Reading, Writing, and Warfare: Children in Armed Conflict

The Conflict

More than two million children have been killed as a result of warfare during the last ten years. Children under the age of 18—sometimes much younger—are used in warfare by 41 countries throughout the world, by governments and rebel groups. They are denied basic human rights and are often abused terribly, and the practice of training young children to destroy and kill perpetuates cycles of violence in war-torn countries. Rehabilitation of former child soldiers has been beyond the resources of many nations that use children as fighters. Enforcement of international, national, and regional laws against the use of children in warfare is very difficult.

Political

• The increase of long and turbulent civil wars within countries has escalated the problem of children being used as soldiers. Ethnic conflicts, revenge for family killed, and state or rebel propaganda can draw children into the violence, and the shortage of adult fighters after years of violence makes them necessary. International forces are less likely to be able to help in internal conflicts.
• Despite international attention to the problem, issues such as the international sale of small arms and the existence of millions of land mines in places where children will be killed or maimed by them have not received enough attention to be corrected.
• When countries demobilize the child soldiers, they often lack the resources to help them through the transition. Trained in war, children are psychologically damaged and need rehabilitation. They are often ostracized by their own families or communities. They will often return to violence unless they receive help.

Economic

• The children from families with the lowest incomes are most vulnerable to military recruiters and abductors. Lack of education, the inability to pay off the recruiters, being orphaned, the need of the family for income from the military, and many other factors of poverty make a child easy prey to harsh and dangerous military servitude and a very uncertain future after demobilization.

On a Tuesday in June of 2000, almost 1,700 boys and girls who had been abducted, forced to serve in the rebel army, and trained to kill by rebel armies in Sierra Leone were released to the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF). Only a few days later, UNICEF reported the release of 2,500 child soldiers in Sudan in similar conditions. Then, in October of the same year, as the Palestinian-Israeli conflict again turned violent, images of wounded children who had thrown rocks at Israeli soldiers appeared nightly on world news programs. In February 2001, the same international humanitarian organization found almost 200 children soldiers in Uganda. In August, fighting in Rwanda between the Rwandan Patriotic Army (RPA) and rebels from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) escalated. As the RPA took control of the situation, it liberated several hundred children fighting for the DRC. These cases are only a few of the horrendous stories of children becoming not only victims, but also active participants in warfare.

In the last ten years an estimated two million children have been killed in armed conflicts. Increasingly, though, the international public is hearing about it. As this story repeated itself in country after country, the violence experienced by children in war shocked the world and became an international affair. On one hand, there has been a triumph—the international community has exposed governments and rebel armies who use children in combat. Yet, at the same time, these events highlight a growing problem and reflect the worldwide failure to protect children from the atrocities of war.

What has come to light is that in many places throughout the world, instead of making mud pies, playing with toy trucks and baby dolls, many children carry weapons, act as spies, decoys, and assassins. In addition to traditional warfare, children clear minefields, act as suicide bombers, and serve as messengers and sex slaves. Almost 5,000 children are still in military groups within Sierra Leone, and Myanmar, also known as Burma, holds an estimated 50,000 child soldiers. Some researchers guesstimate that half a million children are involved in war activities. Despite the fact that many humanitarian organizations like UNICEF and CARE (Cooperative for Assistance and Relief Everywhere) have focused on this issue for decades, it is only in the last few years that international media organizations started sending pictures of eight-year-old children carrying AK-47s in the jungle of Sudan to the living rooms of people in the United States and Europe.

Sudan, the largest country in Africa, with more than 10,000 children serving in military organizations, clearly illustrates all of the issues facing children in warfare. The Juvenile Care Council Sudanese, an official government agency, often takes children into custody directly off the street. Children out running errands or playing are scooped up and quickly forced into military camps. The government does not attempt to notify a child's family, who may not see the child again for several years. If a child manages to escape the clutches of the military, he or she is at risk of being picked up by the other side, Sudan's rebel army—the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA).

Children's rights while they are serving as soldiers in Sudan are violated in a number of ways. Beyond the forcible capture, reports indicate that while in government custody children are denied their rights of religious freedom and forced to take a Muslim name and to convert to Islam. On the other side, the SPLA rebel organization often recruits with promises of food and then forces its new recruits to walk hundreds of miles from their homes. In 1994 one particularly desperate case was reported. Famine had triggered the United Nations to provide food rations for the children in the rebel army, but, tragically, the rebels stole the food. A few months later, UNICEF reported that 47 boys under the supervision of the SPLA died from lack of food and medical care.

