Child soldiers in the Democratic Republic of the Congo
There were two civil wars in the Democratic Republic of the Congo : During the first and the second Congo war , child soldiers were used by all warring parties. These were known as kadongos . Kadongo is Swahili and can be translated as "the little one". About 30 percent of Thomas Lubanga Dyilo's troops were child soldiers. In 2011 around 30,000 children are likely to have participated in armed groups. The local group of the United Nations , MONUSCO , published a report that between January 1, 2012 and August 31, 2013, up to a thousand children were recruited as soldiers . [3] That report called the recruitment of child soldiers "endemic".
The former president, Laurent-Désiré Kabila , had resorted to the support of child soldiers since 1996. It is estimated to have been up to 10,000, some of them only seven years old. [4]
The first protests over human rights violations in the Democratic Republic of the Congo took place at the International Criminal Court . There were first convictions under national law for using children in armed forces [5]
background
Academic publications estimate that up to 300,000 children are deployed as part of regular armies or rebel groups, and that number is increasing. In Africa up to 120,000 children are said to be deployed as fighters or support troops. This corresponds to forty percent of all child soldiers worldwide. In Africa the number of children who are involved in armed conflicts is increasing. The average age of the deployed children is falling. [6] According to estimates from 2003, up to 30,000 children and young people are said to have served as soldiers in the Congo. Children would make up forty percent of the troops. [7]
The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child was passed in 1989. Article 38 states that state parties must take all expedient measures to prevent people under the age of fifteen from directly participating in combat operations. An optional additional protocol, which came into effect in 2002, changed the minimum age to eighteen years, and required that forced recruitment should not take place. [8] The Democratic Republic of the Congo signed both agreements. The official position of UNICEF is that the use of children in armed conflict is morally reprehensible and illegal. [9]
State response
Major Jean-Pierre Biyoyo was sentenced to five years in prison on March 19, 2006 for recruiting and training child soldiers. This was the first case in which the Democratic Republic of the Congo charged and sentenced a soldier for recruiting child soldiers. [10]
International reactions
According to David M. Rosen, the United States has been criticized for supporting nations that recruit child soldiers. In order to comply with the Child Soldiers Protection Act , the US State Department published a list of six nations that were covered by this law in 2009: These were Myanmar , the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Somalia , Sudan , and Yemen . The American President , Barack Obama , however, suspended the restrictions for four of the six states; According to his reasoning, cooperation between these states and the USA was in line with the foreign policy interests of the country. The Democratic Republic of the Congo was one of the states on the exception list. In the case of the Congo, it was said: "It is necessary to bring the reform of the armed forces to an end, to eliminate the negative behavioral patterns of the military, and to transform the military into a non-political professional force that respects human rights." According to Obama, four of the six states on the list would make progress in eliminating children from their armed forces. In the case of the Congo, more child soldiers could be recruited .. [11]
According to a MONUSCO report, all parties to the conflict are recruiting girls as child soldiers; these children are often raped or abused as sex slaves or Bushwives by groups such as the Union of Congolese Patriots (UPC) or the Patriotic Forces for the Liberation of Congo (FLPC). [12] According to another study published by the International Peace Support Training Center in Nairobi, girls make up a large proportion of child soldiers, up to 40%. A study by Milfrid Tonheim, found in 2011, examined the situation of many female child soldiers in the Congo. This study found that many former child soldiers were stigmatized when they returned for having experienced sexual violence.
Procedural notes of the ICTG
Thomas Lubanga Dyilo was the leader of the UPC, a group that was active in the Ituri region in the northeast of the country. In 2006 he was convicted of war crimes and of recruiting and using children under the age of 15 in combat operations. [15] Michael Bochenek. the director of Amnesty International's International Law and Policy Program , said the ruling will give time to reflection for those around the world who abuse children on and off the battlefield. [16] Luis Moreno Ocampo said the conviction of Labanga was only the first in a series of cases of violence by paramilitary groups in Inuri. Thousands of his died as a result of this violence, over 600,000 of his on the run. [17]
Individual evidence
- ↑ Donatien Nduwimana: Reintegration of Child Soldiers in Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo: Challenges and Prospects . In: International Peace Support Training Center (IPSTC) . 2013. Accessed April 14, 2020.
bibliography
- Michael Bochenek: Landmark ICC verdict over use of child soldiers . In: Amnesty International , March 14, 2012. Retrieved April 7, 2014.
- Françoise Bouchet-Saulnier: The Practical Guide to Humanitarian Law , Third English Language. Edition, Rowman & Littlefield, 2013, ISBN 978-1442221123 .
- Tonderai W. Chikuhwa: The Evolution of the United Nations' Protection Agenda for Children . In: Scott Gates, Simon Reich (Eds.): Child Soldiers in the Age of Fractured States . University of Pittsburgh Press, 2009, ISBN 978-0822960294 , pp. 37-54.
- Mark A. Drumbl: Reimagining Child Soldiers in International Law and Policy . Oxford University Press, 2012, ISBN 978-0199592654 .
- Farid Esack: Islam, children, and modernity A Qur`anic perspective . In: Marcia J. Bunge (Ed.): Children, Adults, and Shared Responsibilities: Jewish, Christian and Muslim Perspectives . Cambridge University Press, 2012, ISBN 978-1107011144 , pp. 99-118.
- Lee Feinstein, Tod Lindberg: Means to an End: US Interest in the International Criminal Court . Brookings Institution Press, 2009, ISBN 978-0815703259 .
- Sonja C. Grover: Humanity S Children: ICC Jurisprudence and the Failure to Address the Genocidal Forcible Transfer of Children , 2013. Edition, Springer, 2012, ISBN 978-3642325007 .
- DR Congo warlord Germain Katanga found guilty at ICC . In: BBC , March 7, 2014. Retrieved April 8, 2014.
- Child recruitment remains 'endemic' in DR Congo, UN says in new report . In: United Nations , October 24, 2013. Retrieved April 5, 2014.
- Noah Benjaman Novogrodsky: After the Horror: Child Soldiers and the Special Court for Sierra Leone . In: Charles Chernor Jalloh (Ed.): The Sierra Leone Special Court and its Legacy: The Impact for Africa and International Criminal Law . Cambridge University Press, 2013, ISBN 978-1107029149 , pp. 361-372.
- Claude Rakisits: Child Soldiers in the East of the Democratic Republic of the Congo . In: Refugee Survey Quarterly . 27, No. 4, 2008, pp. 108-122. doi : 10.1093 / rsq / hdn054 . Retrieved April 5, 2014.
- David M. Rosen: Child Soldiers: A Reference Handbook . ABC-CLIO, 2012, ISBN 978-1598845266 .
- Peter Warren Singer: Children at War . University of California Press, 2006, ISBN 978-0520248762 .
- Walter C. Soderlund, E. Donald Briggs, Tom Pierre Najem, Blake C. Roberts: Africa's Deadliest Conflict: Media Coverage of the Humanitarian Disaster in the Congo & the United Nations Response, 1997-2008 . Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 2012, ISBN 978-1554588350 .
- Michael G. Wessells: Child Soldiers: From Violence to Protection . Harvard University Press, 2007, ISBN 978-0674023598 .
- Shelly L. Whiteman: Child Combatants and Peace Processes Challenges of Inclusion and Exclusion . In: Rosemary Sheehan, Helen Rhoades, Nicky Stanley (Eds.): Vulnerable Children and the Law: International Evidence for Improving Child Welfare, Child Protection and Children's Rights . Jessica Kingsley Publishers, 2012, ISBN 978-1849058681 , pp. 75-124.