The Child Soldier Dilemma

McBride, Julie

doi:10.1007/978-90-6704-921-4_1

Julie McBride²

2260 Accesses

Abstract

This chapter introduces and outlines the background to the child soldier issue, and briefly examines the history of the use of child soldiers, before analysing the factors that contribute to the widespread use of children in conflict. Culture is a key factor, and the highly contentious issue of cultural relativism in international criminal justice will be addressed. Does the legal framework that addresses the issue of child soldiers bear the hallmarks of culturally sensitive criteria? It is critical to assess what position the issue of differing cultures and societies should play in determining what constitutes ‘childhood’ and who is a ‘child’ soldier on the international platform. The substantive legal framework from which the crime of child recruitment ‘evolved’ is then examined. There have been contributions to this framework from humanitarian law, human rights law and the International Labour Organisation, and a significant number of treaties and conventions include prohibitions on using children in conflict. Issues that arise in this analysis include the political motivations at play during the drafting of the instruments, how they are reflected in the final texts and the input of the ‘straight-18’ movement, which advocates for eighteen to be instated as the minimum age of recruitment. However, these instruments have had limited success and there appears to have been a growing trend towards criminalisation as a means to ensure compliance, representing a new ‘era of application’. The effectiveness of international instruments is discussed, as is the specific problem of their application to non-state parties. Perhaps international legal instruments have achieved all they can in bringing about an expectation of compliance with their principles, and this expectation can only be fully realised through international criminal justice? It is argued that the movement towards eradicating the use of child soldiers has undergone such a shift in approach.

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Notes

1.
Statement by Olara A. Otunnu (Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict), ‘Era of Application—Instituting a Compliance and Enforcement Regime for CAAC' (2005) Security Council 5129th Meeting (23 February 2005).
2.
Seneviratne 2003, p. 39.
3.
Cset 1998, p. 4.
4.
Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers, Child Soldiers Global Report (2004) 13.
5.
General Assembly GA/SHC/3853 Sixty-first General Assembly Third Committee 14th Meeting (AM), 12 October 2006.
6.
Beber and Blattman 2011, abstract.
7.
Cassandra Clifford, ‘Child Soldiers Continue to be Recruited in Central African Republic' Foreign Policy (5 May 2011); Charles Appel, ‘Children are not soldiers’ United Nations News and Media (14 February 2011); Cataldi and Briggs 2011.
8.
Save the Children International, ‘An International Effort to Deal with the Issues of Child Soldiers’ University of Nottingham Position Paper, March 2008.
9.
UNGA ‘Report of the Secretary-General on Children and Armed Conflict’ 65th Session, Agenda item 64 (a), UN Doc A/65/820 (2011) [Hereafter ‘Secretary-General’s Report 2011’]. UNGA ‘Report of the Secretary-General on Children and Armed Conflict’ 67th Session, Agenda item 66 (a), UN Doc A/67/256 (2012) [Hereafter ‘Secretary-General’s Report 2012’].
10.
Secretary-General’s Report 2011 paras 35, 60, 72, 140.
11.
Ibid para 191.
12.
Ibid para 84.
13.
Ibid paras 85–88.
14.
Ibid paras 7–9; Secretary-General’s Report 2012 para 66.
15.
Ibid para 97.
16.
Ibid para 106.
17.
Ibid para 122.
18.
Ibid para 130.
19.
Ibid para 197; Save the Children (2013) Childhood Under Fire http://www.savethechildren.org/site/apps/nlnet/content2.aspx?c=8rKLIXMGIpI4E&b=8486803&ct=13020737 Accessed 12 April 2013.
20.
Ibid paras 154–155.
21.
Ibid para 174.
22.
Ibid para 184.
23.
Beber and Blattman 2011, p. 3 [Emphasis in original text].
24.
Gates and Reich 2010, p 71. Those States with no child soldiers participating in conflicts were Senegal, Niger, Mali, Lesotho and the Central African Republic.
25.
Ibid. The worst state for child soldier participation was Liberia (53 %) during the time period 1999–2003. See also Simon Reich, ‘How child soldiers are recruited from refugee camps’ The Conversation (5 September 2011) http://theconversation.edu.au/how-child-soldiers-are-recruited-from-refugee-camps-2938 Accessed 22 November 2011.
26.
Wells 2004, pp. 287–289.
27.
