property through the means of armed conflict. But the greatest sin is;they put children in the battlefield. As a result, children are vulnerable in every conflict torn corner.They are the most innocent group of badly victimized people. When conflict breaks in their area,their situation and everyday life become chaotic. Many countries have conflicts for political, ethnic,9religious and for the control over resources. Once the conflict is started it is not an easy task toovercome. In case there is peace by any means, reoccurrence of conflict is high. The tragic result is,many children become orphans due to violent conflict and many of them end up with being childsoldiers.The following facts provide a glimpse of the current situation of child soldiers42:• Burma (Myanmar) – As many as 70,000 boys serve National army forcibly recruiting asyoung as 12 where 5,000 to 7,000 children serve armed ethnic opposition groups.• Nepal – 3,000 children served with the CPN Maoist PLA.• The Philippines –13% of the soldiers out of 100,000 in the Moro Islamic Liberation FrontNew People's army – Abu Sayyat Group were children.• Sri Lanka – UNICEF reports of 5,666 children abducted until July 2006.• Israel – Israeli Army involuntarily uses Palestinian children as messengers, informants, spiesand human shield.• Chechnya – Children are used as adult combatants and front-liners joining with the armedforce.• Serbia – for compulsory military service, the age of children has been dropped to 16 yearsfor both sexes.• UK – about 16.5 year old children of both sexes can join the British army under parentalpermission till the age of 18. Between June 2003 and July 2005, British Government sent 17year old soldiers to Iraq due to the pressure on units prior to deployment.• US – boys 17 years old may join the security force on the permission of parents. Guardiansbut are not deployed in combat.• Canada – adolescents may join the rescue operations in Canadian Force at 16 years withparental permission, but without permission at 17 they may volunteer until reaching age 18.Canadian citizen Omar Khadr, working for armed group and captured in the battlefield at 15years, is being kept into Guantanamo Bay and is waiting for prosecution by the US.In addition to the above statedcountries, the major problemsof child soldiers are inAfrican countries. Some ofthe problem hit countries areDR Congo (DRC), Sudan,Uganda, Liberia and Burundi.Mozambique and Angola areadditional countries havingsome DDR experience. Thenumber of girl child soldiersis also very high. It isestimated that the girls make about 30% of the total child soldiers.In Sri Lanka the girls are about 40%. Girl child soldiers have even worst situation in the armed forcein African countries since they are abducted basically for sex services. As soon as the conflict startsin a particular area the families and community face many problems. The consequence becomesimbalance in the family. It often causes families to split44. They are unsure about the fulfillment ofbasic needs.Table 3.1: Government armed forces known to have had childrenin their ranks1. Armenia2. Australia3. Austria4. Bangladesh5. Barbados6. Bolivia7. Canada8. Chad9. DR Congo10. Cuba11. Germany12. Guatemala13. Ireland14. Jordan15. Luxembourg16. Myanmar17. Netherlands18. New Zealand19. Paraguay20. Russian Federation21. Somalia22. Sudan23. Uganda24. United Kingdom25. USA26. YemenSource: Child Soldiers: Global Report 200843Table 3.2: Countries where there were child soldiers in non10According to the report of UNICEF,majority of the child soldiers areserving in the countries of AsiaPacific and African countries. Inmany cases the child soldiers areserving for the non-state armedforces; which are warring for ethnoculturalidentity, regional cases,religion and for the benefit ofwarlords 46 . The followingdescriptions may bring some glimpses on the form of child soldiers in different countries.The Child Soldiers Global Report200847 reports that there are children serving for state or non-state armed force working in the ranksor serving as spies.The Governments which used child soldiers in armed conflict (2004-2007) are Chad, DR Congo,Israel, Myanmar,Somalia, Sudan,Uganda and Yemen.Additionally, the UKdeployed under-18sto Iraq where theywere exposed to riskof hostilities 48 .Countries wherechildren wererecruited and used byparamilitaries,militias, civiliandefense forces orarmed groupssupported by oracting as proxies forgovernments areChad, Colombia,Côte d’Ivoire, DRCongo, India, Iran,Libya, Myanmar,Peru, Philippines, SriLanka, Sudan andUganda. Many governments’ forces such as Burundi, Colombia, DR Congo, India, Indonesia, Israel,Nepal and Uganda use children as spies, informant or messengers49.state armed groups1. Afghanistan2. Bhutan3. Burundi4. Central African5. Republic6. Chad7. Colombia8. Côte d’Ivoire9. DRC10. India11. Indonesia12. Iraq13. Israel/OccupiedPalestinianTerritory14. Lebanon15. Liberia16. Myanmar17. Nepal18. Nigeria19. Pakistan20. Philippines21. Somalia22. Sri Lanka23. Sudan24. Thailand25. UgandaSource: Child Soldiers: Global Report 200845Table 3.3: Countries where the minimum age for voluntary recruitment wasunder 18 including for training purposes or as cadetsArmeniaAustraliaAustriaAzerbaijanBangladeshBarbadosBelarusBoliviaBrazilBrunei DarussalamBurundiCameroonCanadaCape VerdeChadChinaCubaCyprusDominican RepublicEcuadorEgyptEl SalvadorFranceGermanyGuinea-BissauGuyanaHungaryIndiaIranIrelandIsraelJamaicaKazakhstanKenyaKorea, (DemocraticPeople’s Republic of)KyrgyzstanLebanonLibyaLuxembourgMalaysiaMaltaMexicoMoldovaNetherlandsNew ZealandPakistanPapua New GuineaParaguayPeruPhilippinesPolandRussian FederationSao Tome and PrincipeSeychellesSingaporeTanzaniaTongaTrinidad and TobagoTurkmenistanUnited KingdomUnited States of AmericaViet NamZambiaSource: Child Soldiers: Global Report 2008114. Some Notable Armed Conflicts and Recruitment of Children4.1 NepalUnder the leadership of Pushpa Kamal Dahal, devotedly called Comrade Prachanda, the CPN(Maoist) initiated the People’s War on February 13, 1996 with the main objectives for sweepingaway the constitutional monarchy, bureaucratic capitalism, feudalistic mode of society (semifeudalism,semi-imperialism and capitalism), and historical roots of social inequality to establish apatriotic, democratic, progressive, and prosperous People’s Republic of Nepal50. The 12-pointagreement of November 22, 2005 held in New Delhi made fertile ground to conduct popularmovement II in April 2006 against the former king’s absolutely. The Comprehensive Peace Accordof November 21, 2009 formally ended the decade old People’s War and made a space to conductConstituent Assembly (CA) elections. The CA finally declared Federal Democratic Republic ofNepal and that ended the 240-year of hereditary monarchial rule.In February 2004, they abducted 192 students from two schools during school time. In its response,the government closed 45 schools of that area for indefinite time51. Because of those two sides, thechildren were deprived of education. It shows both parties were unaccountable to respect and ensurechild rights. In April of the same year, the students' wing of Maoists aired their plan to recruit 50,000students for their armed battle. The announcement was horrific since many parents and students wereTable 4.1.1: Name, location of main and satellite cantonments and unqualified Maoists personnelDevelopmentRegionDistrict Name ofMainCantonmentSatellite Cantonment Children(a)Recruitedafter May2006(b)Unqualified(a+b)EasternIlamChalachuli -Division IBiplab-Srijana Smriti at Danabari, IlamRatna-Shakuntala Smriti at Tandi, Morang;and Chintang-Sukhani at Yangshila,Morang617 259 876CentralSindhuliDudhauli –Division IISolu-Salleri Jana Kalyan, Sindhuli;Bishal-Kumar Smriti at Tribeni, Udaypur;and Rambriksha Smriti at Kalijore, Sarlahi277 95 372Chitwan Shakti Khor –Division IIIBasu-Smriti, Tinchowk, Chitwan;Bethan Smriti at Namobuddha, Kavre; andPratap Smriti at Kamidanda, Kavre367 219 586WesternNawalparasiJhyaltungDanda –Division IVParibartan Smriti at Thulokot, Kaski-Tanahun; Basanta Smriti at Tingire, Palpa-Arghakhanchi; and Krishna Sen Smriti atJhingamara, Rupandehi424 198 622Mid-WesternRolpaDahavan –Division VMangalsen First at Tila, Rolpa;Jawahar Smriti at Chaupatta, Dang; andDirgha Smriti at Holleri, Rolpa396 56 452SurkhetDasarathpur –Division VIJeet Smriti at Dasarathpur, Surkhet;Ghorahi-Satbariya at Lek Pharsa, Surkhet;and Pili Smriti at Kalyan, Surkhet525 104 629FarWesternKailaliMasuria –Division VIILisne Gam at Masuriya, Kailali;Bahubir Yoddha at Sahajpur, Kailali; andLokesh Smriti at Chisapani, Kailali364 103 467Maoist Party HQ (security to leaders) 3 1 4Grand Total 2,973 1,035 4,00812not willing to join and support the Maoist Party. Consequently few students of target areas had toflee away to neighboring country, India, where their nightmares began. They gave up their on-goingstudy, left family and started to work. It was against the all human rights instruments including thechild rights.The Agreement on Monitoring of the Management of Arms and Armies (December 8, 2006)formally invited UN to (i) guarantee the fundamental rights of the Nepali people to take part in theCA in a free and fair environment without fear; (ii) to ensure sovereignty for the Nepali people in theform of a progressive political outlet, a democratically restructured state, and social-economicculturaltransformation; and (iii) to fully observe the terms of the bilateral agreement witnessed bythe United Nations; and (iv) to seek UN assistance in monitoring the management of the arms andarmies on both sides by UN civilian personnel by confining the Maoist Army (MA) combatants andtheir weapons within designated cantonments and monitoring the Nepal Army (NA) to ensure that itremains in its barracks and its weapons are not used. Consequently, the UNMIN has established itsoffice in Nepal on January 23, 2007.The UNMIN registered 32,250 Maoist army personnel and only 19,602 (61% out of 32250) havebeen verified comprising 15,756 (80%) men and 3,846 (20%) women from seven-main and 21-satellite cantonments keeping the weapons into the iron containers. The Maoist Army personnel werefirst disarmed and demobilized. The verification mission disqualified the 8,640 (27%) Maoist armypersonnel as they did not appear in the interviews. 4,008 (12%) persons remain to be dischargedincluding 2,973 minors (UNMIN: 2007)52. Even the children of eight years are found recruited53.The history of child soldiers' recruitment in Nepal is not long, only of 3-year, and it is now no morereported so far. All the minors (child soldiers) are still living into the main and satellite cantonmentsbut the Nepal government has neither provided salary nor allowances. The 4,008 unqualified arespending economically harsh lives even inside the cantonments. A report says:“Under the 2006 Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) parties were committed not to use or enlistchildren in any military force and to release under-18s immediately. There were no further reports ofgovernment forces using children, but Maoist recruitment of children continued after the April 2006ceasefire and there were delays in the registration and release of under-18 Maoist personnel cantonedunder the CPA” (Child soldiers:2008)54.They announced voluntary recruitments in each battalion and brigade twice a year. The party leadersrealized the students' wings would be more successful. They encouraged their students' wings tofulfill their mission of recruitment selecting students and youths from the rural schools and remotevillages. According to the Maoists student wing, the party decided to recruit school children to theirparty militias to boost up their armed rebellion. Some of the school aged children were influenced tojoin the groups voluntarily and many others were forced to join or abducted from different schools.The years 2004 and 2005 were passed as nightmares for the school children and the parents of ruralvillages, since there was always threat of rebellion groups to come and take the children for armedtraining. Once the children are missed it was not sure about their safe return. Safe return rarelyhappened. On the other hand, the role of government on this issue was always negative and veryfrequently the government armed force terrified the school environment by searching school,students, teachers and furthermore by arresting many of them. Because of the state security terror,many students joined Maoist armed groups voluntarily. There were many others who joined Maoistsparty voluntarily for various reasons. If the family members were in the Maoist Party they would bevery likely to influence the younger ones to join Maoist militia. The Maoist party propaganda wasyouths and child focused to encourage rural children to join them.According Human Rights Watch Group report, the Maoists has been recruiting the child soldiers inearly February of 2007 although they had already signed a peace agreement. The report further13showed its concern to release the child militias from their camps. "Nepal's former communist rebelscontinue to recruit child soldiers, Human Rights Watch said, despite signing a peace deal with thegovernment that ended 10 years of fighting" (http://www.iht.com/)55.After the election of Constituent Assembly, the Maoist party stood as the largest party and it formedthe cabinet. However, the Maoists-led Government could not integrate the Maoists army personnelinto the National Army following the outright rejection of the Nepal Army. Now the UCPN (Maoist)is ready to release the minors and other disqualified army personnel on the active support of theUNMIN. The Unified Maoists want to release the minors unilaterally whereas Nepal governmentwants to put their upper hand nationally and internationally releasing them through its command. Ithas brought hope but yet to be materialized.While there had been an intense debate going on about the social integration to the disqualifiedminors by UNMIN, a 15-year old girl who had been involved in the Maoists' cultural programs said,“'I'm not sure if my community will easily accept us back because they still hate the Maoists a lot."56The delaying the socio-cultural integration, some minors are now having mental stress. They are notnormal as compared to other civilian children. They have symptoms of post traumatic stress disorder(PTSD). The situation of girls is even appalling. The hopeless socio-cultural integration without anybonus from the state-party, they may again join into the armed forces similar in the Afghanistan andthe social order of the country may be worsened the situation. Learning from the unified Maoistparty, the mushrooming