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Child Soldiers
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FEATURED ARTICLES *** GENERAL CHILD SOLDIERS and the Prevention-act Country
List 2022 TRAFFICKING IN PERSONS
REPORT, U.S Dept. of State, p.50 gvnet.com/humantrafficking/00-Child%20Soldiers.htm [accessed 29 December 2022] Section
402 of the Child Soldiers Prevention Act, as amended (CSPA) requires
publication in the annual TIP Report of a list of foreign governments
identified during the previous year as having governmental armed forces,
police, or other security forces, or government-supported armed groups that
recruit or use child soldiers. DRC From schoolboy to soldier news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/from_our_own_correspondent/3123794.stm [accessed 30 January 2011] I met Manja just after he had walked in alone out of the rain.
He carried nothing with him but a sleeveless nylon jacket and his memories. "I heard that
there were other boys without parents who were living here," Manja says in the high-pitched voice of a
12-year-old. "I decided to leave
the militia and join them. I left my gun there. I told them I was suffering,
but they said I had to stay, so I went away secretly." He walked for two days to reach the safety
of this centre.
"I left in the evening, just before sunset. I came here all the
way on foot, but sometimes other civilians gave me a lift on a bicycle." "I was
farming," Manja told us. "One day I went
away to the market. There was fighting in my village that day,
and everybody scattered. When I came home there was no-one, everybody was
gone." He joined a group of
people heading south, fleeing from their Lendu
attackers. He found himself utterly
alone, without anyone willing, or able, to help him. "I don't know where my father and
mother are," he said. "I had nothing to eat. I joined the gunmen to
get food. Eritrea Child Soldiers Global Report 2004 - Eritrea Coalition to Stop the Use of Child
Soldiers, 2004 www.unhcr.org/refworld/docid/4988065f2d.html [accessed 14 August 2012] CHILD RECRUITMENT
AND DEPLOYMENT
- In 2001 over 2,000 students were detained when they demanded reform of a
mandatory summer work program. Two students had reportedly died from the
harsh conditions on the program. In August 2003 over 200 students on the program
were allegedly beaten for possessing bibles, and 57 of them detained in
scorching conditions inside metal shipping containers without adequate food
or medical care. Six students were reportedly still held in solitary
confinement in underground cells in November 2003. Two former child
soldiers who fled Honduras Focus on Children - Child Soldiers www.unicef.org/graca/kidsoldi.htm [accessed 9 September 2014] "At the age of
13, I joined the student movement. I had a dream to contribute to make things
change, so that children would not be hungry….Later I joined the armed
struggle. I had all the inexperience and the fears of a little girl. I found
out that girls were obliged to have sexual relations to alleviate the sadness
of the combatants. And who alleviated our sadness after going with someone we
hardly knew?…There is a great pain in my being when I recall all these
things….In spite of my commitment, they abused me, they trampled my human
dignity. And above all, they did not understand that I was a child and that I
had rights." - From
a Honduras case study, cited in United Nations, Impact of Armed Conflict on
Children: Special Concerns, 1998. Liberia Child Soldiers of Liberia Liberian Educational Achievement Foundation
LEAF At one time this article had been archived
and may possibly still be accessible [here]
[accessed 8 September 2011] The people of Boy soldier 'recruited' at the age of 6 The Times, March 30, 2004 www.essex.ac.uk/armedcon/story_id/000179.html [accessed 25 April 2012] Kabba Williams is
thought to have been One day in
particular is etched on his memory. At the age of 12 he was given a group of
captives to kill. “I had the nickname ‘Hungry Lion’. I was given a bayonet.