Mann 1987, p. 32; Singer 2005, p. 10.
28.
Bennett 2004, p. 5.
29.
Singer 2006, p. 12.
30.
Rempel 1990, pp. 50–61.
31.
Kater 2004, p. 145.
32.
Einwohner 2003, p. 650.
33.
Singer 2006, p. 10.
34.
Kiernan 2002.
35.
Laban 2002, p. 182.
36.
Abbott 2000, p. 518.
37.
Kaldor 2007, p. 8.
38.
Singer 2006, p. 22.
39.
Noga Kadman and others, ‘Information Sheet: A Decade of Human Rights Violations 1987–1997’ (1998) Information Centre for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories. http://www.btselem.org/Download/199801_Decade_of_Violations_Eng.doc Accessed 10 September 2011.
40.
Jeffrey Gettleman, ‘The Perfect Weapon for the Meanest Wars’ New York Times (New York 29 April 2007).
41.
Susan Shepler, ‘Made Bulletproof by Magic, Armed with an AK: The Politics of Traditional Warriors and Modern Warfare in Sierra Leone’ (2004) presented at the 2004 American Anthropological Association meetings in Atlanta, Georgia on 15 December 2004.
42.
This practice has been identified in Guatemala, El Salvador, Ethiopia, Mozambique, Peru, Sudan, Burma, Sri Lanka and Liberia. See: Cohn and Goodwin-Gill 1994, p. 161.
43.
Seneviratne 2003.
44.
Wessells 2006, p. 41.
45.
UNHCR, ‘Global Trends: 60 Years and Still Counting’ (2011) http://www.unhcr.org/4dfa11499.html Accessed 2 December 2011.
46.
Amnesty International, ‘Child Soldiers: One of the Worst Abuses of Child Labour’ (1999) IOR42/001/1999.
47.
Wessells 2006, p. 37.
48.
Singer 2006, p. 61.
49.
Wessells 2006, pp. 237–254.
50.
Somasundara 2002, p. 1269.
51.
Davison 2004, p. 124.
52.
DeCastro 2001, p. 2.
53.
Somasundara 2002, p. 1269.
54.
UNGA, ‘Promotion and Protection of the Rights of Children: The Impact of Armed Conflict on Children’ A/51/306 (26 August 1996) [Hereafter ‘The Machel Report’] 48.
55.
Maher 1989, p. 304.
56.
Rosen 2005, p. 57.
57.
Beber and Blattman 2011, p. 4.
58.
Singer 2006, p. 41.
59.
Ibid 42.
60.
Ibid 41.
61.
Ibid 42.
62.
Jo Becker, ‘Small Arms and Child Soldiers’, presented at ‘Putting Children First: Building a Framework for International Action to Address the Impact of Small Arms’ (New York, March 2001).
63.
‘Strong link between child soldiers and small arms trade, UN experts say’ United Nations News Centre (New York, 15 July 2008).
64.
UNGA ‘Report of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict’ UN GAOR 62nd Session Item 68 (a) UN Doc A/62/228 (2007).
65.
Jackson 2010, p. 132.
66.
Madubuike-Ekwe 2005, p. 34.
67.
Vandergrift 2004, p. 555.
68.
Mitchell 2004, p. 107.
69.
‘Strong Links between Child Soldiers and Small Arms Trade, UN Experts Say’ UN News Centre (New York 15 July 2008).
70.
Boyden and de Berry 2004, pp. xi–xii.
71.
Fonseka 2007, p. 35.
72.
Duffield 2007, p. 35.
73.
Dulti 1990, p. 105.
74.
Fonseka 2001, p. 76.
75.
Pham 2005, p. 103.
76.
Gislesen 2006, p. 38.
77.
Tock 2004, p. 157.
78.
Fonseka 2001, p. 80.
79.
Veerman 1992, p. 10.
80.
Donnelly 1984, p. 401.
81.
Alston 1994, p. 306.
82.
Locke 1824, p. 96.
83.
Donnelly 1984, p. 310.
84.
Brennan 1989, p. 384.
85.
N. Cohen, ‘One woman's war—Maryam Namazie personifies the gulf between liberal apologists and those who really want equality’ The Observer (London, 16 October 2005).
86.
Teson 1984, p. 874.
87.
Alston 1994, p. 20.
88.
Brennan 1989, p. 384.
89.
Bostian 2005, p. 1.
90.
Goldstone 1997, p. 11.