of 74-armed and criminal groups in the Tarai-Madhes after the Maoist armypersonnel disarmed, child recruitment is likely (see Annex I).4.2 IndiaThe case of child soldiers is not new in India. Since there are several non-state armed groups fightingon the ground of ideology, ethnicity and linguistic, regional, religious and poverty. These armedgroups have recruited child soldiers. In addition to the non-state armed groups, there are cases ofchildren being recruited for the state security force as well. In a province of India, five-year and tenyearold boys are found serving the state police57. The following information reflects the situation ofchildren working as child soldiers in India.The Asian Legal Resource Centre (ALRC) reported that currently, at least 118 of India’s 604districts are facing armed anti-state activities. In all of these conflict-affected districts, child soldiersare being recruited by both parties to the conflict (ALRC: 2007)58. Children and youth are involvedwith insurgent groups in a number of states including Assam, Manipur, Nagaland, Andhra Pradesh,Chhattisgarh, Jharkand, Karnataka, Maharashtra and Jammu and Kashmir(www.countercurrents.org)59. However, the report says:“No information was available on how many under-18s were serving in the armed forces.There were allegations that children were recruited by government-supported anti-Maoistvillage defence forces. Armed groups, including Maoists and groups in Jammu and Kashmirand in the north-east, were reported to be using children. Children accused of membership ofarmed groups were detained in conflict areas” (Child Soldiers:2008)60.The coverage area of recruitment is very wide since they are supposed to be working in 118 districts.Secessionist and alleged religious terrorist groups also use children in India. Recently there arecomplaints, through newspaper and media, against the children being used as soldiers in thenortheast part of India, Manipur and other Maoists affected areas. The UN body is trying to verify it.The Human Rights Watch group has already documented the presence of child soldiers in thoseareas. Although, the Secretary General of the UN omitted the name of India for having child soldiers.The problem is not over. It is only less publicized. Like its neighboring countries (Nepal, Sri Lanka14and Burma), India has child soldiers and the issue is getting more complex since the rebellion groupsare more fiercely fighting (www.globalpolicy.org)61.4.3 Burma (Myanmar)Burma has the longest running armed conflict in the world. Armed revolution had been started inBurma since April 1948. It is the same year the country got independent from British Empire. It ismore intense and focused on the military junta government that had been ruling the country since1962 (en.wikipedia.org)62. Undemocratic political system and major natural calamities, (tsunami of2004 and cyclone Nargis of 2008) had brought heart rending tragedy to the Burmese people. Theongoing armed conflict and its causes to take away their children for the bloody battles against thestate armed force are additional grief for the public. Several ethnic and regional armed forces havebeen fighting for their own motto and interests. The country has both state and non-state childsoldiers. The estimated number of children serving for the state armed force is 70,000. However, thisis a very flexible number as the recruitment process is on the top. Different other non-state armedgroups also recruit children as soldiers. The state armed groups take advantage of not having thebirth registration of children. The Burmese children get their identity card to prove their age, at theage of 10. But most of them are unlikely to have one since the corrupt government machinery isreluctant to provide it.Most of the child soldiers are recruited against the will of the children and without consent ofparents. Many of them are forced to join the armed group from the rural areas and many others areabducted from streets; the street children. Some of the failed students in rural schools join the armedforce voluntarily. But the figure is hardly 10%. The preference of those is to join state armed forcesince there is comparatively better pay and facility. It is not sound but a bit better than the non-statearmed force. The child soldiers of Burma have malnutrition and several other health relatedproblems. They do not have enough and appropriate food supply. They are not treated well. On thestate armed side, there are always quotas to be fulfilled by the high rank officers and youths are notinterested for this purpose. Therefore, the high rank officers encourage the juniors to find ones oreach junior army is supposed to bring one youth to join the army when they come back from theirone month long leaves. It is the case of pension seeker army. Each one of them has to supply threenewrecruit candidates to join the army. For the solution of all these problems, the children are thetarget of all. Lack of their birth certificate or document to prove their age makes the people easy tofind their solution by abducting street children or children from railway platforms and bus stations.The non-state armed groups even find it easy to recruit the children from their comrades. They go tovillages of their influences announcing their demands of man power from the community. Thecommunity is responsible to supply their demands.4.4 Sri LankaSri Lankan non-state armed forces have claimed their need of struggle to end ethnic baseddiscrimination. The non-state armed force Liberation Tigers of Tamil Elam (LTTE) was founded onthe ground to struggle for the equality and freedom. The armed resistance movement took shape inthe womb of oppression (www.tamilnation.org)63. The immediate past civil war of Sri Lanka hadmade children vulnerable in two ways. The first was, the schools are always the target of both stateand non-state armed forces and the children had permanent danger of any attack and injuries. Theirright to education was in peril. The second problem was, they were often abducted by the non-statearmed groups to recruit as combatants. The international networks have blamed the LTTE Factionfor having used children for the armed force and suicide bombers. In the past, Karuna Faction ofLTTE released a large number of child soldiers from its camps. Their claim was that many childrencome to join the armed groups stating their false age as they had already reached 18 years. Whateverfalse statements they aired in the public and international community, they violated the child rights.154.5 ColombiaThe armed conflict of Colombia was started from the mid 60s of twentieth century. It is believed thatthe armed group Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) was established as campaignagainst successive Colombian Government Administration. Later National Liberation Army (ELN)was founded and started guerrilla insurgency. Colombia has both military and para military armedgroups. Those groups are based on drug trade and drug trafficking (en.wikipedia.org) 64 . Thesituations of girls are as follow:“Children were both forcibly and voluntarily recruited and used by the two armed oppositiongroups, the FARC and the ELN. They were used as combatants, to lay mines and explosivesand to carry out other military tasks. Girls were subjected to sexual abuse, including rape andforced abortion. Some children reportedly remained with paramilitary groups which hadfailed to demobilize fully. Government forces used captured and surrendered child soldiers togather intelligence on opposition forces” (Child Soldiers: 2008)65.Different non-state armed groups have recruited child soldiers in Colombia. The armed groups findthe children easily. The huge poverty is a major reason for the children to end up with armed groups.In addition to poverty, the quotas put forward by the rebellion groups in local places is, anotherinevitable reason to have child soldiers. Many children voluntarily join the rebel groups to escape thefamily violence and some of them have even claimed they are fascinated by the weapons anduniform. The armed groups are a bit liberal to their child soldiers and they let the children go hometo help the family when there is real need of them. Some of the reasons for children to join armedgroups voluntarily and involuntarily. The Colombian rebels believe child soldiers as morecompetent, courageous, efficient and active fighters (Singer: 2006)66.Often child combatants join the rebels voluntarily, to escape family violence due to poverty. Around6.5 million of Colombia’s 17 million children live in poverty and 2.5 million are forced to work tosupport themselves for their families. Others are rounded up and forcefully recruited. Señor Urrutiasaid, “There’s a lot of pressure and the rebels impose quotas on families and towns to send their kidsto fight” (http://www.cyc-net.org )67.It is due to the unequal distribution of economy and access to resources. Appropriate economicplanning will offer more opportunities to the general public. It will definitely contribute to slash thechildren's misery to be recruited as soldiers. Domestic violence is a result, in many cases, of povertyand illiteracy. More than 10,000 thousands of children are still in the hands of armed groups. Theirright to education is violated and further they are risking their lives to death. Even the life is moretraumatic. "In Colombia, the UN and HRW estimate 11,000 child soldiers in the armed conflict(military, para-military, and opposition forces)" (http://www.yapi.org/conflict/)68.The armed forces prefer children to recruit for their convenience. The children are easy to find, trainand they remain more dependent. The following citation show how children are viewed inColombian armed force:“In the Americas Colombia is also a country which continues to use children as young as 7 assoldiers and have even give them a nickname. The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia(FARC), a rebel group who has a army of around 18,000 members, are made up of 30%children who are referred to as, 'little bees', as they sting the enemy before they know they areunder attack, and also, 'little carts' as children can sneak weapons through check points”69(http://www.stopchildpoverty.org).The Colombian armed forces have used children in three different forms; military, para-military andopposition forces. Because of that, it is difficult to estimate the exact number of children used aschild soldiers. Another danger is; the children can be used for fight anytime from anywhere. Thepara-military children live in endanger. It leaves them no chances for any training before they are16deployed for the fights. The situation will be more aggravated and there is high possibility of moreinjury or death.4.6 UgandaUganda has undergone violent armed conflict since its independence. International Alert conductedbackground research in 2005-06 that explored the links between economy and conflict in Uganda70.Diverse ethnic clans and the influence of neighboring countries fuel the on going armed conflict inthe country. One of the major armed group Lord Resistance Army (LRA) is partly based on religiontoo. The child soldier report says:“Up to 2,000 women and children remained with the opposition Lord’s Resistance Army(LRA) in October 2007. They included girl soldiers who had been raped and borne childrenwhile in the ranks. Children were abducted and used by the LRA in combat and other rolesand forced to commit and witness human rights abuses. Fighting and LRA abuses hadsignificantly decreased by early 2006. Children were recruited and used by the national army,the United People’s Defence Force (UPDF), and auxiliary Local Defence Units (LDU).Children captured by the UPDF were used for gathering intelligence on the LRA and toidentify LRA positions and weapons caches” (Child Soldiers: 2008)71.Physical and economic developments are far behind. The stories of child soldiers are really shockingin Uganda. The children of any age are abducted and provided tough training focusing to hate andkill people. One third of the child soldiers are girls. They live in misery. They are sexually exploitedand forced to live like animals. Girl soldiers are supposed to offer sexual service to their senior andcounterpart comrades. They have to fight against enemies. Many girl child soldiers give birth tochildren of unidentified fathers, in their very early age. This is an example given below:“… the former child soldier joined the National Resistance Army in Uganda in the 1980’s,when she was nine-year old. There, she was given her first Uzi. ‘They gave us weapons, madeus fight their war, made us hate, kill, torture, and made us their girlfriends; we had nochoice… When I was 14, I gave birth to my son, and when I was 15 years old, I couldn’tcount how many officers had already used my body,” (www.thesituation.co.uk)72In her autobiographical book, "Child soldier", the ex-rebel China has mentioned how they helpedtheir comrades to fight and the poor lives they survived without even having plenty of clothes towear, food to eat and time to rest. If the child soldiers could not carry and shoot AK 47, they wereexpected to assist their seniors in any way they can, mostly as powder monkeys. The children areused to stop the enemy in different tricky way and spy. In her own words China Keitetsi (2004: 116,117) describes;“After getting this little knowledge of warfare, the children were divided into different groups.I was one of those who couldn't carry an AK-47, so we helped carry the leaders' appliances,such as cups, pans and ammunition. …. Our side won, and after the battle everybody ran tothe road and began undressing the dead soldiers. Every one of us, except the senior officers,needed something to wear, and it did not matter whether it was the enemy's military uniforms:it was ok with us”.734.7 CongoThe Congolese people are living a life of poverty among prosperity. Since the country has plenty ofnatural resources, different ethnic groups fight for the ownership, control and domination on theproperty and rule the country on their wishes. It has brought never ending armed conflict in thecountry and many innocent people and children are now the victims of it. Every time the conflictbreaks, the physically able people are supposed to be in the battlefield to defend their land and clans.Many families send their children to represent the family.17Congo's ethnic diversity and incredible potential wealth are two of the main driving forces behindthe phenomenon of child soldiers. With more than 200 ethnic groups, communities defendthemselves by sending every able son into battle (http://www.csmonitor.com)74It is estimated that 7,000 