They were tied up, six of them. I stabbed them repeatedly with the knife.” Uganda Child, slave, soldier Testimony provided by the Coalition to Stop
the Use of Child Soldiers, New Internationalist 337, August 2001 www.newint.org/features/2001/08/05/soldier/ [accessed 2 January 2011] HERE IS THE
TESTIMONY OF ONE UGANDAN CHILD SOLDIER - I heard later that two boys from my home
were captured and beaten because I had escaped. One of the boys was stabbed
in the hand and asked to bring the rebels to my parents’ home. They beat my
mother and brother with clubs and axes until they died. They threatened that
they’ll kill more people if I don’t come back. This was told me by a boy who
lived near my home. He told me it was my fault my mother and brother had been
killed.’ ***
ARCHIVES *** Afghanistan 2,000 former Afghan child soldiers to be
demobilized and rehabilitated UNICEF Press Centre, www.unicef.org/media/media_19165.html [accessed 18 January 2011] UNICEF estimates
that there a total of 8,000 former child soldiers in Angola Children as Weapons of War Jo Becker, Human Rights Watch World Report
2004 [accessed 19 January 2011] TRANSITIONING CHILDREN OUT OF WAR - In Burundi Child Soldier Use 2003 - A Briefing for the
4th UN Security Council Open Debate on Children and Armed Conflict Coalition to Stop the Use of Child
Soldiers, January 2004 www.hrw.org/reports/2004/childsoldiers0104/4.htm [accessed 25 January 2011] GOVERNMENT FORCES - The government
of NON-STATE ARMED
GROUPS
- Child recruitment by armed opposition groups escalated during the year
because of increased instability brought about by the change in government. The main
Hutu-dominated armed political group, the CNDD-FDD (Nkurunziza
faction), which has rear bases in eastern DRC, reportedly continued to
recruit and abduct children, including from schools and from refugee camps in
neighbouring Chad Concluding Observations of the Committee on
the Rights of the Child (CRC) UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, 4
June 1999 www1.umn.edu/humanrts/crc/chad1999.html [accessed 28 January 2011] [35] While taking
note of the existing awareness and political will regarding the problems
caused by the involvement of children in armed conflict, the Committee remains
seriously concerned about the lack of resources available to support the
rehabilitation and social reintegration of demobilized child soldiers. The
Committee is particularly concerned about the situation of traumatized or
permanently disabled former child soldiers and their lack of access to
compensation or other support services. The Committee recommends that the
State party ensure the enforcement of its legislation banning the recruitment
of children under 18 years. It also encourages the
redoubling of efforts to allocate the necessary resources, if necessary with
international assistance, to the rehabilitation and social reintegration of
former child soldiers, and in particular to provide compensation and support
services to traumatized or permanently disabled former child soldiers Colombia Colombia This Week -- November 22, 2004 Colombia This Week is a news summary
produced and distributed by ABColombia Group.
Sources include daily Colombian, US, European and Latin American newspapers, and
reports from non-governmental organisations and the
UN System colhrnet.igc.org/newitems/nov04/abccolwk.n22.htm [accessed 30 January 2011] [scroll down] THURS 18- 14,000
CHILDREN IN COLOMBIAN ARMED GROUPS; COLOMBIA'S ROLE IN PLAN PUEBLA-PANAMA - UK-based NGOs
Save the Children and Amnesty International report that more than 14,000
child soldiers are fighting in the Colombian conflict, denouncing that the
illegal armed groups (FARC, ELN and AUC) are systemically recruiting children
under 15 years old from indigenous and rural communities, putting their lives
at extreme risk and sending them to the front line of battle. DRC Sham demobilisation
hides rise in Congo's child armies Rory Carroll, www.guardian.co.uk/world/2003/sep/09/congo.rorycarroll [accessed 30 January 2011] Armed groups in the
Democratic Republic of Congo have stepped up their recruitment of child
soldiers in expectation of the civil war continuing despite the peace accord,
Amnesty International says. Boys and
girls as young as eight are being mobilised in
their thousands to murder and plunder -undermining the hope that after five
years the conflict is winding down, its report, Children at War, says. DRC The Use of Child Soldiers in the Democratic
