Transcript Child Soldiers
Child Soldiers
Youth Who Participate in Armed Conflict
Youth Advocate Program International 4545 42 nd St. NW, Suite 209 Washington DC 20016, USA www.yapi.org
Child Soldiers
What do you know?
During what years of your life are you considered a child?
How many countries would you guess use child soldiers in today’s world? A few? A lot? Why would an army want to use child soldiers?
Can children be accepted into the United States Armed Forces?
Child Soldiers
In Focus
Child Soldiers
Who is a child soldier?
“Any child – girl or boy – under the age of 18, who is part of any kind of regular or irregular armed force or armed group, including but not limited to combatants, cooks, porters, messengers, and anyone accompanying such groups other than as family members. This includes girls and boys recruited for sexual purposes and/or forced marriage” (UNICEF).
Child Soldiers
Basic Facts
There are 300,000 children involved in armed conflicts around the world.
Child soldiers are used in more than 30 countries around the world and range in age from 5 to 17 years old.
There are approximately 70,000 children in Myanmar’s (Burma’s) government armed forces.
Between 1986 and 1996 alone, 2 million children were killed in armed conflict and over 6 million children were injured. In past conflicts 80-90 percent of casualties were adult soldiers; today, 80-90 percent of casualties are women and children.
Source: “Child Protection: Armed Conflict,”
Source: “Special Report: Child Soldiers,” 12 December 2003, United Nations: Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs,
Source: “Child Soldier Use 2003: A Briefing for the 4th UN Security Council Open Debate on Children and Armed Conflict,” January 2004, Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers.
Source: “Special Report: Child Soldiers,” 12 December 2003, United Nations: Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs,
Source: “Special Report: Child Soldiers,” 12 December 2003, United Nations: Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs,
Child Soldiers
What do child soldiers do?
Child soldiers often fight on the front lines of conflict.
They serve as scouts, spies, trainers, saboteurs, decoys, couriers, guards, and landmine clearers.
Child soldiers also work indirectly as porters and domestic servants.
Girl soldiers are often used as sexual slaves or are given as rewards to male soldiers as “wives.” Source: MSNBC
Source: UN
Child Soldiers
Where are child soldiers?
Children at War Around the World
Child Soldiers
Where are child soldiers?
300,000 children around the world are actively participating in more than 20 armed conflicts.
More than 20,000 children have been abducted and trained as soldiers by the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) in Sudan since May 2002 Some of countries that use child soldiers are Burma, Columbia, Sri Lanka, Rwanda, Liberia, Uganda, Sierra Leone, Sudan, and Cote d'Ivoire. Source: “Child Protection: Armed Conflict,” http://www.unicef.org/protection/index_armedconflict.html (3 March 2004).
Source: “UNICEF-led team finds 163 Congolese child soldiers in Uganda,” 22 November 2003, http://www.unicef.org/newsline/01pr19.htm (3 March 2004).
Source: “UNICEF-led team finds 163 Congolese child soldiers in Uganda,” 22 November 2003, http://www.unicef.org/newsline/01pr19.htm (3 March 2004).
Child Soldiers
Why are there child soldiers?
Child soldiers increase the number of fighters.
Children are more easily manipulated and controlled – they are more likely to follow orders without question – than adults.
Children can hide in tight quarters because they are physically smaller than adults.
People generally do not suspect children to be soldiers, so they can slip through many security checks unexamined.
Advances in technology have produced weapons light and cheap enough to be used by children.
Source: UN
Child Soldiers
Which children are affected?
Children in extreme poverty who are desperate for food and shelter.
Children without identification papers.
Orphans and children with weak family structures.
Children living in refugee camps or conflict zones.
Child Soldiers
What’s being done to stop the use of child soldiers?
The Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) signed by the United Nations General Assembly in 1989 protects children under the age of 15 from involvement in the armed forces.
All countries but Somalia and the United States have ratified the CRC.
A 2000 Protocol (optional addition) to the CRC raised the age from 15 to 18 years.
This Protocol also prohibits non-governmental armed groups from recruiting soldiers under the age of 18.
Child Soldiers
What’s being done to help child soldiers return to normal life?
Disarmament : to remove all weapons from the child.
Demobilization : the point at which the child leaves military life.
Rehabilitation and Reintegration : to prepare a child to return to normal life.
Can be difficult for child to readjust.
Source: BBC The UN and NGOs try to provide psychological support, education, and job training.
Child Soldiers
What you can do
Educate
yourself about Child Soldiers.
Contact
local, state, and national politicians for information about Child Soldiers.
Write letters asking for their opinion on Child Soldiers
Talk
to your parents about Child Soldiers.
Educate the adults in your life!
Advocate
for Child Soldiers awareness!
Begin a social awareness/human rights club
Child Soldiers
For more information
Center for Defense Information www.cdi.org/atp/childsoldiers Human Rights Watch www.hrw.org International Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers www.child-soldiers.org
UNICEF www.unicef.org War Child www.warchild.org
Youth Advocate Program International www.yapi.org