child soldiers recruited in government forces and armed groups, includingforeign armed groups in the eastern provinces of Equateur, Ituri, Katanga, North and South Kivu,and Maniema. They were used as rebels, sexual slaves, porters and guards and. Children were alsorecruited from refugee camps in Rwanda (Global Report 2008).The children are not always in the battlefield because of their parents' wish and interest. There areseveral instances that children are stolen and forced to fight. Many of the children are to join thearmed groups without their interest and without even knowing who they are fighting for. Millions ofCongolese lost their lives in those wars. The number of children is remarkably large to lose lives andmany are living dark lives being handicapped. In the Congo's decade long war, many children havebeen stolen from their homes and forced to fight. Over five million people have died in the war ineastern Congo (http://povertynewsblog.blogspot.com/)75.Talking about African countries like Uganda and Congo, the children are ordered to destroy theirparental property, do harm to their family members or even they order the children to kill theirparents. The point is when the children do such inhuman things in their family, they cannot think tocome back to their family because of the stigma and other danger they feel about their past deeds.The rebellions want it so the child soldiers will live with them permanently since they have nowhereto go.4.8 SudanSudan is another country having ongoing armed conflict. Millions of people have lost lives andmillions have become homeless. The children without family and relatives have nowhere to go andnothing to depend on. Many of them are serving the armed groups knowing or without anyknowledge of what they are doing. They are involved on war because it is the only place to go formany of them. They get at least food, clothes and friends. It is better example of Sudan. A reportsays that child soldiers are the youngest soldiers in Sudan's bitter civil war. Boys as young as five,who lost their parents in the fighting and joined the army because they had nowhere else to go(http://www.abc.net.au),76. A global report says, “Thousands of child soldiers were recruited andused by armed forces, government-backed militias and armed opposition groups in Sudan.Recruitment of children from refugee camps in Chad occurred in 2006” (Child soldiers:2008)77.Many children are orphans and they have no guardians to look after. They find armed groups as theirdestination to go. Most of them have witnessed their parents being killed cruelly. It is not hard to killor shoot the opponent. Most of the children are from conflict affected areas. They join the rebels asthey want their basic needs to be fulfilled or they can take revenge of their enemies. Sudan isregarded as the worst country for having child soldiers. It is estimated that around 10,000 childrenare serving as child soldiers for both government and rebel groups in Sudan (news.bbc.co.uk)78.4.9 United KingdomThe global report on child soldiers does not have any report on the child soldiers serving in Europe.Kazakhstan has military schools for children. The children could attend military schools from the ageof 11. Secondary-school students received weapons training at 16 or 17 (Child Soldiers: 2008)79.Although there is no report of child soldiers serving in European countries, Britain is found to havethe policy to recruit children below the age of 18 to the armed force. It has claimed not to have sentthem for war until they reached the age of 18. However, the same report on the course of UK says,“The UK appeared to intensify its efforts to recruit under-18s with a range of recruitment methods18during the reporting period, at the same time strengthening safeguards for their protection” (ChildColdiers:2008)80. But recruiting children below 18 years of age is against the child rights. The article38 and 3 of CRC has provided safe ground for this purpose, which itself does not seemcomprehensive.Britain recruits children for soldiers and there is no clear reason on behalf of children, from theBritish government to recruit them. It is stated that they want to attract school leavers to join army.Another reason is to produce competent battalions they recruit the youngsters of age below 18. Boththese arguments do not seem to be convincing and in favor of children, who are recruited as armedforces. A report says:“Britain is the only European country which recruits youngsters into the armed forces fromthe age of 16, though they cannot be deployed on operations until they are 18. The Ministry ofDefense, which last night criticized the report, says this is the only way it can compete in thebattle to attract school-leavers…More than £2bn is invested each year in recruiting andtraining about 20,000 new personnel to replace those who leave, it adds. ‘The primary targetgroups for armed forces marketing are children and adolescents’" (Peace Matters)81.5. Girl child soldiersThe girl child soldiers are triple victimized. First, girls are children. Second, girls are child soldiers.Third, girls are immature female. The girl generally involve as child soldiers due to poverty,marginalized and disadvantaged communities, inhabiting in a combat zones and living separatelyfrom their family. The girl child soldiers were trained carrying a piece of wood (a dummy gun) untilthe groups received guns. They were trained not to get catch by the enemy. Once they were caughtup, “do or die” was only option to leave.The ongoing civil war in different corners of the world has aggravated the normal civilian life.Females have to face additional misery. They are deprived of basic and fundamental rights. Their lifeturns to amalgamation of sorrow and grief. The females of conflict areas are more victimized andabused sexually. Carpenter (2006: 98) states, "The modern war claims 90% of casualties frominnocent bystanders and majority are women and children."82 No matter either they are abducted tojoin the armed force or they just live normal life they are subjected of physical and morel tortures.Many underage girls have been serving in different ways and for different purpose of the armedgroups. Both state and non-state armed groups are responsible to degrade the situation and victimizethem. The girls and women are terrorized and abused in multiple ways. Girl soldiers have morehardship because they are supposed to fight as combatants along with their fellow male soldiers andthey are generally assigned additional tasks to perform at the camp.Sexual exploitation is a more bitter case for the girls. The armed groups of Africa have used girls forsex service, in addition to the other duties. In her research based study of four different countries; SriLanka, Philippines, Colombia and Angola, Keairns (2002)83 has mentioned about the serious sexualexploitation in Angola. According to her, Sri Lankan armed force did not have any report of sexrelation or sexual harassment. The soldiers are trained to respect each other and not to assault orexploit girls for sexual purpose. The case of Philippines is similar but the soldiers can have sexualrelationship on mutual agreement and getting permission from the senior officer or commander. Thecase of Colombia is different. The girls are responsible for sex and its consequences. They have theright to have or not to have sex relation with anyone. But pregnancy is not accepted. The girls areprovided contraceptives, injection or IUD to avoid the possible pregnancy. In case of pregnancy, thegirl is responsible for it and the only option is abortion, which is unwanted and the most painful partof life to the girls.19Case Study V"I feel so bad about the things that I did. It disturbsme so much that I inflicted death on other people.When I go home I must do some traditional ritesbecause I have killed. I must perform these ritesand cleanse myself. I still dream about the boyfrom my village that I killed. I see him in mydreams, and he is talking to me, saying I killed himfor nothing, and I am crying." A 16-year-old girl ofCentral Africa remembers after demobilizationfrom an armed group.(Source: US State Department Report 2005.Case Study VI"There was no one in charge of the dormitoriesand on a nightly basis we were raped. The menand youths would come into our dormitory in thedark, and they would just rape us - you wouldjust have a man on top of you, and you could noteven see who it was. If we cried afterwards, wewere beaten with hosepipes. We were so scaredthat we did not report the rapes. The youngest girlin our group was aged 11 and she was rapedrepeatedly in the base." A 19-year-old girl ofZimbabwe described her experience in theNational Youth Service Training Program.Source: http://www.child-soldiers.orgFrom the sexual points of view, the girl childsoldiers of Sri Lanka and Philippines are saferand they enjoy equal rights with their malecounterparts. The intention of the leaders is notto abuse the powerless but to empower them forthe equality. Both boys and girls are treatedequally and no discrimination is practiced at all.In Philippines, gender discrimination isdiscouraged. Both boys and girls are treatedequally and they feel equal. The girls feel saferthere, since the males are even not allowed totouch their body without their permission. Theyhave criticism sessions, where any member cancriticize any other member, regardless of rank.They express openly for what is beingexperienced so far as injustice, discrimination or ill treatment. This session is designed to solve theemerging or potential problems and give chance to correct wrong behavior of the soldiers.Sexual assault is common and most terrific in most of the conflicting countries in Africa. The armedforces abduct girls for sexual service in those places. They are there for entertainment as well asvarious other purposes. Many of the girl soldiers are forced to be mothers in early teens or evenbefore that. A girl soldier of RENAMO became mother at the age of twelve in Mozambique. In caseof Africa, most of the teenage mothers even do not recognize the father of her child. Males do notneed to be responsible for the child. During wars a mother girl soldier has to fight with her childstrapped on her back.The ex-combatant mothers have to live horrible and challenging civilian life in the community. Theyare responsible for themselves and their children.The trauma, rejection and stigmatization in thecommunity and family and unemployment pushthem to hardship. The irony is when the girls areabducted from their home and family they cannotprotect or prevent them. But when they are backin the society the same people come forward tostigmatize them.However, in the case of Nepal, abortion had beenthe only remedy if a girl got pregnant (withoutparty’s consent to marriage) on the course ofPeople’s War. Such cases were resolved locallyand secrecy has been tight not to inform thesenior party leaders. Although some couples(combatants) had also left the party due to tightdisciplines.It is estimated that 30 percent of the total armed forces are child soldiers and out of them around 30percent are girls in the world. Girls are recruited and assigned as warriors, night sentries,entertainers, subordinators, cleaners, potters, spies and messengers. But the worst is that they areused as sex slaves for the fellow male soldiers in some cases. When girls are abducted by any armedgroup; generally the beautiful ones are chosen by the commander or the senior officers for theirentertainment. It does not matter how many girls they already have kept as wives. The girls with20physical deficiency or having unsuitable physical condition are generally subjected to receivesummary execution.If the girl is normal but not beautiful, she can be recruited as armed force but this does not liberateher from being brutalized sexually. So the girl soldiers, unwillingly, wish to be wives of commanderor senior soldiers. That way they do not bear additional sexual abuse. In addition to it, the generalchild soldiers have risky life but the wives of commander do not have to undergo such assault.Instead they can abuse the ordinary soldiers to fulfill their wish. The experience and the expressionof an ex combatant, as mentioned by Honwana (2006: 84), clarify it as,"The nights were dreadful because we were there to be used by the soldiers. A soldier pernight …. The lucky ones were those who were chosen by an officer who had a hut for them tolive in and who protected them as his wives."84Above mentioned bitter experience of this ex-combatant clearly reveals the nightmare life of the girlsin the camps. The girls are there for the sexual service and they could be used by anyone at anynight. They never have any choice of their own neither they could refuse when they have anyproblems or unwillingness. They are treated as sex machine. The unsafe sex and sexual relation withmultiple partners intensify the magnitude of those fatal sex diseases.The girl soldiers envy to be the wives of commander or officers, simply for their safety. Thecommander's wives have less trouble as compared to the ordinary girl soldiers. They have less sexualassault as they are for one particular and powerful man and there are co-wives for the same purpose.In addition to it, they have their privacy as they have their own hut with the so called husband.During the delivery and post labor time they are helped by the counterparts or by the othersubordinators. They get better care in this critical time (Honwana:2006:84)85.Mary Robinson, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights on February12, 2002 said, “We areurging all governments and armed groups to end the military recruitment of children under18 and torelease those children already in service. There can be no-excuse for arming children to fight adultwars.” The UN Secretary General, Kofi Annan, in his address before the UN Special Session onChildren on May 2002 stated, “The deployment of child soldiers is a despicable and damagingpractice that must end. Those who practice this form of child abuse must be held accountable.” Inaddition, he stated that, “For far too long, the use of child soldiers has been seen as merelyregrettable. We are here to ensure it is recognized as intolerable” (Keairns, Yvonne E.: October2002)866. Girls Recruitment and Their Problems of SocializationThere is no single reason for girls being recruited to armed force. They have been vulnerable to berecruited for several reasons. Some of the most significant classical reasons are the poverty, lack ofeducation, family problems, revenge, armed group influence, peer pressure and relatives'involvement. But the changing dimension has added