Republic of Congo Human Rights Watch At one time this article had been archived
and may possibly still be accessible [here] [accessed 4 September 2011] President Kabila of
the Democratic Republic of Congo has used child soldiers to support his
military since 1996. As the rebel leader of the Alliance of Democratic Forces
for the Liberation of Congo (ADFL), he recruited thousands of young child
soldiers, known as "Kadogo," or "the
little ones," to support his military campaign against the Mobutu
government. Despite pledges from the Congolese government to demobilize
children from the FAC since the end of the 1996-1997 war and the
establishment of several fledgling demobilization programs, the Kabila
government has continued to recruit children as young as seven years old for
military service. While no reliable statistics were available regarding the
number of child soldiers, the total number is likely to be at least several
thousand. Guinea Guinea: A Window
On West Africa’s War-Weary Children UNICEF Press Centre, Conakry/Geneva, 4
November 2003 www.unicef.org/media/media_15421.html [accessed 8 February 2011] UNICEF today said
that reports from border monitors and NGOs reveal that Myanmar Agence France-Presse AFP, www.abc.net.au/news/2007-11-25/burma-rebel-group-denies-child-soldier-claims/967816 [accessed 25 January 2011] In a statement
released Friday, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said that both the military
government and rebel groups continued to violate children's rights by
recruiting underage soldiers. Citing a
recent UN report, he said that the government was picking up street children
or those without national identity cards and offering them the choice of
arrest or joining the army. Myanmar's military
government officially denies using child soldiers and has passed a law to
outlaw the practice. But human rights
groups say child soldiers in Myanmar remain alarmingly common, with boys as
young as 12 recruited to fight the ethnic rebel armies in the country's
border regions. -
htsc Nepal Nepal rebels plan to train 50,000 Child
Soldiers Asian Human Rights Commission, acr.hrschool.org/mainfile.php/0169/284/ [accessed 23 February 2011] original.antiwar.com/sdhakal/2004/02/28/nepal-communists-plan-to-train-50000-child-soldiers/ [accessed 7 February 2018] This week, Paraguay International Federation of Journalists -
The 2002 Jury Report International Federation of Journalists, 14
October 2002 www.ifj.org/nc/news-single-view/browse/148/backpid/191/category/asia-pacific-1/article/ifj-names-16-world-class-journalists-in-line-up-for-50000-euro-natali-prize-awards/ [accessed 9 September 2014] www.ifj.org/media-centre/news/detail/article/the-2002-jury-report.html [accessed 21 February 2019] IN THE REGIONAL
CATEGORY OF LATIN AMERICA AND THE CARIBBEAN THE 2002 NATALI PRIZE GOES TO: -- [scroll down] The series of five
articles by Julio César Benegas concerning human
violations within the Military Service of Paraguay is remarkable journalism,
which highlights the corruption which is at the core of the recruitment of
child soldiers as well as the cultural aspects involved. These articles also
exposed the exploitation of child soldiers and other human rights violations,
which resulted in the death of 10 soldiers a year on average. For military
personnel Paraguay is one of the most dangerous countries worldwide in
peaceful times, Benegas concluded in his report. Russia The Department of Labor’s 2004 Findings on
the Worst Forms of Child Labor www.dol.gov/ilab/media/reports/iclp/tda2004/russia.htm [accessed 20 December 2010] Note:: Also check out this country’s report in the more recent edition DOL
Worst Forms of Child Labor INCIDENCE
AND NATURE OF CHILD LABOR - Children are trafficked globally for sexual
exploitation from Russia, and are trafficked internally generally from rural
to urban areas. There were reports of
kidnapped or purchased children being trafficked for sexual exploitation,
child pornography, or harvesting of body parts. There are confirmed cases of sex
trafficking of children and child sex tourism in There are reports
that rebel forces in Rwanda Interview of John R. Miller, Director of the
Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons International Rescue Committee, Trafficking
Watch, Issue No. 5, Summer 2004, October 14, 2004 2001-2009.state.gov/g/tip/rls/37085.htm [accessed 14 august 2012] MILLER: Due to the
special efforts of Rachel Yousey, reports officer
