EVERY CHILD has the right to live up to their full potential. Children cannot reach their full potential if they are not in good health, if they do not receive an education and if they are not protected from violence. In Africa, one in every four children lives in conflict. 420 million children globally live in conflict affected areas, 14% of whom are in Africa. As wars and conflicts on the African continent and in other corners of the world increase, so too does the risk of recruitment and use of children as soldiers. In 2022 alone, six African countries were reported as conflict hotspots including Libya, South Sudan, the Central African Republic, Northern Mozambique, and the North-West and South-West regions of Ethiopia and Cameroon. These conflict situations expose children to becoming both victims and perpetrators of violence.
The International Day of Peace is a great opportunity to recognise the significant efforts that have been made to create frameworks that promote and protect the rights of all children while encouraging compliance with international laws and facilitating an active change of behaviors and attitudes towards this obligation by all stakeholders. At a global level several frameworks were adopted on the subject matter including the establishment of the Convention on the Rights of The Child, and most recently the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child and the Geneva Conventions and their two Additional Protocols. In the same spirit, the Vancouver Principles were launched in 2017 in an effort to make child protection a priority in UN peacekeeping missions. Despite efforts to encourage and promote the increased prioritisation of child protection in global peace and security, children remain victims of violence.
The recruitment and use of children as soldiers is one of the six grave violations against children in armed conflict for which perpetrators, military commanders and political leaders are meant to be held accountable by the United Nations, the International Criminal Court, national laws, and military codes of justice. Despite efforts to protect children from violence, the UN Secretary General’s most recent report on Children and Armed Conflict reported that 23,982 grave violations were committed against children globally. Reported violations affected more boys than girls affecting overall 19,165 children (13,633 boys, 5,242 girls, 290 sex unknown). The highest numbers of violations were the killing (2,515) and maiming (5,555) of 8,070 children, followed by the recruitment and use of 6,310 children and 3,945 incidents of denial of humanitarian access. Children were detained for actual or alleged association with armed groups (2,864), including those designated as terrorist groups by the United Nations, or for national security reasons. These numbers pose a serious threat to society and the future of our children.
The dynamics of conflict have changed over the course of years making it difficult for communities, policy makers and advocates to keep track of these crimes. The center of these dynamics and tactics is the use of children which is an inhumane activity and extended terror to the African child. The spread of violent extremism, growing transnational criminal networks and intercommunal violence continue to expose children to child labour, human trafficking, sexual exploitation and indoctrination by both armed forces and armed groups involved in terrorism. These dynamics challenge the protection of children.
Rwanda has framed the issue of children in armed conflict, and particularly the recruitment and use of children as soldiers, as a specific priority concern for the security sector. The country has led regional efforts to effectively implement the Vancouver Principles as a major troop contributing country to the United Nations and African Union peacekeeping missions and also as the host of the Dallaire Institute’s Centre of Excellence, which serves as the Institute’s regional hub on the African continent. The Centre of Excellence brings together nations from across the globe to learn about the Dallaire Institute’s prevention-oriented security sector training approach to understand the early warning signs of recruitment and improve their early response to the needs and rights of children. The Centre of Excellence is also a knowledge base and research convenor on peace and security agendas that puts the protection of children at its very core.
The Dallaire Institute has contributed to these efforts through great cooperation with the Government of the Republic of Rwanda on interventions facilitated by the Rwanda Defence Force and the Rwanda National Police. Working with Rwanda’s security forces on preventing the recruitment and use of children as soldiers in armed conflict has strengthened the capacities of the military and police to protect children from armed violence. The Dallaire Institute adopts a multi-dimensional approach to support action plans on the prevention of the recruitment and use of child soldiers through high-level advocacy which we combine with a grassroots, community-based approach. Importantly, our community-based approach to prevention seeks to increase the accountability and responsiveness of security sector actors to the needs of the community they are mandated to protect.
The Dallaire Institute will continue to work with key partners to stress the importance of preventing the recruitment and use of child soldiers. Research shows that we can’t achieve peace without protecting children from violence, an imperative to end intergeneration wars and conflicts but beyond that we need to protect children for humanity reasons to prevent the enormous impact of their participation in violence on their childhood and the adverse effects they suffer in their adult life.
Francisca Mujawase, Dallaire Institute for children, Peace and security.