The growth of violent conflicts across the African continent and the rest of the world over the last year has created “unprecedented challenges” for those attempting to protect children from the horrors of war.

This was the message delivered by the UN Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict, Leila Zerrougui, as she addressed the Security Council on the use of child soldiers since the beginning of 2014.

These conflicts have disproportionately affected children across the African continent, as the Special Representative’s office has focused on 23 international situations where “grave violations were committed against children,” ten of which were found across Africa.

In addition to the visceral horror of using children as young as seven on the front lines of violent conflicts, the practice is forbidden by international law.

The African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child, a document signed by every African Union member state and ratified by all but seven, bans the use of child soldiers. The Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the involvement of children in armed conflict, another widely adopted instrument of international law, sets the minimum age for participation in armed hostilities at 18.

Additionally, perhaps the most important document in international criminal law, the Rome Statue for the International Criminal Court authorizes the Court to prosecute “conscripting or enlisting children under the age of fifteen years” into either national armed forces or armed groups or their use in hostilities under the broad umbrella of war crimes.

The Court also has the power to prosecute such occurrences under Crimes against Humanity under “enslavement,” which pays particular attention to the fate of women and children.

International law on child soldiers does not merely exist in the abstract for African states. The first person arrested under the Rome Statute at the Court was Thomas Lubanga Dyilo, a Congolese warlord.

According to the Court, Lubanga was the Commander of the Union of Congolese Patriots, a rebel group in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. In this capacity he regularly recruited and used children under 15 in hostilities. This led to his conviction on charges of war crimes, the first verdict issued by the ICC.

Laws Don’t Exist

This international law framework, along with the potential for long prison sentences at The Hague, should be in the mind of the leaders and military commanders of states and rebels in the 23 situations that are highlighted by the Zerrougui’s office.

Of the 23 international situations, Zerrougui’s office highlighted ten situations across the African continent where children were at risk.

This included the Central African Republic, Chad, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Libya, Mali, Nigeria, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan and the Lord’s Resistance Army, based throughout the Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and South Sudan.

In one example illustrating the complexity of the issue, a May 2014 UN report “documented the recruitment and use of 1293 children” in Somalia. This included more than 900 by radical militant group Al-Shabaab, but also more than 200 by the Somali National Army and militias allied with the government.

Even Somaliland, a semi-autonomous area often lauded for its stability and governance in the midst of a country so sorely lacking in both, recruited child soldiers.

Somalia shows just how difficult the issue of child soldiering is to deal with. While governments must move forward with the issue, it cannot be eliminated solely through government action.

A significant number of child soldiers are recruited and enlisted by organizations like Al-Shabaab in Somalia, Boko Haram in Nigeria and the Lord’s Resistance Army in multiple countries.

Child Soldiers Recruitment

It is not all bad news from the Special Representative. At the meeting the Security Council was informed that significant progress had been made in a number of countries.

The most prominent example was Chad, which fulfilled all of the requirements under its action plan to end recruitment of children into the military. For this reason the country was de-listed from the Secretary-General’s list of violators, a significant step forward.

Somalia’s representative at the Security Council meeting, Awale Ali Kullane, also expressed optimism, noting the “continued commitment to complete the action plan signed in March 2014… [and] adding that screening had shown no new recruitment.” Kullane also stated that he hoped his country would be the next to be delisted.

South Sudan also made progress, recommitting to an action plan designed before the country erupted into near civil-war.

The use of child soldiers is a scourge on society. In addition to the simple horror of forcing children, who should be playing and learning, to experience hell on earth, it prevents a generation from learning and working to end conflicts, perpetuating violence and discord. For this reason the use of child soldiers is illegal under international law and such recruitment has caused a former Congolese warlord to see the inside of a prison cell.

However, it is an extremely difficult problem to deal with. Even as governments acknowledge its horror and work to end the practice, non-governmental entities, that often have no problem violating human rights norms, continue to kidnap, recruit and enlist children.

While the Special Representative’s office has made significant progress engaging countries, such progress has been overshadowed by the international growth in atrocities over the last year. Even as the world moves forward against the use of child soldiers, this can cause significant backwards steps.

 

Andrew Friedman is a human rights attorney and freelance consultant who works and writes on legal reform and constitutional law with an emphasis on Africa. He can be reached via email at afriedm2@gmail.com or via twitter @AndrewBFriedman.