91.
United Nations, Convention on the Rights of a Child, General Assembly resolution 44/25, 20 November 1989.
92.
Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, General Recommendation No. 14 (9th session, 1990).
93.
Council of Europe Resolution 1247 (22 May 2001).
94.
UNICEF Press Release, ‘Over 6,000 communities across Africa abandon female genital mutilation/cutting’ (6 February 2010).
95.
Sarah Boseley, ‘FGM: Kenya acts against unkindest cut’ The Guardian (London, 8 September 2011). Benin, Ivory Coast, Djibouti, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Ghana, Guinea, Niger, Nigeria, Kenya, Central African Republic, Senegal, Chad, Tanzania, Togo and Uganda have legislated against the practice. It remains prevalent in Djibouti, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, and Guinea.
96.
Kenyatta 1965, p. 135.
97.
The Center for Reproductive Law and Policy, ‘Women’s Reproductive Rights in Cameroon—A Shadow Report’ (New York 1999) http://reproductiverights.org/sites/default/files/documents/sr_cam_1199_eng.pdf Accessed 6 December 2011.
98.
Bennett 2004, p. 5.
99.
Ibid 7.
100.
Brennan 1989, p. 384.
101.
Muawad Mustafa Rashid, ‘Child Soldiers in Sudan… Increasing Numbers’ Sudan Vision (Khartoum, 26 January 2012); Ren Ke, Zhang Chunxiao and Wang Jingguo, ‘China's military evolves as ‘only-child' soldiers become main strength’ Xinhua (Beijing, 10 January 2012).
102.
Human Rights Watch, ‘Selling Justice Short’ (Human Rights Watch, New York 2009) 125.
103.
James and Prout 1997, p. 8.
104.
Ibid p. 128.
105.
Ibid.
106.
Ibid pp. 129–133.
107.
Ariès 1962, p. 35.
108.
Breen 2002, p. 240.
109.
Morss 2002, p. 43.
110.
Convention on the Rights of the Child, General Assembly resolution 44/25 (20 November 1989), Entry into force 2 September 1990. Article 1: For the purposes of the present Convention, a child means every human being below the age of eighteen years unless under the law applicable to the child, majority is attained earlier [Hereafter ‘CRC’].
111.
Breen 2002, p. 19.
112.
Cohn and Goodwin-Gill 1994, p. 7.
113.
Singer 2006, p. 26.
114.
‘The Legal Driving Age’ (Learning to Drive) www.learningtodrive.co.uk/driving-age.htm Accessed 10 April 2013; United Nations Statistics Division, ‘Minimum legal age for marriage without consent’ (21 March 2008) http://data.un.org/Data.aspx?d=GenderStat&f=inID:19 Accessed 10 April 2013.
115.
Mutua 1995, p. 351.
116.
Bennett 1977, p. 75.
117.
Barker and Ricardo 2005, pp. v, vi, 9, 16, 25–26, 31.
118.
Diamond and Plattner 1999, p. 55.
119.
Brigid Fitzgerald Reading, Earth Policy Institute (2011) Troubling Health Trends Holding Back Progress on Life Expectancy.
120.
European Defence Agency (2006) An Initial Long-Term Vision for European Defence Capability and Capacity Needs.
121.
Kaime 2005, p. 221.
122.
Cohn and Goodwin-Gill 1994, p. 8.
123.
White 2011, p. 4.
124.
Labuschagne 2001, p. 199; V. v United Kingdom (2000) 30 No. 24888/94 EHRR 121 [50].
125.
Children Act 2001, Section 52, as amended by Section 129 of the Criminal Justice Act 2006.
126.
Children and Young Persons Act 1963, Section 16(1); Crime and Disorder Act 1998, Section 34.
127.
V. v United Kingdom (2000) 30 EHRR 121 [74].
128.
Protocol No. I Additional to the 4th Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Times of War [Hereafter ‘Additional Protocol I’].
129.
United Nations Standard Minimum Rules for the Administration of Juvenile Justice ("The Beijing Rules") UNGA Res 40/33 (29 November 1985).
130.
Ibid.
131.
Paris Commitments to Protect Children from Unlawful Recruitment or Use by Armed Forces or Armed Groups (6 February 2007)
132.
Mezmue 2008, p. 211.
133.
Happold 2008, p. 25.
134.