social inequality or gender discrimination.Many girl ex-combatants of Nepal claimed they joined armed group to liberate themselves from thegender discrimination. It was proved in case of Ethiopia too. There was a big gap between males andfemales in Ethiopia but the civil war and females' participation in armed groups minimized it to someextent. It is more identical and true to Sri Lanka and Philippines as well. The armed groups of SriLanka and Philippines have empowered girls to live freely in the camps. They have criticismsessions, where they can criticize any rank of soldiers if they have any troubles. So they feel safe andfree.But the question is why do the armed forces choose to recruit girls? Though there is no clear answer,we can assume the following answers following literatures and participant observations:216.1 Propaganda of InclusionThe Maoists armed group of Nepal claimed the party policy to recruit girls as soldiers for theinclusion. They claimed there had been a gap between males and females in the society. The existingculture portrayed females as weak and insecure. Males' security was essential for females to besecure. This practice made females weak and dependent and males made them vulnerable anddominated. To break the concept of weak and insecure, the then CPN (Maoist) recruited females andschool children, including girls. This would help the females to realize they are no more dependentand they can fight for their rights since they are no weaker than their male counterparts. To someextent it seemed to be in favor of females' empowerment. Many single women and sociallyvulnerable women were recruited as soldiers and some of them are now even promoted asparliamentarians. It highlights the concepts of inclusion.The case of Sri Lanka is similar that of Nepal. The Sri Lankan Tamil armed group; LTTE haddifferent military brigade of girls named "Birds of Freedom". The girl battalions fought equally tomale fighters and they claimed not having the feeling of discrimination. There is no discriminationand no record of sexual assault recorded so far. Singer (2006: 32- 33) states:“The most significant users of girl soldiers, though, is perhaps the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam(LTTE). Fighting in Sri Lanka since the mid-1980s, the group systematically recruits children. It has evengone so far as to establish the LTTE Bakuts, a unit known as the "Baby Brigade" made up of fighterssixteen and under. Estimates indicate that between 40 and 60 percent of its fighting forces are recruitedbelow the age of eighteen, mostly in the ten to sixteen-year-old range. Roughly half of these LTTE troopsare female, called "birds of Freedom" by their fellow rebels.”87The recruitment of girls is almost similar to Philippines too. The girls are empowered there for theirparticipation and voice up. The female battalions feel safe and experience less or no genderdiscrimination. They are not dominated on the ground of gender.6.2 Easy preyGirls are more vulnerable and mistreated in family and community. For various evil practices toogirls are subjected to be victimized, mostly in the conflicting world. That adds the vulnerability ofgirls and makes helpless. In that situation they are easy to mislead. The armed groups can make themtheir easy preys. The sexual violence in the community eventually blames the victims andstigmatizes them. This also causes a victim girl to lose her family and community. The result is evenmore vulnerability and death. If survived the life is further horrible or many of them end up witharmed forces.Prevailing social and cultural injustice on the girls lead them to think and sometimes even plan forrevenge. They find the armed groups close to their interest and supportive. Eventually they join itand work for the interest of armed groups dreaming to use the armed force to reach their own goals.But they realize elusive of their judgment when they do not get their missions fulfilled. But it is to betoo late and they have no chance to correct it.In many African countries the children have nowhere to go when they lose their parents and relativesin military raids. The only option left with them to join the armed groups. It is the only place for theirsurvival and they think they will be safe there.6.3 Easy to train and use22Case Study VII"I joined the SPLA when I was 13. I am fromBahr Al Ghazal. They demobilized me in 2001and took me to Rumbek, but I was given nodemobilization documents. Now, I am stuckhere because my family was killed in agovernment attack and because the SPLA wouldre-recruit me. At times I wonder why I am notgoing back to SPLA, half of my friends haveand they seem to be better off than me." Boyinterviewed by Coalition staff, southern Sudan,February 2004.Source: www.child-soldiers.orgGirls are easy to train and use for various purposes for the armed groups. They use girls for kitchenwork, cleaning, entertainment (singing and dancing) and sexual service and so on. For each of thesetasks girls need little extra training and theycan work or they are made to work.Furthermore once they are recruited for thearmed groups, they have less chance to returnbecause they are not easily accepted in theirfamilies and society. So they are compelled tobe dedicated to learn the things they aretrained.In addition to general kitchen work andentertainment, the girls are often used as sentryand battalions. The armed groups train and usethem. Some of the girls having children arealso forced to go to frontiers striping theirbabies at their back. Life is really complicatedsince the baby care is challenging and there isless possibility to get food and rest. But still they are serving their chain of commands. It is becauseof the tough training they are provided and having no alternative.6.4 VulnerabilityThe family problem, discriminatory and rude behavior, exploitation and unsafe surrounding at home,in groups, community and at school made the girls vulnerable. Such girls are easy to convince to jointhe armed groups. Sometimes the armed groups even make false propaganda to organize falsecampaign to trap the vulnerable children. In that case most of the victims are girls. The girls believewhat they are told and they feel more convinced when they see other girls of their age groups in thearmed groups. When they encountered the gravity of reality it was already too late for them torepent.6.5 Sexual entertainments and difficultiesOne of the major reasons for the African armed forces to recruit girls is for sexual entertainment.They wanted to have girls in their camps so the soldiers do not need to go to search anywhere. Thisis a trick of the commanders to retain the soldiers at the camp. The girls are used for it by differentsoldiers in different times. But in worse cases each single girl is used by several soldiers too. Thesoldiers come to the girls and asked to go to their places for the sexual entertainment. It could beanyone and negation is never possible. Rejection results severe physical punishment or summaryexecution.Common use of girls for sexual purpose risks different sexually transmitted diseases, including fatalsex disease HIV AIDS. In case of survival and rescue from camps the members do not have goodpart of life since they are transmitted sexual diseases.In addition to sexual assaults and harassments, pregnancy and being mother is another problem to thegirls. During the war the girls are supposed to strap the baby on their back and fight along with theirmale counterparts. In critical times the babies become trouble to the battalions and they want to getrid of them. During the attack by the opponent groups the babies can be barriers for them since theircry help the enemies to detect them so they even shot the babies to get rid of such risk.The next obstacle is the mother soldiers cannot devote their whole time to the camp since they areengaged with the children. To get rid of it, the camps even give the babies to the villagers of nearbyvillages. When the children grow up they are recruited as new soldiers. The mothers are more23responsible to stay longer in the camps because of their children. In addition to it, they lose morespace in the community and family when they give birth to child. Singer (2006: 34) adds;“Many of these girls then become pregnant. What happens next usually depends on thegroup's decision rather than the young mother's choice. For example, when a girl in the FARCin Colombia becomes pregnant, she often is forced either to have an abortion or give her babyto local peasants. When the child reaches thirteen, he or she is reclaimed by the FARC as partof the next generation of recruits. In contrast, women in the LRA tend to keep their children.But in doing so, they become more wedded to the group, because their escape options arefurther limited.”88Their children are called children of enemy or devil children or bush children. Both the mother andchildren are ignored and disliked by the family and community. Even after the rescue of girl childsoldiers, they determine to retain in the camps to serve in whatever way they can.6.6 Voluntary serviceIn some cases girls are found to join armed forces voluntarily. In case of Nepal some girls joined thearmed rebellion groups because they were already affiliated with Maoist party and they wereconvinced to fight against the existing system. They believed that armed revolution was the onlysolution for the reformation of political, economic and social systems. Some others say that theywere not safe at home because during the day they were psychologically and physically tortured bystate security force and during the night they had to face tough time with the insurgent groups. Veryoften the females of war zones were victims of cross fire. So joining Maoist group was the singlealternative in front of them. In addition to those two reasons, some girls joined Maoist party becausethey were willing to take revenge of the state security since the state security ruthlessly killed theirbeloved family member(s). The attractive cultural programs and sentimental slogans attracted someinnocent village girls to work for the Maoist voluntarily.In the case of Sri Lanka, ethnic exclusion forced the young girls to join armed group LTTE. Theybelieve that armed revolution will bring their dream to the reality. When they join the force, they arebrainwashed and made ready for suicide bombing too. Armed force campaign and heroic stories ofthe ex-combatants and late combatants influence the teenage girls to join the armed force voluntarily.In a study done by the Quakers' United Nations Organization (QUNO) some of the girls ofPhilippines explain the same kind of opinion for the reason to join armed force. When there is splitbetween father and mother the children are not a matter of concern for both of them. They areneglected and hated by the parents and they do not feel comfortable with the relatives too. Ultimatelythey find armed force as their safe shelter. It was reported the same case in Colombia too. In someAfrican countries, the armed force comes and destroys the entire villages and killed many of theelder people of the community. The girls lose their parents and to join armed force is the only optionleft with them and they join it. It seems voluntary though the tragic hidden story is different.6.7 DDR and girl soldiersThere is a bitter experience of girl soldiers during the DDR process too. All the girl soldiers do notget recognition as soldiers during this process. They are excluded as non-combatants. The majorproblems occur from the beginning of DDR process. Those who serve for the armed groups areclassified as combatants and non-combatants. Some of the girls and women work for the subordinaterole; cooking, cleaning, food gathering, night sentries, entertainers, looting the nearby villages forfood supply and gathering water and fire wood. Those are not regarded as the soldiers and they areexcluded from DDR. They do not have alternative left to raise their voice to get the necessaryattention for their inclusion. So they have no way although they have almost the same experience,hardship, and option-less.24During the camp stay the girl soldiers have been provided to take drugs like marijuana, cocaine andsome other similar harmful objects. When they are back to the society, they want it to continue. Thispractice of taking drugs makes them more difficult to the family. The cost of drugs, the mental andeconomic impact of it after taking and the behavior of the users make the situation worse. In additionto them, the girl soldiers are blamed to be aggressive and violent. In some cases they involve into theprostitution for their and children’s survival. Use of bad and slang words bring another trouble toadjust in the family. They possess the same habit of aggression during their camp stay. This is notbearable to the normal family life.6.8 Discrimination between the child soldiersDuring the service time girls are forced to work more. Besides, most of them are excluded for DDRprocess. They are not counted as combatants since their roles in the camp are explained as cook,cleaners or something different than the combat. 