The problems in Sudan are deep rooted. The government denies any use of children and instead points to a Sudanese law that prohibits the recruitment of anyone under the age of eighteen into the military. Furthermore, the rebel group SPLA is hidden in the shadows of the country and out of the control of the government, international observers, and aid workers. It is in prolonged conflicts within countries like Sudan that most child soldiers appear.

No continent is immune from the practice of using children as soldiers. Children are weapons and instruments of war in more than 41 countries, including Afghanistan, Colombia, Indonesia, Iraq, Kosovo, Lebanon, Liberia, Myanmar, the Philippines, and Sri Lanka. Children are found in national armies as well as in paramilitary rebel groups, including the Tamil Tigers in Sri Lanka and extremist Palestinian groups in Israel. One report in the International Journal of Psychology claims that almost 70 percent of Palestinian children have, at one time, been involved in acts of violence against Israeli troops. In the developed world children are fighting in the streets of Belfast, Northern Ireland. Some also point to the U.S. military, which sends people at age seventeen into combat; others accuse the British, who recruit soldiers at sixteen.

Unfortunately, the problem of child soldiers does not recognize gender barriers. Within Sri Lanka, girls are commonly part of the Tamil Tiger operations, and one report found that before the civil war in Ethiopia ended in 1991, approximately 25 percent of the opposition army in that country were young girls. One particularly tragic report in the Los Angeles Times on Christmas Day, 2000, described how the Sri Lankan government had killed 18 Tamil Tigers rebels—14 of whom were girls. Both official armies and rebel forces use girls in noncombatant roles, and girls are often sexually abused by soldiers.

Historical Background

As far back as ancient Greece and Rome, there exist accounts of young people in battle. During the Middle Ages children were close to the frontlines of war. A boy who wanted to become a knight served as a squire and shadowed his master on the battlefield. Later, during the Napoleonic Wars and throughout the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, children loaded artillery, engaged in espionage, and acted as drummer boys leading the charges. In the historical drama, Henry V, William Shakespeare describes the Battle of Agincourt and the brutal massacre of the young pages and drummer boys in the British army by French soldiers. Within the American tradition, many youth fought in the Revolutionary War and historical documents are filled with testimony from soldiers as young as ten. George Washington himself was only 20 years old when he served as a major in the Virginia Militia.

Even in more contemporary wars like World Wars I (1914-18) and II (1939-45) there are romantic stories of young boys lying about their age to enlist in combat forces to fight for their country. One glaring example is found in the notorious story of German leader Adolf Hitler's young 12th SS-Panzer Division, which was made up entirely of boys who would not retreat against the British even under orders to do so. During the war 60 percent of the children in Germany were part of Hitler's youth forces. A five-chapter report on the Hitler Youth in the History Place web site describes the intensity of these child warriors: "The shocking fanaticism and reckless bravery of the Hitler Youth in battle astounded the British and Canadians who fought them. They sprang like wolves against tanks. If they were encircled or outnumbered, they fought on until there were no survivors. Young boys, years away from their first shave, had to be shot dead by Allied soldiers, old enough in some cases, to be their fathers."

Despite the long history of children on or near the battlefield, it is only in the last 50 years that the world has viewed this as a humanitarian issue demanding its attention. The presence of children in war is not new; however, the extent and the type of incorporation is. As more of the world's conflicts are internal and remain within one country, children are more frequently both the victims and the agents of war. When internal civil strife continues for years and even decades, adults available for fighting can become short in supply. In addition, children in war-torn areas are more vulnerable to abduction and persuasion to join military organizations because the conditions at home are often disturbed by war. At the same time, the modern world brings with it changing social values that honor and uphold childhood as something that is innocent and should be cherished and protected, and it is therefore more shocked by the use of child soldiers.

Recruiting, Training, and Demobilization

Forced Recruitment: As the story of children in Sudan illustrates, the practice of forced recruitment is a particularly brutal aspect of the use of children in warfare. Schools become a source of military manpower, and government forces as well as rebel forces often snatch children right from their desks. The countries most often cited for such practices include Myanmar/Burma, Guatemala, El Salvador, Ethiopia, Mozambique, Angola, Sri Lanka, and Sudan. Although this kind of abduction is a common tactic, it is seldom documented and therefore difficult to regulate. Usually, there is no formal process; children are simply collected from playgrounds and public areas.