Arts and Popovski 2006; Theuermann and Mann 2001; UNICEF (2004) Truth and Reconciliation Commission Report For the Children of Sierra Leone—Child Friendly Version http://www.unicef.org/infobycountry/files/TRCCF9SeptFINAL.pdf Accessed 15 February 2012.
135.
Boothby et al. 2006, p. 96; Honwana 2007, pp. 110–122.
136.
CRC Article 40. See also: UN Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC), ‘General Comment No. 10 (2007): Children's Rights in Juvenile Justice’ CRC/C/GC/10 (25 April 2007), which recommends that 12 years should be the ‘absolute minimum age’ of responsibility.
137.
Kalshoven 2004, p. 153.
138.
Convention (IV) relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War. Geneva, 12 August 1949 [Hereafter ‘Fourth Geneva Convention’], Article 16: ‘The wounded and the sick, as well as the infirm, and expectant mothers, shall be the object of particular protection and respect’.
139.
Specifically Articles 14, 15, 17, 23, 24, 38, 50, 51, 82, 89. Article 14 provides for ‘safe spaces’ for children; Article 17 provides for the evacuation of children from war-torn areas; Article 50 provides for the proper identification of children.
140.
Duffield 2007, p. 116.
141.
Kende 1971, p. 5.
142.
Resolution XXIII, Final Act of the International Conference on Human Rights (1968) U.N. Doc A/CONF. 32/41 18.
143.
Yves Sandoz, ‘The International Committee of the Red Cross as Guardian of International Humanitarian Law’ (1998) ICRC. http://www.icrc.org/eng/resources/documents/misc/about-the-icrc-311298.htm Accessed 30 November 2011.
144.
Baxter 1975, p. 6.
145.
ICRC, ‘Protection of the civilian population against dangers of hostilities’, Conference of Government Experts on the Reaffirmation and Development of International Humanitarian Law Applicable in Armed Conflicts (Geneva 1971), CE/3b, 46–49.
146.
Additional Protocol I.
147.
Protocol No. II Additional to the 4th Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Times of War [Hereafter ‘Additional Protocol II’].
148.
Additional Protocol I, Article 77(2) [Emphasis added].
149.
ICRC, ‘Draft Additional protocols to the Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949: Commentary, Draft Art. 68(2), Protocol I’ (1973) 86 [Emphasis added].
150.
Mann 1987, p. 44.
151.
Dundes Renteln 2000, p. 191.
152.
Ibid, p. 194.
153.
Bothe et al. 1982, p. 303.
154.
Van Bueren 1994, p. 815.
155.
Prosecutor v Alex Tamba Brima, Brima Bazzy Kamara and Santigie Borbor Kanu (‘The AFRC Case’) (Judgment) SCSL-04-16-T (20 July 2007).
156.
Fourth Geneva Convention, Articles 14, 23, 24, 38, 50 and 89.
157.
Additional Protocol II, Article 4(3)(c) [Emphasis added].
158.
Van Bueren 1994, p. 815.
159.
Additional Protocol II, Article 1(1).
160.
Reis 1997, p. 639.
161.
Abbott 2000, p. 499.
162.
Kiwanuka 1989.
163.
Article 11(2)(b), Article 85(4)(c), Article 45(2) and Article 75(4) and (7).
164.
UN Doc. A/CONF.183/9 (1998) Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, Article 8 (2)(b)(xxvi).
165.
Seneviratne 2003, p. 42.
166.
Mann 1987, p. 45.
167.
Convention concerning the Prohibition and Immediate Action for the Elimination of the Worst Forms of Child Labour, ILO Convention 182 (entered into force 19 November 2000).
168.
Ibid, Articles 2 and 3.
169.
Seneviratne 2003, p. 45.
170.
Statement by ILO Director-General Juan Somavia at the ‘Children in the Crossfire’ conference in Washington on 7 May 2003: ‘Perhaps there is no greater challenge or more pressing charge than freeing the 300,000 children who are caught in the crossfire of conflict’. See ‘The World of Work: The Magazine of the ILO’ (Washington DC, June 2003) http://www.ilo.org/global/publications/magazines-and-journals/world-of-work-magazine Accessed 30 November 2011.
171.
Hammarberg 1990, p. 98.
172.
Singer 2004, p. 568.
173.
Hammarberg 1990, p. 101.
174.
Van Bueren 1994, p. 816.
175.
Tock 2004, p. 159.
176.
Sheppard 2000, p. 42.