89 Girl soldiers are invisible when the war isfinished. So they do not get the financial support or any other helps they are supposed to get duringthe DDR process for the reintegration. Sarah Hendriks says, "More often DDR programs do not seethat girls were combatants so they become invisible again and are left out."90 Girl ex-combatantsoften encounter obstacles to change the attitude and behavior of the society.Sarah Masters (IANSA91 Women's Network Coordinator) said, "Many girl soldiers also endure thetrauma of sexual violence and unwanted pregnancies. The plight of girl soldiers remains largelyignored, with many girls reporting they were neglected in DDR operations…."92. The mission of thearmed force determines the fate of the girl child soldiers. In case of Africa, the armed groups fightfor the identity based security and to get control over the resources. Some of the armed forces, likeRevolutionary United Front (RUF) of Sierra Leone, even do not seem to have any clear missionother than violence. Some others are more motivated for ethnic cleansing. So the training starts withhate, harm, hurt, kill and destroy. The high level officers or commanders do not regard thesubordinators as general human beings. So they always try to dominate the juniors. It is the samecase to the boys too but the girls are more vulnerable and seriously victimized.International laws are not sensitive enough to deal with the problems of females have to face. Forexample the often occurring rape case during and post war do not get enough attention as it requires.Rape is taken as a minor crime in many places of world. The women groups lobbying brought asignificant land mark in this field as they were able to recognize rape during war as war crime andcrime against humanity. Chappell (2008:170) further states:“Given the way in which the law has historically ignored this gender-specific crime, therecognition of rape as a war crime was a significant act. Further, by including rape as a crimeagainst humanity meant that women experiencing this form of violence outside times of waralso had some recourse under international law…. Indeed, under the Geneva Conventions,rape along with other forms of sexual assault is categorized as a 'lesser crime' and not as a'grave breach' of international law, which is subject to universal jurisdiction exercisable innational courts.”There are cases of Maoists for having sexual relations within the camp and many of them were evenmarried or re-married as per the party decision. They had a strict party discipline and were notallowed to neglect the girl once married. But the worse record was of the state military in Nepal. Theso called defenders of the civilians had abused the general girls and women simply for their lust andto defend themselves from the possible charge they blamed those raped ones as being part of Maoistsand shot to death to destroy the evidences. There are instances of girls and women being raped in thecustody and in their captivity.Box II25Comparison between Security Sector Reform (SSR) and Disarmament, Demobilization and Reintegration (DDR)# SSR DDR1 The “security system”, “security system reform”and “SSR” all refer to reform in a broad range ofsecurity and justice institutions. SSR also denotesactivities sometimes referred to by internationalactors as “security sector reform”, “security andjustice sector reform” and “rule of law”.It is the process by which a number of combatants belonging toeither the official armed forces/security forces or armed oppositiongroups in a country, individually or collectively, disarm,demilitarize, reinsert, and reintegrate into civil life.2 It is an integrated component that provides for therestructuring, reorientation, and professionalizationof security forces or security-related institutions,adhering to democratic norms, practices andsystems.These structures include: (i) security actors such asarmed forces, armies, police, border guards,customs, immigration, intelligence, etc. (ii) securitymanagement bodies such as defense and internalaffairs ministries, public complaints commissions,etc. (iii) law and order and justice enforcementinstitutions such as the judiciary, National HumanRights Commission, CDO, police post/offices,prisons, customary and traditional justice systems,etc. (iv) non-statutory security forces such as YCL,youth force, private security companies, privatesecurity guards, etc.The objective of DDR is to improve welfare of participants, aswell as free them to contribute to national or societal achievement.The process can be characterized by its individual components.Disarmament entails recognition, collection, documentation,control, and destruction of small arms, ammunition, explosivesand light and heavy weapons of combatants and civilians (if thereare any). It also includes identification of mines and traps to markthem for further action. Demobilization is the discharge of activecombatants (of the state or armed opposition) to civilian life.Combatants are kept in temporary centers, cantonments orbarracks. Reinsertion ensures transitional assistance to thecombatants and their dependents, providing the basic rights - food,shelter, clothing, health, education, etc. Reintegration workstoward civilian status for ex-combatants, ensuring economic,social, and psychological integration into the national mainstream.It requires long-term assistance – in cash or in kind - forcompensation, training, school enrollment, recruitment intosecurity forces, etc. It follows rehabilitation, resettlement,repatriation, and re-acculturation through reconciliation.3 The principle of SSR is to be people-centered andlocally owned and based on democratic norms,human rights and the rule of law. It aspires towardthe improved delivery of security and justiceservice with transparency and accountability.The UN principle of DDR addresses the clarity of purpose,national ownership, accountability and transparency, unity ofeffort, sustainability, respect for commitment, and internationalnorms and conventions.4 The SSR approach addresses diverse securitychallenges, develops policies and practices,provides technical inputs to donors, and supportsstate and non-state security and justice serviceprovisions, etc.United Nations' approach to DDR is people-centered, flexible,transparent and accountable, nationally owned, integrated and wellplanned.5 It aims to amend and reform or rebuild a nation’ssecurity sector. It is an operational and a normativeconcept.It aims toward a comprehensive transformation from war to peaceamongst conflicting parties in order to develop peaceful societiesand enhance human security and development by transforming theroles of combatants.6 It is a simple and continuous process that respectsthe needs and demands of concerned actors and theurgency of society and the nation.DDR is a complex and multi-faceted political process whereeconomic, socio-cultural, psychological, and reconciliatory issuescome to the forefront for achieving a just peaceful society ornation, thus reducing the possibility of renewed conflict.267 It is pursued in order to modernize the securityforces by purchasing modern (or otherwiserequired) weapons or by reorganizing hierarchicalstructures (ie, ardali) ensuring democratic practice,human rights, and accountability.The process of DDR has been initiated in three ways: (i)negotiated settlement due to external party pressure; eg. Namibia(1988), South Africa (1993), and Zimbabwe (1979); (ii) peacesettlement through defeat of one by another; eg. Angola (2003),Ethiopia (1990s); Rwanda (1994), and Uganda (1986); and (iii)peace accord due to external intervention eg. Angola (1988),Liberia (2003), Cote d’ Ivoire (2007), Mozambique (1990s), andSierra Leone (1999).8 It is concerned with the integration of securitybranches which aims at efficient and effectiveprovision for human security within a framework ofa democratic governance system.Successful DDR conversion depends upon: reduction of militaryexpenditure, orientation of military research and development,conversion of the arms and industry, demobilization andreintegration, redevelopment of troops, and safe disposal andweapons surplus management.9 SSR operations cannot succeed without the state'ssecurity measures, the armed groups, and non-stateactors, i.e., civil society.DDR operations cannot succeed without guarantee of security;without enough funding, unless the combatants and factions aredisarmed; without concrete design, development, andimplementation. Its sustainable success depends upon itspartnership with the community or civil society.10 It is an effective instrument of conversion from adysfunctional security sector to a functional oneunder democratic principles.DDR is often understood as a technical process, whereas it is, infact, a highly political process. It not only commands securityforces, but also supplies security for them.Source: Bishnu Pathak. December 14, 2008. Modeling the Integration of the Maoist Combatants: DDR or SSR?Similar to Sri Lankan LTTE, to some extent, the then CPN (Maoist) has recruited many girls. Theirclaim is to provide equal chance and stop gender discrimination. They claim it as empowering girlsand women. Singer (2006: 33) states:“To the north, the Maoist Lal Sena insurgency in Nepal has similarly been proud of itsrecruitment and employment of girl fighters…. Lal Sena has recruited some four thousandchild soldiers between the ages of fourteen and eighteen (around 30 to 40 percent of its totalforces. Its own propaganda highlights the fact that girls represent great numbers of this totaland even describes the military activity of girls as ‘another bonanza for the revolutionarycause. That is, the drawing of children into the process of war and their politicization….’"93The propaganda of those both groups sound ok to some extent but leaves ground to criticize whythey want equal participation of girls or women in bloody war? Why do they recruit innocentchildren? There are many other areas they can involve females to ensure equality. When it is aquestion of war and risk, there is feeling of equality and empowerment but when it is time foropportunity the males dominate culture is there. This makes the claim of those groups unclear andblur. Both those rebellion groups do not have female participation at the top level. It clearly indicatesthat their claim is just to cheat the general people.The above examples are the case of girls and women that are still less prioritized. It is simply anexample of gender discrimination. The labeling of rape crime as lesser crime is a serious violation ofwomen rights and their constitutional freedoms.7. International human rights instrumentsThere are several international legal standards to protect children from recruitment or use as soldiers.The summary of the main international and regional human rights standards relating to child soldiersdiscuss below.277.1 Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989): For all round development of children and tobring their potentialities, almost all the member states of United Nations have agreed to adopt andenforce Child Rights Convention. The Convention on the Rights of the Child was adopted andopened for signature, ratification and accession by the General Assembly Resolution 44/25 ofNovember 20, 1989. The Convention came into enforcement on 2nd September 1990. It is to assurethe rights of children, world wide. It can be taken as complementary part of Universal Declaration ofHuman Rights. The convention has two parts and 54 articles. The first part of it deals with rights ofchildren and the second part deals with its enforcement in the member states of UN.Article 2 states the duty of concerned state to protect each child, without any kind of discrimination,from any kind of problems, danger and threat. Article 16 deals the right of children to pursue legalrights against unlawful attacks. Article 19 and article 28 deal with the rights to education. Articles36, 37, and 38 deal the rights of children to live with family and remain free from any violenceagainst them. Article 39 deals with the reintegration and socio-psycho health for the reintegration inthe family and community. It is the duty of guardians to ensure the rights of children along with thesupport of state. Nobody below the age of 18 is subjected to be recruited in the army or any forcefuljob. It is the duty of each concerned state to guarantee for the security and fulfillment of the basicneeds.The poor implication of the convention, in many countries, and no ratification of it in some countrieshas made the situation worse, in case of child rights. Savitri Goonesekere (1998: 31) points out theproblem as;“The Convention has helped create a positive international legal environment on child rights,yet, a strategy of rights at the international legal can obviously impact on children only if it istranslated into intervention at the national level. The Declaration and the Statement of Goals atthe World Summit on Children (1990) focus on effective implementation receives priority, theConvention will remain merely a manifesto of political intent.”94Problem is its enforcement. The countries' solidarity to implement the Convention is praiseworthybut more practice with solid ground is essential. The solidarity along with intervention andimplementation are needed.7.2 Optional Protocol to the CRC on the Involvement of Children in Armed Conflict: After tenyears of the enforcement of Convention on the Rights of the Child, the UN General Assembly passeda resolution to bring Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on theinvolvement of children in armed conflict (May 2000) and Optional Protocol to the CRC on the Saleof Children, Child Prostitution and Child Pornography (January 2000). The CRC Optional Protocolentered into force on February 12, 2002. It came into force to fulfill the lacking part of the childrenon CRC. On Article 1, it is mentions, "State parties shall take all feasible measures to ensure thatmembers of their armed forces who have not attained the age of 18 years do not take a direct part inhostilities."95 Articles 2 and 3 explain the responsibility of every state to protect children from beingrecruited for armed force. However, Article 3 has stated some provisions for children to be recruitedfor armed force when they reach the age of 15. This flexibility makes some difficulty for theprotection and prevention of the vulnerable children from being recruited as soldiers for armed force.Article 4 deals with the duty of each state to prevent children from being recruited and used for nonstatearmed forces.Till the mid of 2009 or in nine year of enforcement, a total of 157 countries have expressed theircommitment (either signed or ratified/acceded to or both) to the children in armed conflict optionalprotocol. However, three-dozen (23% out of 157) countries such as Afghanistan, Albania, Algeria,Angola, Bahrain, Belarus, Bolivia, Cape Verde, Dominica, Egypt, Eritrea, Honduras, Iraq, Kuwait,Kyrgyzstan, Lao, Libyan Arab Jamahiriya, Montenegro, Mozambique, Nicaragua, Oman, Qatar,28Rwanda, Syrian Arab Republic, Tajikistan, Thailand, Timor-Leste, Turkmenistan, Uganda,Tanzania, Uzbekistan, and Yemen 96 acceded to or ratified the CRC optional protocol on theinternational pressure, but yet to be signed to work as a national/domestic law. Similarly 25 (16%out of 157) countries namely Bhutan, Cameroon, Cyprus, Djibouti, Dominican Republic, Estonia,Fiji, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea-Bissau, Haiti, Indonesia, Lebanon, Malawi, Micronesia, Nauru,Nigeria, Pakistan, San Marino, Solomon Islands, Somalia, Suriname and Zambia 97 have donesignature on the national pressure but failed to ratified or acceded to it yet. Nepal has signed thetreaty on September 8, 2000 and ratified nearly seven-year later on January 3, 2007 only. Most of thedeveloped and prominent countries have been a signatory of it.Principally, the optional protocol to the CRC on the involvement of children in armed conflict issound. It is more concerned on the possible danger of children being abducted and recruited byarmed force. But the provision of voluntary enrolment and enrolment on the consent of parents orlegal guardians is vague. It cannot be