The trial of Dominic Ongwen, a senior member of the notorious Lord’s Resistance Army, opens on Tuesday before the International Criminal Court in The Hague. Many horrors will be recounted, but the case also throws up deep ethical questions: is a child, brutalised and turned into a killer, fully responsible for his or her actions? If the abuses of government forces aren’t also being investigated, at what point does it become victor’s justice?
Abducted by the LRA at the age of 10, Ongwen became a protégé of rebel leader Joseph Kony and was forced to witness and carry out acts of extreme violence. He will be appearing before Trial Chamber IX to answer 70 charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity. They include allegations of murder, rape, sexual slavery, torture, pillaging, and the conscription of children aged under 15 for combat.
More: The New Humanitarian
Montag, 5. Dezember 2016
Dienstag, 17. Mai 2016
Five countries where child soldiers are still recruited
Britain: Rights groups have campaigned to end the army’s practice of recruiting 16-year-olds. Some 17-year-olds were deployed to the Gulf War in 1991, and to Kosovo in 1999, but the army subsequently barred anyone under 18 from combat. The army requires parental consent for any recruit under the age of 18, but Child Soldiers International says the recruitment process does not guarantee that such consent has been given.
· Myanmar: As part of its reform process, the military signed a joint action plan with the UN in 2012 to demobilise all child soldiers. It has released them sporadically over the last four years, most recently this past March. The task is harder than it may appear: families sometimes send young sons to join the army for financial reasons, and recruitment may be ongoing in remote areas although the military officially banned the practice and even set up a telephone hotline to report child soldiers in its ranks. The UN lists seven non-state armed groups in Myanmar that also use child soldiers.
· The Democratic Republic of Congo: More than 30,000 children were released from the national army between 2004 and 2006 as part of a military reform process following a peace agreement in 2002. However, the reforms were not successful and the war did not end. Those failures also represented a big step backwards for those advocating the release of child soldiers. Recruitment continues today, and hundreds of children are reported to be serving in the armed forces, according to Child Soldiers International. Many more have been recruited by rebel groups.
· South Sudan: Even before splitting from Sudan in 2011, South Sudan passed laws that made it illegal to use child soldiers and began releasing them. But in December 2013, the world’s newest country descended into civil war and the recruitment of child soldiers began anew. Since then, government and rebel forces have used as many as 16,000 children, according to UNICEF. A December 2015 report by Human Rights Watch named more than 15 commanders and officials from the government and rebel forces who used child soldiers.
· Yemen: In 2014, Yemen signed up to a UN action plan to end recruitment of child soldiers by the country’s armed forces. The last 13 months of war have not only put that plan on hold but meant an increase in children taking part in the conflict. UNICEF estimates that children make up a third of the people fighting in Yemen, including Houthi rebels and forces loyal to the deposed but internationally recognised (and Saudi Arabian-backed) President Abd Rabbu Mansour Hadi. Human Rights Watch said last year that the Houthis have intensified their use of children as scouts, guards, runners and fighters.
More: The New Humanitarian
· Myanmar: As part of its reform process, the military signed a joint action plan with the UN in 2012 to demobilise all child soldiers. It has released them sporadically over the last four years, most recently this past March. The task is harder than it may appear: families sometimes send young sons to join the army for financial reasons, and recruitment may be ongoing in remote areas although the military officially banned the practice and even set up a telephone hotline to report child soldiers in its ranks. The UN lists seven non-state armed groups in Myanmar that also use child soldiers.
· The Democratic Republic of Congo: More than 30,000 children were released from the national army between 2004 and 2006 as part of a military reform process following a peace agreement in 2002. However, the reforms were not successful and the war did not end. Those failures also represented a big step backwards for those advocating the release of child soldiers. Recruitment continues today, and hundreds of children are reported to be serving in the armed forces, according to Child Soldiers International. Many more have been recruited by rebel groups.
· South Sudan: Even before splitting from Sudan in 2011, South Sudan passed laws that made it illegal to use child soldiers and began releasing them. But in December 2013, the world’s newest country descended into civil war and the recruitment of child soldiers began anew. Since then, government and rebel forces have used as many as 16,000 children, according to UNICEF. A December 2015 report by Human Rights Watch named more than 15 commanders and officials from the government and rebel forces who used child soldiers.
· Yemen: In 2014, Yemen signed up to a UN action plan to end recruitment of child soldiers by the country’s armed forces. The last 13 months of war have not only put that plan on hold but meant an increase in children taking part in the conflict. UNICEF estimates that children make up a third of the people fighting in Yemen, including Houthi rebels and forces loyal to the deposed but internationally recognised (and Saudi Arabian-backed) President Abd Rabbu Mansour Hadi. Human Rights Watch said last year that the Houthis have intensified their use of children as scouts, guards, runners and fighters.
More: The New Humanitarian
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