177.
CRC Article 38 [Emphasis added].
178.
Article 1 provides that ‘a child means every human being below the age of eighteen years unless under the law applicable to the child, majority is attained earlier’. The vast majority of State parties set this at eighteen, and those that have a lower age of majority are encouraged by the Committee on the Rights of the Child, the monitoring body for the Convention, to ‘review this threshold and to increase the level of protection for all children under 18’. See UNICEF, ‘The State of the World’s Children 2011—Adolescence, An Age of Opportunity’ (February 2011) http://www.unicef.org/sowc2011/pdfs/SOWC-2011-Main-Report_EN_02092011.pdf Accessed 13 February 2012.
179.
UN Doc. E/CN.4/1989/48 607.
180.
De Berry 2001, p. 92.
181.
Sheppard 2000, p. 44.
182.
Fonseka 2001, p. 78.
183.
Van Bueren 1994, p. 816.
184.
Van Bueren 1994, p. 820.
185.
Krill 1992, p. 109.
186.
Davison 2004, p. 134.
187.
African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child OAU Doc. CAB/LEG/24.9/49 (1990), [Hereafter ‘African Charter’].
188.
Gose 2002, pp. 27, 29, 35, 42, 53, 62, 89, 119 and 139.
189.
Article 2: ‘For the purposes of this Charter, a child means every human being below the age of 18 years’.
190.
Van Bueren 1994, p. 818.
191.
African Charter, Article 22.
192.
Thompson 1992, p. 432.
193.
African Charter, Article 22 [Emphasis added].
194.
Fonseka 2001, p. 91.
195.
Cape Town Principles and Best Practices on the Recruitment of Children into the Armed Forces and on Demobilization and Social Reintegration of Child Soldiers in Africa (UNICEF, 1997).
196.
Webster 2007, p. 244.
197.
Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the involvement of children in armed conflict. UNTS Vol. 2173, 222 (entered into force 12 February 2002) [Hereafter ‘the OP’].
198.
Dennis 2000, p. 790.
199.
Fonseka 2001, p. 80.
200.
Renteln 2000, p. 197.
201.
Van Bueren 1995.
202.
Thalif Deen, ‘United States Blocks Move to Demobilise Child Soldiers’ Inter Press Service (New York 3 January 1998); Greg Barrow, ‘UK ‘shamed’ over teenage soldiers’ BBC News (London, 12 June, 2001) http://www.news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/1383998.stm Accessed 19 December 2011.
203.
Child Soldiers Global Report 2008—United States of America (20 May 2008) http://www.child-soldiers.org/document/get?id=1475 Accessed 19 December 2011.
204.
Southwick 2004, p. 543.
205.
Ibid p. 545.
206.
Rachel Harvey, ‘Child soldiers in the UK: Analysis of recruitment and deployment practices of under-18s and the CRC’ (Living Commentary for the Children and Armed Conflict Unit, Children’s Legal Centre, 2002) http://www.essex.ac.uk/armedcon/unit/papers/index.html Accessed 30 January 2012.
207.
Ibid.
208.
Amnesty International ‘United Kingdom, U-18 s: Report on Recruitment and Deployment of Child Soldiers’ (7 November 2000), AI Index: EUR 45/57/00 20.
209.
Human Rights Watch, ‘Promises Broken: An Assessment of Children's Rights on the 10th Anniversary of the Convention on the Rights of the Child’ (1999).
210.
Amnesty International Press Release, ‘Old Enough to Kill but too Young to Vote’ (28 January 1998) AI INDEX: IOR 51/02/98: ‘The organization believes there is no excuse or acceptable argument for abusing and exploiting children as combatants, and that in order to end what Amnesty International calls a “moral outrage”, the optional protocol should raise the minimum age for participation in hostilities and recruitment into armed forces to the age of 18’.
211.
Katy Glassborow. ‘ICC Investigative Strategy Under Fire’ (Institute for War and Peace Reporting, 27 October 2008) http://iwpr.net/report-news/icc-investigative-strategy-under-fire Accessed 23 February 2013.
212.
‘No Peace Without Justice welcomes the opening of the trial against Thomas Lubanga as a landmark in the fight against impunity’ (No Peace without Justice, 26 January 2009) http://www.npwj.org/ICC/ICCDRC-No-Peace-Without-Justice-welcomes-opening-trial-against-Thomas-Lubanga-a-landmark-fight-a Accessed 23 February 2013.