During their "recruitment" children often experience extreme brutality, such as being forced to witness or participate in their parent's executions, or suffering beatings from their captors. Some are forced to attack their own families and neighbors in an attempt to isolate them from any normal future within their community. Tragically, in addition to losing their families, many lose their identity as they are forced to forget their names, ages, and the towns or villages they came from. The child soldier is a lost child and may remain so for much of his or her life.

Volunteers: Not all children combatants are abducted. Although many are kidnapped, others volunteer. As the increase in civil wars and internal conflicts takes its toll on civilian populations, there are more orphans who may find little alternative but to relinquish their childhood to a local militia or paramilitary group. Many argue that even those who go willingly into war are in actuality forced by the circumstances of their underprivileged situation.

The problem of child volunteers is most severe in underdeveloped countries. In areas that experience the devastation of war there may be no roads, no way for a family to eke out subsistence, and no schools. Without opportunities for education or work, enlisting in a local army or joining a guerrilla group may give an adolescent a sense of community, purpose, and honor.

Lack of education is another determining factor. One central study, Rachel Brett and Margaret McCallin's Children: The Invisible Soldiers (1996), states that "educational deprivation is the hallmark of the child volunteer." Idealism increases when opportunities are limited—a child can become a true believer going off to fight and protect his or her family and community. In some cases, as with the Hitler Youth discussed above, the culture legitimizes violence as an appropriate and honorable strategy to obtain a better life. Brett and McCallin observe that "a weapon provides access to food, and is better than staying home afraid and helpless."

Obedience: Once captured, drafted, or volunteered, a child undergoes training that is often incredibly brutal and intended to desensitize him or her to violence and ensure compliance. Reports in Central America found that children are forced to kill animals and drink their blood. They are burned with cigarettes, beaten, verbally abused, and even killed if they resist. Children are also taught to abuse and kill each other for insubordination. It is also common practice in Sierra Leone and parts of Central America for children to be forced to use drugs and alcohol to increase susceptibility, heighten aggression, and create dependence on their captors.

Attempts to escape are met with brutality; those who try to flee often lose an ear or a limb. Since a child's home community may associate such injuries with brutal militias and therefore reject the child, these scars in themselves can prevent children from attempting to flee in the future. In addition to facing rejection from their community, child combatants often suffer from post-traumatic stress and may continue their violence outside of war, withdraw from social interactions, and suffer from nightmares and hallucinations.

Demobilization: The demobilization of children and their reintroduction into society as non-combatants is another complex and controversial issue. In times of war it is likely that a child's family has been killed or his or her community wiped out. As discussed above, a community may also reject a child who has been a soldier, and then there is no one to provide for his or her essential needs. Girls who are forced into sexual service are commonly cast off by their families. These problems are exacerbated by the fact that in many African countries, children who are recruited for sexual services are exposed to HIV/AIDS and have extensive health needs.

In addition to practical considerations children face emotional challenges in their transition into civilian lifestyles. The trauma of warfare often remains with them; some commit suicide. Children who are trained to be violent may continue to pose a threat to their community and their country as they mature. A child who has witnessed violence and brutality may need assistance in healing from guilt, anger, fear, and hatred to lessen the chances that he or she will return to violence. Together, these needs often entail more than a country can provide. In many cases child soldiers have been written off as a lost generation with no hope of emotional and physical rehabilitation.

Debating the Numbers

One of the most challenging aspects of this issue involves identifying exactly who is a child. Child soldiers can be as young as six, or in some eyes, anyone under the age of eighteen. Because of the lack of consensus on when a child becomes an adult, there is controversy in tallying the number of children actively participating in warfare and in the figures used to establish long-term trends. Within western societies the tendency is to view eighteen as the cutoff point. For example, the United States government defines all persons under the age of eighteen as minors in the legal sense, in issues such as criminal prosecution, voting, marriage, and signing legal contracts. Yet, in many cultures throughout the world, particularly those with lower life expectancies, adulthood is defined at an earlier age. Religious and cultural traditions may also place the age of maturity much lower. For example, within Judaism the age of maturity begins with puberty; in some African societies marriage can occur as early as twelve. At fourteen, a boy may be regarded as a man and a good candidate for military work.

