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Development. Copyright © 2000 The Society for International Development. SAGE Publications (London, Thousand Oaks, CA and New Delhi), 1011-6370 (200003) 43:1; 28–31; 011884.
Children’s Rights in Conflict and Peace
Revolution not Evolution: Protecting the rights of children in armed conflict in the new millennium STUART MASLEN AND SHAZIA ISLAMSHAH1
ABSTRACT Stuart Maslen and Shazia Islamshah argue that through the Machel Study and campaigns to end the use of landmines and child soldiers, children’s rights in armed conflict have begun to receive the attention they deserve. They suggest that if the plight of children is to be genuinely tackled, there needs to be a fundamental refocus on children’s rights if the new millennium is not simply to start as the present one has ended. KEYWORDS child soldiers; children’s rights; Machel Study; sustainable development
Introduction War is probably the greatest violator of children’s rights. The legal protection afforded to children by each and every article of the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) comes under direct and sustained attack once the bullets start flying. Thus, on the eve of the tenth anniversary of the CRC, it is appropriate to consider how respect for the Convention can better be ensured amidst the horrors of armed conflict, in particular with respect to the participation of children in armed conflict. The use and abuse of children in times of war is not a new phenomenon; however, it is only recently that serious efforts have begun to address and redress that plight. The UN study on the Impact of Armed Conflict on Children, supported by UNICEF and authored by Graça Machel (the ‘Machel Study’) (Machel, 1996), was officially presented to the UN General Assembly in November 1996. The study documented a plethora of children’s rights abuses during war, including the use of children as soldiers. This was perhaps the first time this issue received such high-level, and in-depth, attention. In 1997, based on the Machel Study recommendations, the UN Secretary General appointed a Special Representative of the Secretary General (SRSG) for
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Maslen and Islamshah: Protecting the Rights of Children Children and Armed Conflict. The mandate of the SRSG, Olara Otunnu, includes advocacy for children affected by war and efforts to ensure their rights are protected. With substantial resources at his disposal, the SRSG can play a key role in facilitating further co-operation and co-ordination between UN agencies in their programmatic responses to to the situation of children in armed conflict. Furthermore, this role is indispensable in convincing governments and armed opposition groups to make – and respect – commitments to protect and care for children, and help push the protection of children and their rights up the international agenda. Meanwhile, the bulk of programmatic and advocacy initiatives falls to UNICEF and the community of NGOs. The impact of armed conflict on children It is an unfortunate reality that civilians, particularly children, are often the targets, not merely the ‘collateral damage’, of military strategy during armed conflict. Murder, torture and detention are not uncommon; so too is the rape of girls and women. In addition to the obvious and severe threat to the survival and development of all children in the conflict zone, such acts of depravity and cruelty have far-reaching societal consequences, provoking displacement and separation of children from their families, which in turn lead to malnutrition and disease. And the subsequent psychological, emotional and cultural damage caused by war’s abuses will continue to hamper a child’s development long after the conflict is over. But the reality of armed conflict is that children are not only on the receiving end of the horrors of modern warfare; they are also its active instruments. Again, not only are the child soldiers themselves – girls as well as boys – put at substantial risk, for in any armed conflict where the recruitment of children and their use as soldiers is widespread, all children will come under suspicion from the warring parties, and may be killed or tortured on a whim. But also for the civilian population at large the dangers are increased, as poorly-trained, brutalized cannonfodder are either wholly ignorant of the laws of war or wilfully uncaring as to their application.
However, already we begin to discern the lacunae in the international response. In seeking to quantify (or qualify) the extent of the impact of armed conflict on children, we are reduced to mouthing clichés – two million children killed in armed conflicts in the last decade, ten million rendered homeless. The scientific rationale underpinning these figures, if ever there was one, is lost amid the shrouds of time. But it is here that the mindset must change. To tackle the beast, we must first understand its nature. This demands systematic gathering and analysis of data where possible, an annual baseline by which we – and the international community as a whole – can be judged (ICBL, 1999). The database on child civilians held at Essex University in the UK is a start, but it is hampered by the lack of necessary data. For its part, the Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers has sought to amass reliable information on national recruitment legislation and practice (sadly, the two are not always coincidental) and the extent of child participation in armed conflict around the world, both in governmental and nongovernmental armed forces and groups. The results of our research have been presented to regional conferences of governments and civil society in Africa and Latin America, and will soon be presented in Europe. The year 2000 will see further reports on Asia and the Middle East. Without such hard-core information we are unable to hold governments and non-state actors to account, and we are reduced to wringing our hands in despair at the iniquities and injustices imposed on children by war. Thus, the Machel Study, with its careful documentation of the situation of children in armed conflict, should be seen as a beginning, not an end in itself. Improving the protection of children in armed conflict: a preventive approach ‘Prevention is the best cure.’ How many times have we heard this phrase, shrugged our shoulders and moved on? Perhaps inevitably, humanitarian assistance is more often than not a symptomsbased assistance. We feed displaced families once they have already fled, we attempt to re-establish
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Development 43(1): Children’s Rights in Conflict and Peace
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links with families already separated. If a realistic improvement in the protection of children is to be achieved, the international community must begin seriously to consider a more preventive approach that puts children’s rights at the heart of their activities rather than at the periphery. Agencies should begin by preparing for war in peace-time. Appropriate contingency planning measures must be set up that ensure that the protection of children and their rights is already enshrined in programmatic procedure before hostilities break out. Thus, for example, in order to prevent the future participation of children in armed conflict – by ensuring that they are not recruited in the first place – agencies and organizations should strive to ensure that children possess valid identity papers,2 that systematic birth registration is promoted, that governmental recruitment procedures are appropriate and that errors are sanctioned, that national legislation precludes their recruitment or use as soldiers and that it does not allow for derogation in times of armed conflict. Likewise, we must ensure that soldiers and peacekeepers are trained to protect, not abuse, children and know how to react when confronted, as they will undoubtedly be, by child combatants. Education is of course desperately important, including about children’s rights. But in times of conflict the primary importance of education to children appears to be forgotten. In South Sudan, Rädda Barnen is one of the few, the very few, examples of the use of education to prevent child recruitment, and to ensure successful reintegration for those demobilized from the ranks of the Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA). Children and their families are given specific instruction on their rights, and there is communal discussion of how these rights can best be protected. And as conflict breaks out, the situation of children must be constantly and systematically monitored. Without effective monitoring, effective intervention becomes impossible. This demands clear reporting lines, and an understanding of what is permissible and what is not, what is acceptable and what is not, and in which circumstances agencies and organizations are willing to take a clear stand, notwithstanding their desire to remain present and operational in a given conflict area.