verified. Those provisions can be easily interpreted andmisused by both state armed force and non-state armed force. Clear interpretation on this issue isneeded.7.3 Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (1998): The treaty came into force on July1, 2002. It establishes a permanent court in Hague to try individual(s) charged with committing warcrimes, crimes against humanity and genocide. The war crimes statute includes "conscripting orenlisting children under the age of 15-year into national armed forces or using them to participateactively in hostilities" (Article 8.2b); but in the case of armed conflict within the country,"conscripting or enlisting children under the age of 15-year into armed forces or groups or usingthem to participate actively in hostilities" (Article 8.2e).In the treaty, the delegates agreed to prohibit children's direct participation in warfare, but also theiractive participation in military activities such as sabotage, reconnaissance, spying and the use ofchildren as decoys, messengers, or at security (military) checkpoints. It also prohibits to use ofchildren in direct support in carrying supplies to the front line. It defines sexual slavery as a crimeagainst humanity (Article 7.1g).7.4 ILO Minimum Age Convention (138) and Worst Forms of Child Labor Convention (182):The ILO minimum age convention was adopted on June 26, 1973 and came into force three-yearlater on June 19, 1976. The article 1 states to pursue a national policy designed to ensure theeffective abolition of child labor and to raise progressively the minimum age for admission toemployment or work to a level consistent with the fullest physical and mental development of youngpersons. Similarly, the Worst Forms of Child Labor Convention was adopted on June 16, 1999 andcame into force on November 19, 2000. The Worst Forms of Child Labor is a matter of urgency. Itcommits to take urgent and effective measures to secure the prohibition and elimination of the worstforms of child labor. All persons under the age of 18-year called children and the worst forms ofchild labor include, “all forms of slavery or practices similar to slavery, such as the sale andtrafficking of children, debt bondage and serfdom and forced or compulsory labor, including forcedor compulsory recruitment of children for use in armed conflict” (Article 3a).7.5 The Paris Commitments and Principles (2007): A major international conference entitled"Free Children from War" was held in Paris on February 5-6, 2007 where 58 countries, includingdozens of ministers, donors, the heads of UN agencies and many NGOs were participated. TheFrench Government and the UNICEF has played a major role to coordinate the meetings.At the meeting, the 58 governments agreed to endorse and pledge to respect the Paris Commitments -consists of a set of legal and operational principles needed to protect children from recruitment oruse in armed conflict and build up the complement legal and political mechanisms. The ParisPrinciples is a major document relating to the protection of children from recruitment or use in29armed conflict. The principles advocate child soldiers to release and successfully reintegrate theminto civilian life .The principles urge to develop long term preventive strategies in order to endchildren's involvement in armed conflict. The meeting reviewed the Cape Town Principles that hadadopted by the NGOs at a conference in Cape Town in 1997. It adopted the strategies to preventrecruitment of children into the armed forces and ways on demobilization and social reintegration ofchild soldiers in Africa. Till the end of 2009, 84 countries have endorsed the Paris Commitments andPrinciples.7.6 African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child: It is the only regional treaty in theworld that deals with the issue of child soldiers. The Charter was adopted by the Organization ofAfrican Unity which is now called the African Union entered into force in November 1999. It sets 18as the minimum age of children without exception. The charter states: “States Parties to the presentCharter shall take all necessary measures to ensure that no child shall take a direct part in hostilitiesand refrain in particular, from recruiting any child" (Article 22.2).7.7 Additional Protocols to the four Geneva Conventions of 1949 (1977): It sets 15 as theminimum age for recruitment or use in armed conflict despite the 18-year age of childrenrecruitment in other human rights instruments. This minimum standard applies to all conflictingparties in both international and internal armed conflict. The article 77 of the additional protocolstates: “The Parties to the conflict shall take all feasible measures in order that child who have notattained the age of 15-year do not take a direct part in hostilities and, in particular, they shall refrainfrom recruiting them into their armed forces.” Article 4.3c of the Additional Protocol IIstates: :Children who have not attained the age of fifteen years shall neither be recruited in the armedforces or groups nor allowed to take part in hostilities.”7.8 The UN Security Council: It has passed a series of resolutions condemning the recruitment anduse of children during the time of international and internal hostilities. It condemned through theresolutions 1261 (1999), 1314 (2000) 1379 (2001), 1460 (2003), 1539 (2004) and 1612 (2005) onchildren and armed conflict.8. Impact of child soldiersThe impacts of child soldiers are not limited in a particular individual and family. It directly orindirectly affects society and the country. Certainly the victims lost normal life but it is equally aserious loss for a nation too. The growing influence of child soldiering pushes the nation to have lostcompetent future generation. What could a nation expect where the potential future leaders andcitizens are physically injured or sexual transmitted disease, emotionally violent, behaviorallyaggressive, socially rejected, mentally ill and psychologically in trauma? Even a small number ofbad people can influence large number of good people. Destruction is not a major problem. The onlychallenge is to be constructive. The violent population, who has lost its childhood, cannot contributewell for the national development. Instead there is high possibility of dictatorship, terror andatrocities. Since the children lose the chance for study and socialization they cannot functionproperly for the case of nation building. Therefore, child soldiering is a great misery for the nation. Itparalyses nation and influences the surrounding countries. Adventurous, unsuccessful, unemployedand frustrated people can organize armed groups to take revenge or to get benefit in another possibleway.The problem of ex-combatant is brings plenty of significant impacts. As seen in several Africancountries and other countries too, the wound of loss childhood is difficult to deal (Honwana: 2006:133) in which it states:“In postwar conditions, people have to deal with a myriad of situations that fall far outside ofwhat is believed to be the regular state of affairs: families were torn apart; sons killed their30Case Study VIII"I would like you to give a message. Please do your bestto tell the world what is happening to us, the children.So that other children don't have to pass through thisviolence."The 15-year-old girl who ended an interview toAmnesty International with this plea was forciblyabducted at night from her home by the Lord'sResistance Army (LRA), an armed oppositionmovement fighting the Ugandan Government. She wasmade to kill a boy who tried to escape. She saw anotherboy being hacked to death for not raising the alarmwhen a friend ran away. She was beaten when shedropped a water container and ran for cover undergunfire. She received 35 days of military training andwas sent to fight the government army.Source: Coalition to stop the use of children soldiersfathers; child soldiers were forced to raid their own villages; mothers had to deal with sonswho fought on different sides.”98As soon as the children are recruited, they are provided training to fight, shoot, kill and hate others.They are provided to take drugs and alcohol during the attack and raids. So they have the habits oftaking those hazardous substances. That further makes them more aggressive and influence tobehave strange to the other normal children. It draws the line between the ex-combatants and othernormal children. They live terrific life and this is what they have learned to do. So they arecompletely different to other general children in their behavior. When they are free from the armedgroups, they are difficult people to deal in the family and community. They are more violent,aggressive and stubborn. Furthermore they have nightmares and are frequently haunted. So theyshow different behaviors than others. They are not healthy. Many of them are injured andhandicapped too. They are underfed and they have malnutrition. They seek more attention and theyfeel lonely though they are with their family and friends. Feeling of isolation is a common problem.Since they are abducted to be soldiers during their time of schooling, they lose the chance to geteducation. So it is another missing part for them. If they are released from the armed force at anytime of their service, they can resume their study. But they still have some problems like the problemof adjustment. They are not treated well by the teachers and by their friends in the school. They feelisolated, ignored, insulted and mistreated by the others. Consequently they become aggressive andoften involve in fights. This problem of maladjustment and hatred separate them from the group andthey have less concentration on study.Furthermore their trauma gives themanother psychological problem that makesit more difficult for them to study. They areeven facing the same type of problems athome too. Insult and ignorance fromparents and siblings is hard part to dealwith.Physical injury and malnutrition make themeven fragile for their adjustment. Theterrible training and culture of hatred keepthem away from the core socialbackground. They are not taken as usefulpeople by the family members; neither arethey accepted well by the communitymembers. They are labeled as killers,ruthless murderers and merciless people.The girls have even more problems. Sinceeverybody is convinced the girls had sexualrelations with their male counterparts, the parents fear to accept them to come back home. Thosehaving children have additional problems. The children are regarded as the evil children or thechildren of bad people. So they are hated and neglected. The young mothers have no way of earningtheir living and they have trauma, they seem more rough and violent. On the course to survive, theymay involve into prostitution which further spoils the society. The habits of taking drugs and alcoholput them in another difficulty. It adds another problem to be adjusted in the family and community.9. FindingsThere are obvious reasons for children to be associated in armed conflict. But what are thecircumstances for them to join it? The answer is complex and it varies in different countries. Still the31common answers that match to almost every place are poverty and illiteracy. These are not the onlypush factors for children to join the military forces. Weaknesses on security system, properdevelopment plans and assurance of political goods delivery are the fundamental basic points to beconsidered. Those are the points for focus in the related countries who suffer from the armedconflict. When a country cannot manage security, economy and social system in a proper way, thearmed conflict is likely to take place. Unstable political situation, unreliable economy and poor statemechanism are some of the invisible factors to sow the seeds of armed conflict. The children are thetarget in such environment. In addition to that, some of the major inclining reasons are:9.1 Recruitment Policy: One of the main reasons for the children to be trapped in the child militia isdue to the policy of armed groups. The armed forces have their influence in certain areas. Theycreate favorable environment in their stronghold communities; either it is forceful or voluntary. Theyput pressure to the students and youths to join them. Sometimes the children and youths voluntarilyjoin the armed force but most of the times they are pressured heavily. In the case of Nepal, theMaoists demanded one person per family on their influenced areas99. It is common in every conflicttorn country.In Burma the children are more vulnerable than in any other countries. They are always the target ofboth state and non-state army. The children do not get birth registration or identity card to show theirage and they are easily abused. The government policy to recruit more soldiers all the time and thereluctance of youths to join the armed force is another problem. When there is lack of cadres andchildren are easy prey they can be abducted from anywhere and sold to any army officer. If a child isrescued, he will be trapped another time soon. So there are many instances of children being trappedand sold more than once100. As a whole, it is against article 7 of the CRC.In many conflict zones, the rebellion groups convince the local inhabitants as they are fighting forthe peace, progress, stability and wellbeing of the locals and they demand the local people to sendtheir children to join them for their ambition. The ignorant and helpless parents send their children tojoin the armed force, without knowing the risk and danger to their children. Nepal, Sri Lanka, Burmaand Philippines are strong examples of it. African countries also have such phenomena. This is avery easy and common phenomenon to trap the innocent children for the battle.9.2 Poverty: The poor parents of conflict zone have to face a great challenge to protect their childrenbeing abducted. Unemployment and poverty are complementary to each other. One supports another.Employed parents have better economy and they can provide basic needs to their children. Thechildren can feel comfortable at home and they have less temptation to join armed groupsvoluntarily. In case of abduction too, the rich family can pay ransom and rescue their children. Richparents have another option too; they can take their children to the safe areas in the city. So richnessis sort of protection whereas poverty is vulnerability.Poverty is the major cause of children being vulnerable for being recruited as child soldiers. Hungrychildren can be vulnerable to find any good or bad option and they are easy birds of prey for armedgroups. Brett and Specht (2004: 14) state;“Like war, poverty is a major environmental factor making