This debate about childhood spills into discussions about what age is too young to fight in combat. In Cambodia one author describes the army's criteria for drafting as when an individual is as tall as a rifle. Most argue that the rule of thumb should be when an individual is mature enough to understand the consequences of certain actions. A common definition was established by child rights activist Graça Machel in her benchmark 1996 United Nations Report, which defines child soldiers as anyone "under the age of 18 who is compulsorily or voluntarily recruited or otherwise used in hostilities by armed forces, paramilitaries, civil defense units, or other armed groups."

Overall, the lack of agreement on the age of majority poses an obstacle for counting the number of children soldiers and also for establishing international guidelines to prevent child militias. Depending on how you count and whom you include as a child soldier, estimates on the numbers of children active in some capacity of war range from 87 countries with close to one million children in combat, to 30 countries with 300,000 children active in war. The challenge in determining the numbers are exacerbated by the fact that governments and rebel groups are seldom forthcoming about their use of children. Child warriors are often stashed in jungles and forests, far from the eyes of international media and human rights organizations.

Why Children? Causes and Consequences

Why are children such a prevalent component of modern warfare? There are several reasons, including political factors, economic conditions, and cultural values. Furthermore, the source of the problem comes from both national and international politics. Local economic conditions, political crises, increases in civil strife overall, and the international sales of small weapons to countries in conflict all contribute to the presence of children in combat zones.

Economic Conditions: At the local level economics can be a key contributor to a child's becoming a soldier. Children who grow up in poverty without clean water, safe shelter, and education are the most vulnerable. Forced recruitment tends to target poorer children. While poverty-stricken families have few resources and little recourse for finding and retrieving a child taken by a military organization, wealthier families can send their children out of the country for educational purposes, bribe authorities to release their child, or buy out their child's obligation to a military operation. In addition, when local economies fail, children become hungry. The appeal of looting, and therefore eating, draws them into war. Again, in Sudan, the SPLA provides grand illusions of food and safety, causing parents to relinquish their children freely because they believe their lives may actually be better in a militia.

On the other side, children appeal to military groups who are strapped for resources. They tend to be more economical, since they eat less and demand lower wages, if they are even paid. If a child is paid he may earn an important salary and contribute to the well-being and continued existence of an entire family. Within Western developed countries that have educational systems and employment opportunities the thought of children serving as military personnel is very disturbing. In areas without these resources a child in the military may be viewed as a blessing. Ironically, efforts to discontinue the use of children in the military may be viewed as threatening, leaving both child and family without income.

Political Situations: Political instability also contributes to childhoods lost to warfare. In the last decade the world has seen an increase in civil war. In areas with unrelenting ethnic violence, like Rwanda, Israel, Sri Lanka, East Timor, Kosovo, and Bosnia, children are more likely to be included in the fighting. Children may be caught up in wars of ideology and manipulated for political purposes to support the agendas of certain groups. This can be extremely damaging, as it teaches intolerance and extremist solutions that can then lead to cycles of reoccurring violence. Children become pawns in a dangerous political game.

Government publicity actions in times of war can be an additional source of the problem as they glamorize war and hold soldiers up as heroes. The use of parades, propaganda, rallies, and even anthems and pledges teach children that war is an honorable activity and that soldiers have exciting and rewarding duties. With the use of slogans, flags, and songs children become vulnerable to suggestion and manipulation. For example, within Hamas (an extremist Palestinian group), children who fight against Israel are told they are guaranteed access to heaven for fighting in defense of their religion. Another example of wartime propaganda was found in the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia, a government that killed two million of its own people. The Khmer Rouge used textbooks to train children in warfare, complete with lessons in land mine detonation and instructions on constructing a deadly poisonous bamboo spike.

Children also respond to the idea of revenge. Some recruits have relatives who have died in civil war and family members may pressure a them to avenge the death of a loved one by joining the military or an opposition force.

Good Things Come in Small Packages

Unfortunately, the very nature of children—not being fully grown either physically or emotionally—plays a contributing factor. Tragically, physical size often contributes to capture; kids are easier to transport than adults. Children are also malleable and less prone to question authority. As one Congolese official, quoted in a July 10, 1999, article in the Economist describes, children "make very good soldiers… they obey orders; they are not concerned about getting back to their wife or family; and they don't know fear." They are often perceived as more reckless than adults and, unfortunately, more suited to extreme missions.