Thus, for example, action by the UN Special Representative of the Secretary General (SRSG) must be planned in advance in close consultation with the operation and advocacy of NGOs in-country to make sure that all initiatives are fully sustainable. This leads directly to one of the key issues to be confronted – the urgent need systematically to train NGO and UN staff in children’s rights and international humanitarian law.3 We need to take children’s rights and protection seriously before we can expect others to do so. But this is not a call for more lawyers, for, as Save the Children has latterly realized, there are no better advocates for children than experienced emergency or development personnel that have been well-schooled in the international legal protection of children.4 Effective advocacy for the protection of children’s rights can be undertaken at international, regional and national levels – witness, for example, the campaigns against anti-personnel landmines or child soldiers, or even the campaign for the ratification of the Statute of the International Criminal Court. And there are other horrors and other weapons that will require attention in future. Thus, for instance, cluster bombs, which have ravaged children in Laos for decades, and which are now doing the same in Kosovo, must be swiftly restricted or prohibited altogether, their antihumanitarian effects far outweighing their military usefulness. Further, we need to ensure that former child soldiers are formally exempted from future conscription, not subject to re-recruitment when they attain their 18th birthday.5 That children who are abducted by rebel groups and then escape or are captured are not summarily executed or put on trial for treason. That emergency legislation is not applied wholesale to children without the necessary safeguards. That all countries, especially in the West, take measures to prevent cross-border recruitment of children from within their own countries.6 And, of course, that the minimum age for all forms of recruitment and all forms of participation is set unequivocally at 18 years.7 Of course, we should always beware of adopting new standards where the old are not yet respected. But where legal norms do not even exist, abuses will almost inevitably occur. A humanitarian law
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Maslen and Islamshah: Protecting the Rights of Children treaty, applicable both to governments and to armed opposition groups, that genuinely protects the rights of children in situations of armed conflict, would be a fitting gift to children in the new millennium. Conclusion: revolution not evolution Certainly, much progress has been made in the protection of children’s rights, especially following the landmark Machel Study. The recent decision to deploy child protection advisors to the UN peacekeeping operation in the Democratic Republic of Congo, for instance, is an excellent initiative; the training of UN peacekeepers in children’s rights likewise. But children’s rights are far from being integrated into the everyday work of even those organizations which proclaim a role in promoting their implementation.
Notes 1 Stuart Maslen is Co-ordinator and Shazia Islamshah is Research Assistant of the Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers, an international campaign of nongovernmental organizations against the use of children under 18 years of age as soldiers. The views expressed in this article, however, are those of the authors alone and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Coalition. 2 A great deal of child recruitment occurs because the child is unable to prove that he or she is underage. 3 International humanitarian law,
And during armed conflict, as during times of peace, advocacy for the protection of children’s rights is a programme just like any other. Thus, if we are to avoid the Convention on the Rights of the Child being sidelined as a ‘feel-good treaty’, it is our responsibility to set matters straight. Let all the agencies and organizations that preach the gospel according to the Convention ensure that their field staff are adequately versed in that gospel. And let us at the same time avoid the naïve simplification that advocacy is either screaming at the top of our lungs or whispering in silence. The reality is much more nuanced, the range of options extensive. But at the same time, we must recognize that what is needed is not ‘more of the same’, it is an unashamed call for ‘revolution not evolution’ in the mindset of protecting children’s rights. As the millennium is upon us, children need to witness real change. And as the cliché has it, change begins at home.
otherwise known as the laws of war, is incorporated into the protection of children in situations of armed conflict by virtue of Article 38 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child. 4 This should include the rights of girls, whose needs are too often forgotten in armed conflict. 5 Such a situation risks occurring in Mozambique. 6 Thus, for example, the PKK has recruited children in France, Germany and Sweden for training in the Middle East and deployment on the front line in south-east Turkey.
7 The negotiation of an Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the involvement of children in armed conflict has so far been stymied as a result of the objections of a relatively small number of states. References International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL) (1999) Landmine Monitor Report 1999: Towards a Mine-Free World. Washington, DC: Human Rights Watch. Machel, G. (1996) Impact of Armed Conflict on Children. UN Doc. A/51/306.
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