children and young peoplevulnerable to involvement in armed forces and armed groups. It is perhaps the most obviouscommon feature of child soldiers generally, which is one of the reasons why it is frequentlyidentified as the cause of child soldiering.”101The increasing poverty pushes Nepali people to face even harder time. It is reported that 45% ofNepali people are below the line of poverty. They have limited chances to basic needs. The ongoingconflict aggravated the situation furthermore102. Supply of food is a great problem. Nutrition andhealth care are a luxury for many. The helpless and frustrated population is always vulnerable andmarginalized for any catastrophe. It can give a strong ground for the young and school aged children32to join the militia. They find better chances when they join militias, except physical injury and death.In some cases, children lose family during the cross fire between two groups. They have nowhere togo and nothing to eat. Rebellion party remains the single destination for them and they are end upwith the children militia. It is common in many conflicting countries including Congo, too103.Pointing out the situation many children in many countries live a very hard life due to poverty,Singer has mentioned some examples how children are attracted to join the armed force. They aretempted take the deadly risks since it is better than their free life. He further elaborates:“One report tellingly illustrated how a set of Afghan boys were so desperate that they literallyhad to choose between following a cow around to scoop up its excrement to sell as fuel orjoining one of the armed factions. The choice of war may be more dangerous, but it at leastprovides free clothes, food, and some modicum of respect. Or, as one Congolese child soldiersimilarly described, ‘I heard that the rebels at least were eating. So, I joinedthem’"(Singer:2006: 63)104.It is not so hard for helpless children join the armed force voluntarily. Life is dearer to everyonehowever, the present life is even more important. Many of the hungry-belly children easily join thearmed force without thinking any future pros and cons. The above example of Congolese boysclearly illustrates it. On the other hands many children of the war torn zones are not safe even theydo not join the armed force. Since the life is equally risky either they join or remain apart from thearmed groups, joining armed groups seem more sensible for them in terms of food and cloth. Theglamour of being army is another part for many kids. They feel pride on carrying guns and wearinguniforms. With those two things they can do anything they want.9.3 Unemployment: In most of the developing countries while most of the countries’ resourcescapture by limited elites (power, politics, property and privilege people), the great majority are farfrom states benefits and opportunities. In such countries, many young people are unemployed thoughthey have higher education. They are frustrated and hopeless. It delivers negative message to thechildren in the family and community. The children of their relation and surroundings do not see anypoint to obtain higher education since they are familiar with their senior relatives. Neither they areencouraged to keep on studying. They do not see the importance of higher education and areeventually reluctant to continue education. In many cases children of such environment even do notcomplete their primary education. This is very common in Burma too. There is no provision ofskill/vocational training for young and school drop outs to bring out their potentialities and makethem productive and employed. The school children realize child soldiers as a good alternative.The consequence of unemployment is poverty. Poverty leads to crimes and helps to think thepositive aspects of being in armed groups. The financial problems, low social status and inability tofulfill the daily basic needs make the young mind to see the good things being in armed groups.Therefore, they view armed groups as their ultimate destination.9.4 Unawareness: In many of the war torn countries both children and the parents are less aware orcompletely unaware of the child rights. Their illiteracy and unawareness directly helps the armedgroups and political leaders, who want to take advantage by such difficulties. The rebellion leaderscan easily brain wash or persuade the young minds and their ignorant parents to stand on their side tosupport them. The victims begin to dream to have better future after the political change, which theybelieve to happen soon. In many cases the children and parents are threatened either to join thearmed groups or to undergo any possible risk.9.5 Lack of confidence on the existing system: The general public have observed and experienceddifferent political changes. But no substantial changes take places to improve the life of them. Thediscriminatory and hierarchical social structures divide people into haves and haves not resulting inprivileged and under-privileged groups. The first groups of people are always on the benefit,33regardless of any political system or political changes. The latter groups are deprived of betteropportunities on politics, social status and economy. Rajbhandari (2006:61) points out it as,"Government attitudes towards Dalits and Janajatis (indigenous communities) from conflict-hit areasmake it difficult for them to find any kind of work in Nepal and Maoists force the same groups tojoin their militia forcefully, which makes it difficult for these groups to survive inside country."1059.6 Lack of manpower: In Africa, lack of manpower is another reason for armed forces to keeptheir eyes on the children. Because of prolonged civil wars, most of the adults are already affected.They become injured; handicapped and many are killed before they reach the actual matured age toserve for the armed groups. Famine, epidemics, civil wars and HIV AIDS have victimized themajority of the able population. Most of the families do not have adult males. There are families withonly children and elderly people. Life is more bitter and hard to survive. The HIV AIDS have killeda large number of matured and able work force and the children are left behind on the protection ofthe grandparents. Lack of job opportunities causes another serious problem for the young generationto go and work in foreign lands for employment to support the family at home. So they cannot goand serve for the armed groups voluntarily and involuntarily.9.7 War glamour and small arms: The heroic and adventurous stories of the relatives, warriors ondifferent media and computer games have made war glamorous. The teenage children wish to bebrave warriors to wear army uniforms and carry deadly weapons. This ambition takes some childrento the contact of armed groups and there they get trapped. On the other hand, the advancement andtechnological development in the field of arms production another attraction for the children toparticipate in armed groups. Until the Second World War, there were no weapons for children cancarry and fight using them. But now, the advancement on the technological development of smallarms and light weapons (SALW) has changed the scene of battlefield. The most deadly weapon, AK47 is in the market in the small size and portable weight for the children. The use of plastic has madethem light and easy to carry, reassembled, fired by a child below the age of 10. Such weapons do notneed lengthy training to operate; a child can learn to operate it barely in 30 minutes. These aremostly used deadly weapons causing 90% of the casualties in the recent wars. Contrary to it, suchweapons cost only 2% of the global arms trade.106 After the unification of East and West Germany,the vast majority of weapons stock of the East German army was auctioned off. Most of the bidderswere private. The result: light machine guns went for just $60, land mines for $19 and pistols for$8.107 It clearly indicates that those weapons are cheaply available in the arms market. The modernplastic used weapons are light to carry and easy to store, it is possible to store them in dust in thejungle.Apart from the above mentioned things, war trade is another triggering factor. The weaponsproducing companies are indirectly supporting the child soldiering by any means they can finduseful. So they are always in favor of continuation of such conflict and child soldiers are there toserve.9.8 Back to bush: In some countries, the ex-child soldiers again join the armed force. The commonreason is they are not treated well after they are freed from the armed groups. Some of them do notfind family members and relatives. The others do not experience comfortable to adjust in the society.Livelihood is another challenge for them. Most of them already have the habits of drug addiction andalcohol. They cannot easily find it in the family and community. Since they have no opportunity forsuitable vocational training and skills to start their own occupation or get a job, they feel helpless andfrustrated. Lack of sufficient funds is another problem for them to start a new occupation in case theyget vocational training. Eventually they see the only option left with them is to join armed forceswhere they think they are comfortable. So even the DDR may lead back to some of the excombatantsto go back to bush.34The experience of African continent is almost similar. But the interest of the armed group leaders isfound different. The children are preferred to be recruited as militias for three basic reasons. Theyare easy to find, they are easy to train and they remain more dependent and obedient in the militiacommand108. Finding the vulnerable children more docile and less reactive, the armed groups put ontheir eyes on the children. The children are thus, more unsafe. The situation is more tragic in therural areas. The urban areas are a bit safe but the street children are their targets.Because of their emotional and physical immaturity, children are easy to manipulate and can bedrawn into violence that they are too young to resist or understand. Both boys and girls may be sentto the front line of combat or into minefields ahead of older troops. Some have been used for suicidemissions or forced to commit atrocities against their own families and neighbors. Others serve asporters, cooks, guards, servants, messengers, or spies. Many child soldiers, mostly girls, are alsosexually abused (http://cyberschoolbus.un.org)10910. RecommendationsAfter studying all the underlying causes and consequences of child soldiering, we found some basicareas to address for the end of these inhumane practices. It is possible to end child soldiering and it isthe prime need of the world to ensure child rights for the better future of the entire globe. Thisproblem seems a local problem of conflicting countries at present but it is a global consequence andit causes global effects. Therefore, it requires holistic approach to address this problem and obtainpermanent solution. The following points are to be considered for the end of child soldiers:10.1 Global policy: UN, International Community, powerful and developed countries should beserious to establish global peace. Conflict in any country for any reason has multiple negative effectsacross the globe. The civil war of Afghanistan has a strong direct influence to Pakistan. Rwanda,Sudan and DRC have influenced the neighboring countries for the civil wars. Many countries aregradually falling into the rank of weak countries and weak countries are taking place of failed andcollapsed countries eventually. So global economy, global politics, global security and global peaceand sustainable development are to be considered seriously. By improving economy and its judicialdistribution, delivering of political goods and security, ensuring fundamental rights and freedomshall be the prime dimensions to stop civil wars and recruitment of child soldiers. Limitation or banto produce, supply and purchase of small arms and light weapons (SALW) control child soldiering.However, developed country like USA prioritizes the production of SALW and supplied to theconflicting or possible conflicting countries. So developed countries have direct role to escalate civilwars and recruitment of children. The ban of production, supply and purchase of deadly weapons arethe sole remedy of child soldiers.10.2 National policy: Reformation of existing political system in conflict-torn countries is urgentneed. It is needed to include all citizens (regardless of gender, religion, ethnicity, race, ideology andregion) in the development process. Development based on inclusion ensures economicdevelopment, employment opportunities and religious tolerance. It strengthens security. Insecurity isthe result of poverty, unemployment, discrimination and hatred. As a result of equitabledevelopment; there is facility of education, health and many more basic and fundamental needs.10.3 International laws and UN Resolutions: Implementation and enforcement of internationallaws and UN Resolutions are other key points to be considered. Many international laws andagreement are ignored by the member states. UN Resolutions are in the same ground of negligence.The UDHR, CRC and Optional Protocol to CRC etc are yet to signed and ratified and effective UNmonitoring mechanism to be developed particularly in developing countries.10.4 End of impunity: Many armed state and non-state actors have committed serious crimesrelated to humanity. The warlords of any countries are directly responsible to escalate conflicts35violating and abusing human rights. They are responsible for the recruitment of child soldiers too.Freedom to them and indirect support by providing weapons and financial support to wage the civilwar rewards. Members of international community are responsible for it. It is punishable and seriouscrime. Warlords are to be punished for it and the indirect support from international community is tobe discouraged for the welfare of humanity.10.5 Mutual cooperation: It is essential mutual cooperation among countries in the regional andglobal levels. This helps to solve the national and transnational security problem of weak countries.It ensures cooperation in industrial development, trade and security. Furthermore such cooperationhelps countries to work together to solve the problem of each other countries. So the problem of acountry will not transform another neighboring country.10.6 Support: Many countries are falling into the category of weak countries every year. Theimbalance in politics, economy and security cause the nation failure and it ended to collapsed state.The support from the civil society, political parties, neighboring