Children are also less likely to attract suspicion and can easily plant bombs and engage in intelligence-gathering operations. If apprehended, children often face less harsh punishments from the law than do their adult counterparts. According to a report by the Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers, children are "cheap, expendable and easier to condition in fearless killing and unthinking obedience." An additional benefit for a military or rebel group is that adult soldiers of the other side may not fire on child soldiers.

The International Arms Trade

The international trade in small arms is intricately tied to the issue of children in warfare. Technology has in recent years created smaller guns, plastic explosives, hand grenades, and overall lighter weapons. Children are more able to handle the new instruments of warfare. For example, assault rifles like the Russian-built AK-47 and the American M-16 are easy to carry and to use. Brett and McCallin explain: "The medieval squire could not hope to don his master's armour until he had reached physical maturity and even a generation ago battlefield weapons were heavy and cumbersome." These new weapons are also less expensive. The United Nations Research Institute for Social Development found that in some African countries the guns sell for US$6 apiece.

Some observers argue that countries that sell these weapons aggravate the problem as they continue their very profitable sale of small arms to governments or groups supported by governments who employ children as combatants. The contentious aspects of the arms trade and warfare are highlighted by Jo de Berry, who, in the article "Child Soldiers and the Convention on the Rights of the Child" (2001), describes how the United Kingdom faced considerable international embarrassment when images of a 14-year-old Sierra Leone soldier—dressed in British fatigues and carrying a British weapon—appeared across the front page of international newspapers in May 2000. Berry writes that the child's "gun thus came to him through the world of international politics, a world that is framed by the global history of colonialism and organizations such as the United Nations, of international intervention or nonintervention." A recent report on global arms sales in the New York Times estimated that the international arms trade grew by 8 percent in 2000, and that the United States has about 50 percent of the market share. Of the $34 billion dollar industry, the United States sold $18 billion in weapons, with almost 70 percent of those sales going to developing countries.

Preventions: Crime without Punishment

Despite the fact that popular international attention is only beginning to focus on children in armed conflict, efforts to prevent children from participating in warfare are more than 70 years old. Although most agree that children should not become pawns of violent adult power struggles, the prevention of such activities is riddled with controversy. The issues revolve around what rights children have, if these rights compete with the rights of parents, and what rights countries have to form and recruit their own militaries. There are three layers of legal protections for children: international laws and treaties, regional laws such as those passed by the Organization of African Unity, and laws within a country.

Within the legal codes of most countries, there are laws that set age restrictions on many activities associated with war. In addition to laws dealing directly with children in conflict there are regulations prohibiting child slavery, ensuring freedom of religion, and offering protections from sexual abuse. For example, in the United States there are extensive provisions preventing child abduction, labor, prostitution, and the sale of weapons to minors. Similar laws are found in other countries and often tie the age of maturity to voting, criminal prosecution, and conscription. On the other hand, many of the countries where we find children involved in war are plagued by internal conflict and are fighting illegal rebel organizations, like the SPLA in Sudan and the Tamil Tigers in Sri Lanka, which exist outside the parameters of law. A country's laws cannot protect young recruits into the rebel groups because they are by nature outside the realm of law.

International Protections of Children The now obsolete League of Nations passed one of the first international laws protecting children in combat zones. The opening paragraph of the 1924 Declaration of the Rights of the Child declared, "mankind owes to the child the best it has to give." Another important document protecting all persons involved in warfare is the 1949 Geneva Convention. This document sets guidelines against rape and requires that enemy sides provide adequate food, shelter, and medical supplies for civilian captives. Interestingly, although it is considered the cornerstone of international laws protecting human rights, the document does not refer specifically to children.

To address the issue of children directly, in 1977 the UN adopted General Protocols I and II, proclaiming that children "shall be the object of special respect and shall be protected against any form of indecent assault." Later it declares that "all human beings under fifteen" be treated as children. Within these documents additional provisions explicitly state that families are the most important aspect of a child's physical and emotional well-being, and children who are displaced by war should be expeditiously reunited with their parents. Unfortunately, countries can get around these guidelines since the conventions largely deal with conflict between countries and not within them.

In the last decade of the twentieth century many international treaties and regulations were put into place. In 1989, 191 countries adopted the Convention on the Rights of the Child. This document set 15 years old as a minimum age for participation in hostilities, compulsory recruitment, and recruitment by non-governmental armed groups. Only two countries have not ratified the convention—Somalia and the United States. Somalia's government is only beginning to take shape after it fell apart a few years ago. The United States is reluctant to sign; the U.S. military, specifically the Pentagon, does not want to be limited in its recruiting so it can assure a certain level of preparedness.