for Africa, there is an added emphasis on child soldiering and slavery in
this year's report. Although it exists in other parts of the world, this
phenomenon is most acute in Sri
Lanka Tamil Tigers Forcibly Recruit Child
Soldiers Human Rights Watch, www.hrw.org/en/news/2004/11/09/sri-lanka-tamil-tigers-forcibly-recruit-child-soldiers [accessed 24 December 2010] By abducting
children or threatening their families, the rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil
Eelam have recruited thousands of child soldiers in The Liberation
Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE, or Tamil Tigers) use
intimidation and threats to pressure Tamil families in the north and east of
Sri Lanka to provide sons and daughters for military service. When families
refuse, their children are sometimes abducted from their homes at night or
forcibly recruited while walking to school. Parents who resist the
recruitment of their children face retribution from the Tamil Tigers,
including violence or detention. Sudan
& Uganda A Hero in Hell. Former Drug Dealer Frees
Abducted Child Soldiers in Maria Sliwa,
Assist News Service ANS, Nimule, ithinkimafundamentalist.blogspot.com/2005/10/this-guy-is-just-asking-to-have-movie.html [accessed 2 January 2011] In March of this year,
a band of these small predators attacked a group of women who were collecting
firewood near the border of The children of the
LRA perform these acts at the bidding of their adult counterparts and make up
about 80 percent of the rebel group, according to the United Nations. The LRA
has kidnapped more than 20,000 children since 1988 and today its captives
constitute the largest army of child soldiers in Advancing the Campaign Against Child Labor:
Efforts at the Country Level - archive.today/D6kf2#selection-1077.1-1077.73 [accessed 11 September 2014] [see footnote 992] Children have been
reported in militia groups that formed in East Timor and in the separatist
region of Aceh and in the Maluku Islands. Reports from the Malukus indicate that children between the ages of 7 and
12 years of age have participated in both sides of the conflict. “Asia
Report: Indonesia and East Timor,” May 2000, 2, 7; According to this source, sources within the churches in the region said at least 200 boys had been forcibly recruited and trained as fighters. [see footnote 992] Children
have been reported in militia groups that formed in East Timor and in the
separatist region of Aceh and in the Maluku Islands. Reports from the Malukus indicate that children between the ages of 7 and
12 years of age have participated in both sides of the conflict. “Asia
Report: According to this
source, sources within the churches in the region said at least 200 boys had
been forcibly recruited and trained as fighters. ##
Special ## PROMOTION AND PROTECTION OF THE RIGHTS OF
CHILDREN - Impact of armed conflict on children Note by the Secretary-General, Item 108 of
the provisional agenda, A/51/150, Fifty-first session of UN General Assembly,
26 August 1996 www.un.org/documents/ga/docs/51/plenary/a51-306.htm [accessed 13 April 2019] CHILD SOLDIERS 34. One of the most alarming trends in armed conflict
is the participation of children as soldiers.
Children serve armies in supporting roles, as cooks, porters,
messengers and spies. Increasingly,
however, adults are deliberately conscripting children as soldiers. Some commanders have even noted the
desirability of child soldiers because they are "more obedient, do not
question orders and are easier to manipulate than adult soldiers". 3/ 35. A series of 24 case studies on the use of
children as soldiers prepared for the present report, covering conflicts over
the past 30 years, indicate that government or rebel armies around the world
have recruited tens of thousands of children.
Most are adolescents, though many child soldiers are 10 years of age
or younger. While the majority are boys, girls also are recruited. The children most likely to become soldiers
are those from impoverished and marginalized backgrounds and those who have
become separated from their families. All material used herein
reproduced under the fair use exception of 17 USC § 107 for noncommercial,
nonprofit, and educational use. PLEASE
RESPECT COPYRIGHTS OF COMPONENT ARTICLES.
Cite this webpage as: Patt, Prof. Martin, "Human Trafficking
& Modern-day Slavery – Lecture Resources - Child Soldiers ",
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