countries and internationalcommunity help to improve the condition of such countries. Political and economic improvement ofa country helps other countries for stable development.10.7 Commission: The commissions for instance the truth and reconciliation commissions, staterestructuring commission, disappearances investigation commission, etc. are to be built up in thepost conflict period to ensure social integration for the sustainable peace and development.10.8 Accountability and transparency: The accountability and transparency of the statemachinery is another responsible factor for the security and development of each nation.Education and political awareness programs help citizens to be aware. It enables people to facechallenges and fight for the rights. In addition to the holistic approach, local plans are needed toaddress the issue for short term and immediate solution. Based on the study of causes andconsequences of this issue and the underlying theory, appropriate national plan is first requirement toimprove the situation of any nation. It basically includes delivery of political goods. Improvement ofnational political culture, economy, and sociological aspects are the first conditions to be addressedwith the study of long-term vision. Delivery of political goods based on equality of all and inclusionof all gender, ethnic groups and people of diverse backgrounds are to be treated fairly.11. ConclusionChild soldiering is not an outcome of single reason. Neither has it single consequence. It is a threatand serious crime against humanity. Individual or group of any poor, disadvantaged, vulnerable andmarginalized (PDVM) communities or societies start armed conflict. Whoever for whatever reasoninitiates armed conflict makes large number of children vulnerable. The recruiters blindly ignorechild rights. Because of it, many children are unsafe and fighting the bloody battle for the interest ofwarlords. As a result, they lose their childhood and enter traumatic adult life, in case they couldsurvive. In conclusion, the following dimensions are the main causes and consequences of childsoldiering:11.1 Inappropriate state mechanism: A very common cause of child soldiering is inappropriatestate mechanism. It lays foundation to social disorder and develops imbalance in society. Inefficientstate mechanism creates discrepancy in the society. The people begin to realize discrimination andthey do not feel comfortable with the existing system and its practices. From such society, thealienated and frustrated individuals begin to react it in a negative way by raising weapons andbeginning armed conflict. They find children as their easy target to capture and recruit for the battle.Child soldier is a crime that is against the sprit of national, regional and international fundamentalrights including child rights. While country's most of the synergy including resources leads againstthe armed conflict, the state becomes weak and that may finally lead to fragile or failed state.3611.2 Seeking identity-based security: Ethnicity or indigenous aborigine is another cause for thechildren to be vulnerable for being child soldiers as they have been looking for their on identitybasedsecurity in all state machineries and institutions. Diverse ethnic populations have diverselanguages, culture, religions and so on. Due to lack of resources or lack of interest of the rulers, theethnic diversity does not get equal attention. It causes exclusion on education and other generalfacilities. The excluded groups gradually begin to feel discrimination and want to raise voice torestore their fundamental rights. Negligence of the state party on this matter escalates the problemmore seriously. Sometimes, this situation turns into armed conflict.In some countries, the ethnic diversity is not recognized. Discrimination based on ethnicity createsproblems and that can be serious tension on the security of a nation. It emerges ethnic conflict andsometimes ethnic cleansing too. Burma, Sri Lanka, Rwanda and many other countries of Asia andAfrica are examples of ethnic diversity to lead to armed conflict. If ethnic diversity is not recognizedseriously by the state party, the ethnic groups are excluded and marginalized. An individual or someindividuals from such ethnic groups form their own group to fight against the existing system. Suchgroups sometimes emerge as armed groups or sometimes they turn into armed groups in course oftime. LTTE of Sri Lanka is an example of armed group that was established as a political group andlater turned into armed group. Multi ethnic communities have high potentiality of conflict if there isno appropriate national policy to unite those ethnic groups. The case of Afghanistan, Rwanda,Burma, Nepal and India are some examples of ethnic diversity, which helps to initiate or escalateconflict in the respective countries. Timely solution helps to prevent such cases.11.3 Control over (natural) resources: In some countries, like in Africa, the richly availablenatural resources are the curse for the children to be recruited as child soldiers. The availability ofblood diamond and other valuable minerals have attracted some of the warlords to exploit theminerals for their personal or family benefits. As a result, they form armed groups and children aretheir first target, because the children are easily available and can be used without pay. If the localresources are not used for the welfare of the local population, it escalates aggression and rage.Negligence of such matters on appropriate time creates hostile and conflicting situation. The extremeof it is armed conflict.11.4 Broken family: Single parents, or split family is another cause to some extent for children oftroubled countries to be recruited. When a child has to live with a single parent, there is lesspossibility for the children to live a happy life with all the basic needs fulfilled. In many countries,the families got split because of the ongoing civil war and the children are always the target of thearmed groups. Since there is less chance for the children of such community to get enough care, loveand affection from a single parent; they are always vulnerable. Sometimes one of the parents orsenior family members is already in armed group; the child can be influenced by the same group tojoin.11.5 Influence of friends and their relatives: In some cases of children, their friends are alreadyin armed groups. They are used to influence their friends and the result is more other children aretrapped to join armed groups. Armed group leaders use such influencing children to convince his orher peers to join the armed groups. Taking an example of a Karen father, Singer (2006: 43) furtherstates, "… the head of a Karen rebel training camp in Myanmar describes how he brought his owntwelve-year-old son into the fight. 'I took him out of school in the third grade to turn him into amilitary man. I thought that if he studies now, he'll just have to fight later. Better to fight now, andlearn later when there is time for it."'11011.6 Poverty: Lack of resources and job opportunities cause another problem in the family andcommunity. It creates low employment, semi-employment or no employment and provides noalternative solution. It influences people to find other alternatives and mostly it is negative. The37existing conflicts in many countries are part of poverty. In Nepal the Maoist armed conflict began onthe ground of poverty, bad governance, exclusion and so forth. Poor people are easy to convince forchange. The poor people believe they get better chances at once when there is political change. Butwhen it does not happen at the end, they try to find another alternative ways, which keep the conflictcontinue.11.7 Discrimination/exclusion: Discrimination and exclusion on any ground encourages childrento join the armed force. The child takes it as the last resort to struggle or to revenge against thediscrimination s/he has experienced. Mostly the girls are the preys of it. School children from poorfamily and children without school opportunity both feel discriminated and prefer to join armedgroups. The armed groups also trace such children and influence them to join.11.8 Propaganda: In some conflict torn countries, the political leaders are willing to makeattractive propaganda to attract the general people. They form armed groups to fight against thecentral government and the children are to suffer.11.9 War trade: Armed conflict and civil wars are the sources of income to some powerful anddeveloped countries and their weapons manufacturer companies. Such governments and companiesearn a handsome income by supplying weapons to the conflict zones. The interests of such countriesare never positive to stop armed conflict or civil war.The child soldering has a great impact on society. Most of the negative impacts are violent,traumatized, school dropout, sexual diseases, rejection in the family, hatred and uncivilized in thesociety. The community accepts child soldiers as useless or unproductive members of the society,violence, burden, hatred, causes of conflict, constant stress and fear, pessimistic, loss of moral ethics,imbalance in family and society.The problem is not limited in a single side of children returned home as handicapped. The mentalwound is another deep impression in the society which the people cannot easily forget and forgive.Both victims and perpetrators live together in the same society. It is not accommodative for bothsides. The behavioral maladjustment is another problem and the short temper, violent behavior, drugaddiction are other parts to deal. In case of girls, they have additional problems. The training ofhatred, vulgar language, trauma, and short temper are some of the common traits. They come alongwith some children, who do not have any identified father. Because of the children, the parents andfamily are not willing to accept them easily in the family.State policy and the policies of neighboring countries and of the international community play animportant role to prevent child soldering. Short-term and long-term programs are needed to addressthe problem. To ensure sustainable peace and security, a holistic approach is needed. Theinternational community needs to be responsible for it. Good governance, inclusion and publicparticipation in each development sector are essential. Share and care of available resources are otherparts for the assurance of it. If the case of child soldiers is taken seriously, it can be prevented andchildren do not need to risk their lives for the interests of warlords.Child soldier is the worst form of modern slavery. It seems a local problem of conflicting countries,at present, but it is a global consequence and it causes global effects in the long run. It is true that“Injustice anywhere is a challenge to justice everywhere.”****38(*Mr. Bimali has completed his MA on Peace and Conflict Studies from European PeaceUniversity (EPU), Austria. He is child rights activist in Nepal, can be reached atpawan.epu@gmail.com. **Mr. Pathak is Convener, South Asia, TRANSCEND International, ANetwork for Peace and Development and Board Member of TRANSCEND Peace University(TPU), can be reached at pathakbishnu@gmail.com. Authors highly acknowledge to PeaceProfessors namely Dr. Dietrich Fischer (of World Peace Academy, Switzerland and Dr. JorgenJohanson, Dr. Robin Poulton and Dr. Diane Ross. They all deserve thanks. We also expresssincere thanks to Professor Ananda Aditya, Surendra Uprety (PhD Scholar), Sugam KC (PhDscholar), Devendra Uprety, Rita Chaudhary, Ganga Puri, and Meena Siwakoti who assisted inthis exercise).39Bibliographies and References1It is a war between the rivals of the same nation.2It is an open and organised resistance against previously established authority.3Either is an armed uprising in which the outcome is quickly decided.4It is armed fighting to support life by plunder.5 Pathak, Bishnu. 2006. Politics of People’s War and Human Rights in Nepal. Kathmandu: BIMIPAPublications.6 Convention on the Rights of the Child. http://www.unhchr.ch/html/menu3/b/k2crc.htm retrieved on Nov 1,2008.7 Kaplan, Eber. http://www.cfr.org/publication/9331/#6 retrieved on 8 January 20098 Deen, Thalif. November 7, 2002. 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UN Global Teaching and Learning Project.http://cyberschoolbus.un.org/childsoldiers/whatsgoingon/110 Singer: 2006.42Annex IArmed, Semi‐Armed, and Criminal Forces Born After Peace Accord(November 22, 2006 – June 30, 2009)# Organization/Group # Organization/Group1 Akhil Tarai Mukti Morcha 38 Nepal Gorkha Sena2 Bahun Chhetri Newar Saamuha 39 Nepal Janatantric Party3 CPN [Maoist (United Bidrohi Morcha)] 40 Nepal Mukti Morcha4 Chure Bhawar Shanti Sena 41 OBC Regiment5 Deshbhakta Army Nepal 42 Nepal Rakshya Dal6 Gorkha Mukti Morcha 43 PalloKirat Limbuwan Rastriya Monch7 Gorkhaland Mukti Sena (Tista Kangada) 44 Paribartan Nepal8 Gorkha‐Line Mukti Sena Samaj 45 Rajan Mukti Samuha9 Janabadi Ganatantrik Tarai Mukti Morcha 46 Rajdhani Army10 Jana Samrakshan Sena 47 Ranabir Sena11 Janabadi Kirant Workers Party 48 Rastriya Army12 Janatantrik Tarai Mukti Morcha (Goit) 49 Rastriya Army Nepal13 Janatantrik Tarai Mukti Morcha (Himmat Singh) 50 Rastriya Samanantar Jwala Mukhi14 Janatantrik Tarai Mukti Morcha (Jwala Singh) 51 Revolutionary Left Wing (National Red Guard)15 Janatantrik Tarai Mukti Morcha (Prithvi Samuha) 52 Samyukta Janatantrik Tarai Mukti Morcha16 Janatantrik Tarai Mukti Morcha (Visfot Singh) 53 Samyukta Mukti Morcha (Ulfa)17 Karebian Dog 54 Saghia Limbuwan Rajya Parishad (Dambar Lawoti)18 Khambuwan Rastriya Morch 55 Sanghia Limbuwan Rajya Parishad (Sanjuhang Palung group)19 Janatantrik Party Nepal 56 Sanghia Limbuwan Rajya Parishad (Kumar Lingen)20 Kirant Janabadi Workers’ Party 57 Sanghia Lontantric Rastriya Morcha21 Liberation Tigers of Tarai Elam 58 Save the National Army Nepal22 Limbuwan Democratic Volunteers Force 59 Shahi Mukti Morcha23 Limbuwan Mukti Morcha 60 Shantikalagi Tarai Kranti24 Madhesi Mukti Force 61 Shiva Sena25 Madhes Raksha Bahin 62 Sudur Parswim Krantikari Party26 Madhesi Special Force 63 Sup Kranti Dal27 Madhes Sena 64 Tarai Army28 Madhesi Bises Dasta 65 Tarai Bagi29 Madhesi Commando 66 Tarai Camando Lig30 Madhesi Janaadhikar Forum 67 Tarai Cobra (Naagraja)31 Madhesi Mukti Tigers (Raman Singh) 68 Jarai Janakrantikari Bal32 Madhesi Tigers 69 Tarai Ganatantric Mukti Morcha33 Madhesi Virus Cleaners Party 70 Tarai Parishad34 Mangolian Revenge Group 71 Tarai Uthan Sangathan35 National Terrorist Encounter 72 Taraibadi Madhesi Mukti Force36 Nepal Ajinger X Samuha 73 Tharuhat Swatta Rajya Parishad37 Nepal Gatantric Sena 74 Trishul Sena NepalSource: CS Center:2009