In 1999 the UN Security Council added more weight to these guiding principles when it unanimously adopted Resolution 1261. The document "condemns the targeting of children in situations of armed conflict including killing and maiming, sexual violence, abduction and forced displacement, recruitment and use of children in armed conflict in violation of international law and attacks on places that usually have a significant presence of children such as schools and hospitals—and calls on all parties concerned to put an end to such practices." This measure holds particular significance as the Security Council can strictly enforce its provisions (if it chooses to do so).

Many applaud another recent move, by the UN General Assembly on May 25, 2000, to raise the minimum age for combat to 18. The Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child prohibits the forced recruitment of all children under 18, yet still allows a government to accept volunteers at 16. Although the United States—along with 84 other countries—signed the document, it has not ratified the treaty. Despite these edicts, 17 year olds participated in U.S. military operations in the Persian Gulf War, Somalia, and Kosovo. The United States, like most countries, argues that it is its sovereign right to form an army of its choosing. Six countries legally adopted the Optional Protocol—Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Andorra, Canada, Iceland, and Panama.

In addition to these documents the United Nations Secretary-General has established a Committee on the Rights of the Child and appointed a Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict. Ugandan attorney Olara Otunnu held this position in 2001. His duties included visiting the troubled spots of the world, preventing armies and militias from recruiting children, assisting in the demobilization of minors, and encouraging peace agreements to include provisions for the demobilization of children. In addition, the United Nations appoints child protection advisers who both monitor and assist in interagency coordination and work to provide basic necessities. Both these offices spend much of their time educating the international public about the countries using children in conflict and their extensive abuses. Another important movement towards increasing awareness and international support has come through international conferences. In 1990 the UN hosted a World Summit for Children to improve international awareness about countries and rebel groups who use children to fight their wars. Again, these meetings are intended to fight an important barrier—lack of public awareness.

Implementation

Although there is an extensive body of international law, treaties, and statutes prohibiting the use of children in armed conflict, these resolutions and treaties are seldom enforced. In a UN Press Release, Olara Otunnu acknowledged the difficulty in enforcing these guidelines and observed, "Words on paper cannot save children in peril." The problem is that the people who agree to enforce international protocols are often the very same people who violate their statutes.

Enforcement of international law is often like asking wolves to watch the chicken coop. Countries that may not even enforce their own laws are asked to enforce international law against their own military. Furthermore, rebel and guerrilla groups are not parties to international treaties and agreements and therefore hold no obligation to obey the rules. There are further barriers to successfully implementing these guidelines. Many countries do not keep adequate birth and death records, making it difficult to know how old a soldier is or to prove a child was abducted. For the governments who use children in the military, and for the children themselves, there are very few legal consequences.

An area of much controversy in recent years is whether children who participate in violence, human rights abuses, and war crimes should be punished for their deeds. There are calls from the international community to prosecute these children as war criminals. Supporters of this position argue that regardless of age, whoever violates international law and commits war crimes must be brought to justice. In addition, many argue that prosecuting children may deter future youth violence in warfare. UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan supports this position and wants 15 to 18 year olds to be tried for war crimes in Sierra Leone. At the same time, human rights campaigners argue that punishing juvenile offenders will only prolong their suffering and possibly push them to more violence.

Recent History and the Future

The Future of Children in Combat: Good News and Bad

Depending on where you look, the future for preventing the involvement of children in warfare is encouraging. A global report on child soldiers published in 2001 notes that the situations in Latin America, the Balkan regions, and the Middle East are improving. Unfortunately, the report cautions that children in African countries face increased risk. Yet, even within Africa, areas of success are visible. In the spring of 2001 the SPLA in Sudan released 3,500 children to UNICEF, and in August 2001 all but 70 returned to their homes. The United Nations has been successful in requiring demobilization of children in cease-fire and peace agreements and most countries using children in combat are coming under stricter scrutiny by human rights organizations.

