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Issue No: 174
January 16, 2005

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Human Rights advocacy

Campaigns to Stop Using Child as Soldiers

Child soldiers global report 2004

The Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers has published its new Global Report which finds that child soldiers are still being used in over 20 conflicts world-wide. This report represents the most comprehensive global survey of child soldiers to date. It says that children are fighting in almost every major conflict, in both government and opposition forces. They are being injured, subjected to horrific abuse and killed.

The Coalition accused governments at the European Union, G-8 and UN Security Council of a failure of leadership. It called for the immediate enforcement of a ban on the use of child soldiers. "Children should be protected from warfare not used to wage it. Instead generations are having their childhoods stolen by governments and armed groups," said Casey Kelso, head of the Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers.

"A world that does not allow children to fight wars is possible, but governments must show the political will and courage to make this happen by enforcing international laws."

'Child Soldiers Global Report 2004' reviews trends and developments since 2001 in 196 countries. Despite some improvements the situation remained the same or deteriorated in many countries. Wars ending in Afghanistan, Angola and Sierra Leone led to the demobilisation of 40,000 children, but over 25,000 were drawn into conflicts in Côte d'Ivoire and Sudan alone.

Opportunities for progress, including the creation of and growing support for a UN child soldiers treaty, the creation of demobilisation programs in some countries and momentum towards prosecutions of those recruiting children, have been undermined by governments actively breaking pledges or failing to show political leadership.

Although the UN Security Council has condemned child soldiering and monitors those using children in war, some members have blocked real progress by opposing concrete penalties for violators. The Coalition said that the Security Council should take immediate and decisive action to get children out of conflict by applying targeted sanctions and referring child recruiters to the International Criminal Court for prosecution.

Armed groups, both government-backed paramilitaries and opposition forces, are the main culprits in recruitment and use of child soldiers. Dozens of groups in at least 21 conflicts have recruited tens of thousands of children since 2001, forcing them into combat, training them to use explosives and weapons, and subjecting them to rape, violence and hard labour. Governments, including Burundi, Democratic Republic of Congo, Myanmar, Sudan and the USA, used children on the front lines in at least 10 conflicts. Others, including Colombia, Uganda and Zimbabwe, backed paramilitary groups and militias that used child soldiers. States such as Indonesia and Nepal used children as informants, spies or messengers. Some governments, including

Burundi, Indonesia and the Russian Federation, killed, tortured or arbitrarily detained children suspected of supporting armed opposition. Palestinian children detained by Israeli forces were tortured or threatened to coerce them to become informants.

Western governments broke commitments to protect children by providing military training and support to governments using child soldiers, such as Rwanda and Uganda. The Coalition called on governments to ban all recruitment of under-18s into any armed force and to ratify and fully implement the UN child soldiers treaty, which is helping to reduce the numbers of children, used in hostilities. At least 60 governments, including Australia, Austria, Germany, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and the USA, continue to legally recruit children aged 16 and 17.

Source: The Child Rights Information Network (CRIN).

 

 
 
 


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