Another area of accomplishment comes in the form of international awareness. Because the headlines are full of stories about children in warfare, it has become an important international issue. A recent poll of Americans found that 75 percent of people surveyed felt that child survival should be both an American and an international priority. Furthermore, there are hundreds of international organizations and non-governmental organizations working on monitoring the use of children in warfare, negotiating their treatment while in combat, and assisting in their reintroduction to civilian life. Organizations like UNICEF, UNHCR (United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees), the International Committee for the Red Cross, the World Food Program, and the International Rescue Committee, as well as private groups like Save the Children and CARE, employ hundreds of doctors, counselors, and researchers to address this problem. The Deputy Director of UNICEF is cautiously optimistic, "Protection of children has finally made its way onto the global agenda… we have much more work to do to fully achieve it."

Just as the causes occur at many levels, so must the solutions. Attempts to eliminate this type of suffering are needed at the most local levels, as well as internationally. When children are taught warfare, it can become the only thing they know how to do. Unfortunately, their training can undermine cease-fires and youth can continue the violence. Michael Wessells writes in The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientist (November/December 1997), "A society that mobilizes and trains its young for war weaves violence into the fabric of life, increasing the likelihood that violence will be its future."

Children often prove themselves very adaptable. With medical attention, counseling, and vocational training, many former soldiers return to a normal life. In Sierra Leone, one representative from Amnesty International reports that "the majority of them have really improved… they are back in schools. Once they are in the right environment, we start to see the change very quickly."

Despite the increased awareness and development of legal instruments to ensure that children are not exploited by war, efforts fall short in several areas. The most discouraging element is the fact the many of the root causes of this issue are not being addressed. Poverty, hopelessness, lack of educational and professional opportunities, fear and hatred, ethnic suspicion, and the international sales of small arms are all part of the problem, and their eradication would contribute to the solution. As long as internal conflict continues to escalate in areas like the Middle East, Northern Ireland, and Sudan, the likelihood that children will be part of the violence remains high. Without attention at the source of internal warfare the cycle of violence that pulls children into battle and robs them of their innocence will continue.

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McDowell, Robin. "Khmer Rouge Children's Text Has Lessons in War," Seattle Times, May 22, 1998. Available online at http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/news/nation-world/html98/altbook_052298.html (cited October 15, 2001).

Quato, Samir, Raija Punamaki, and Eyad el-Sarraj, "The Relations Between Traumatic Experiences, Activity, and Cognitive and Emotional Responses Among Palestinian Children," International Journal of Psychology 30, 1995, p. 291.

"Security Council Strongly Condemns Targeting ofChildren in Situations of Armed Conflict," United Nations Security Council Press Release SC/6716, 4037th Meeting, August 25, 1999.

Shanker, Thom. "Global Arms Sales Rise Again, and the U.S. Leads the Pack," New York Times, August 20, 2001, p. A3.

UNICEF, "Convention on the Rights of the Child."Available online at http://www.unicef.org/crc/crc.htm (cited October 15, 2001).

War Child, "Helping the Innocent Victims of War." Available online at http://www.warchild.org/aims.html (cited October 15, 2001).

Wessells, Michael. "Child Soldiers," Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, 56 November/December 1997, pp. 32-40.

Alynna J. Lyon

Chronology

1924 The League of Nations' Declaration of the Rights of the Child declares that "mankind owes to the child the best it has to give."

1949 The Geneva Convention sets guidelines for war, prohibiting rape and requiring that enemy sides provide adequate food, shelter, and medical supplies for civilian captives. The document does not refer specifically to children.

1977 The UN adopts General Protocols I and II, proclaiming that children "shall be the object of special respect and shall be protected against any form of indecent assault."

1989 The Convention on the Rights of the Child is adopted by 191 countries. This document sets 15 as a minimum age for participation in hostilities, compulsory recruitment, and recruitment by nongovernmental armed groups.

1990 A United Nations report reveals that children as young as ten years old are being used as soldiers throughout the world. The UN hosts a World Summit for Children to improve international awareness and initiates an international research project, naming Graça Machel its chair.

November 11, 1996 Graça Machel releases her report,"The Impact of Armed Conflict on Children," drawing international attention to the issue.

1999 The UN Security Council unanimously adoptsResolution 1261, which "condemns the targeting of children in situations of armed conflict including killing and maiming, sexual violence, abduction and forced displacement, recruitment and use of children in armed conflict in violation of international law and attacks on places that usually have a significant presence of children such as schools and hospitals—and calls on all parties concerned to put an end to such practices."

May 25, 2000 The Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child prohibits the forced recruitment of all children under 18, yet still allows a government to accept volunteers at 16.

Spring 2001 Rebel forces in Sudan release 3,500 children to UNICEF.

GraÇa Machel

1945- Graça Machel has been an outspoken advocate of education and children's rights in her native country of Mozambique and internationally. She was born Graça Simbine in 1945 in Mozambique, then a colony of Portugal. Her father, a Methodist minister, died three weeks before she was born but arranged for her education. In 1968 Machel began her studies at Lisbon University with a major in romance languages. There she became involved in anti-colonial politics and in 1972 was forced to flee to Switzerland to escape the Portuguese secret police. In Europe she joined the Marxist-based Mozambican Liberation Front (FRELIMO) in the struggle against colonialism. She returned to Africa and served FRELIMO in Tanzania, until Mozambique was freed from Portuguese rule in 1975.

In 1975 she married Samora Machel, the Marxist president of newly independent Mozambique. She was appointed Minister of Education and worked tirelessly to reduce the high rate of illiteracy and to alleviate the terrible toll that years of upheaval had caused to the educational system in Mozambique.

On the night of October 19, 1986, Samora Machel was killed when his airplane mysteriously crashed into a hillside while returning from a meeting in Zambia. Machel believed that the pro-apartheid groups her husband had been fighting for years were responsible. Devastated by his loss, she resigned her post as Minister of Education. Machel later went on to serve in increasing international positions in education and child welfare.

In 1990 a United Nations report revealed that children as young as ten years old were being used as soldiers throughout the world. The UN initiated an international research project, asking Machel to be its chair. Her report, "The Impact of Armed Conflict on Children," was published by the UN on November 11, 1996. The report's findings were shocking and gruesome, but the results were positive. It laid out effective measures to protect or rehabilitate children who were victims of armed conflicts and had a tremendous impact on international awareness of the atrocities suffered by child soldiers.

BBC News Online writer Josephine Hazeley called Machel's report "a cry from the heart." In a personal note that introduces the report, Machel wrote:

In the two years spent on this report, I have been shocked and angered to see how shamefully we have failed in this responsibility… In some countries, conflicts have raged for so long that children have grown into adults without ever knowing peace. I have spoken to a child who was raped by soldiers when she was just nine years old. I have witnessed the anguish of a mother who saw her children blown to pieces by land-mines in their fields, just when she believed they had made it home safely after the war. I have listened to children forced to watch while their families were brutally slaughtered. I have heard the bitter remorse of 15-year-old ex-soldiers mourning their lost childhood and innocence, and I have been chilled listening to children who have been so manipulated by adults and so corrupted by their experiences of conflict that they could not recognize the evil of which they had been a part."

In July 1998 Machel married former president of South Africa Nelson Mandela and has continued her work as an advocate for the rights of women and children.

Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the Involvement of Children in Armed Conflict: Excerpts

Article 1: States Parties shall take all feasible measures to ensure that members of their armed forces who have not attained the age of 18 years do not take a direct part in hostilities.

Article 2: States Parties shall ensure that persons who have not attained the age of 18 years are not compulsorily recruited into their armed forces…

Article 4:

• 1. Armed groups that are distinct from the armed forces of a State should not, under any circumstances, recruit or use in hostilities persons under the age of 18 years.
• 2. States Parties shall take all feasible measures to prevent such recruitment and use, including the adoption of legal measures necessary to prohibit and criminalize such practices.
• 3. The application of the present article shall not affect the legal status of any party to an armed conflict…

Article 6

• 1. Each State Party shall take all necessary legal, administrative and other measures to ensure the effective implementation and enforcement of the provisions of the present Protocol within its jurisdiction.
• 2. States Parties undertake to make the principles and provisions of the present Protocol widely known and promoted by appropriate means, to adults and children alike.
• 3. States Parties shall take all feasible measures to ensure that persons within their jurisdiction recruited or used in hostilities contrary to the present Protocol are demobilized or otherwise released from service. States Parties shall, when necessary, accord to such persons all appropriate assistance for their physical and psychological recovery and their social reintegration.

Article 7

• 1. States Parties shall cooperate in the implementation of the present Protocol, including in the prevention of any activity contrary thereto and in the rehabilitation and social reintegration of persons who are victims of acts contrary thereto, including through technical cooperation and financial assistance. Such assistance and cooperation will be undertaken in consultation with the States Parties concerned and the relevant international organizations.
• 2. States Parties in a position to do so shall provide such assistance through existing multilateral, bilateral or other programmes or, inter alia, through a voluntary fund established in accordance with the rules of the General Assembly.