213.
Alpha Sesay, ‘Long Proceedings in Trial of Thomas Lubanga Finally Reach End’ (The Lubanga Trial, 26 August 2011). http://www.lubangatrial.org/2011/08/26/long-proceedings-in-trial-of-thomas-lubanga-finally-reach-end/ Accessed 23 February 2013.
214.
Human Rights Watch, ‘The Curse of Gold: Democratic Republic of Congo’ (New York, 2005); International Crisis Group ‘Africa Report, Congo Crisis: Military Intervention in Ituri’ (13 June 2003).
215.
Human Rights Watch, Sierra Leone: Landmark Convictions for Use of Child Soldiers (New York, June 2007) http://www.hrw.org/news/2007/06/20/sierra-leone-landmark-convictions-use-child-soldiers Accessed 23 February 2012.
216.
‘Women's Initiatives Activities in DRC’ (Women’s Initiatives for Gender Justice) http://www.iccwomen.org/whatwedo/congo/initiatives.php Accessed 24 February 2013.
217.
Sheppard 2000, p. 39.
218.
Breen 2003, p. 453; Coomaraswamy 2010, p. 539.
219.
Don Hubert, ‘The Landmine Ban: A Case Study in Humanitarian Advocacy’ (2000) Brown University Thomas J. Watson Jr. Institute for International Studies, Occasional Paper 42. http://faculty.maxwell.syr.edu/hpschmitz/PSC354/PSC354Readings/LandmineBanChapter4.pdf Accessed 30 January 2012.
220.
Sheppard 2000, p. 30.
221.
Freeland 2005, p. 303.
222.
See: ICRC Customary International Law, ‘Practice Relating to Rule 15. The Principle of Precautions in Attack, Section C. Feasibility of precautions in attack' which outlines the provisions in various States’ military manuals. The United States submitted a Declaration with its ratification of the OP (23 December 2002), wherein it outlines that it interprets ‘feasible measures’ in this manner. The same terminology is also included in the military manuals of Argentina, Australia, Canada and the United Kingdom: http://www.icrc.org/customary-ihl/eng/docs/v2_rul_rule15_sectionc Accessed 30 January 2013.
223.
The United Kingdom's declaration upon signing the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the Involvement of Children in Armed Conflict (UN Doc CRC/C/16 Annex IV).
224.
Davison 2004, p. 135.
225.
Canada, El Salvador and Mexico.
226.
Austria, Azerbaijan, Cape Verde, Italy, Jamaica, New Zealand and Vietnam.
227.
Amnesty International Press Release, ‘UK reserves option to use children in war, contrary to treaty’ (30 June 2003) ACT 76/005/2003; Rachel Taylor, 'Britain must stop sending children to war' Open Democracy (London, 10 November 2011) http://www.opendemocracy.net/ourkingdom/rachel-taylor/britain-must-stop-sending-children-to-war Accessed 30 January 2012.
228.
Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers, ‘Catch 16–22—Recruitment and retention of minors in the British armed forces', (London, March 2011); See also: Joe Sinclair, ‘MoD ‘wastes £46 m by recruiting children’ The Independent (London, 24 March 2011).
229.
Ibid Coalition Report, 8.
230.
Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers, ‘The recruitment of children by British armed forces: An assessment of the implementation of the recommendations of the Committee on the Rights of the Child’, (London, 19 November 2010).
231.
The United States of America’s declaration upon signing the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the Involvement of Children in Armed Conflict (UN Doc CRC/C/16 Annex IV). The Declaration specifies that the US undertakes no obligations under the CRC, and that nothing within the OP ‘establishes a basis for jurisdiction by any international tribunal, including the International Criminal Court’.
232.
Stohl 2002, p. 138.
233.
For example, Cohn and Goodwin suggest making the provision of international aid contingent on compliance with a higher recruitment age. Cohn and Goodwin-Gill 1994, p. 161.
234.
Vandergrift 2004, p. 551.
235.
Davison 2004, p. 680.
236.
Hathaway 2002, p. 1941.
237.
Hafner‐Burton and Tsutsui 2005, p. 1377.
238.
Gates and Reich 2010, p. 4.
239.
Schabas 2003, p. 933.
240.
Cohn and Goodwin-Gill 1994, p. 76; Vandergrift 2004, p. 574.
241.
UNGA ‘Report of the Secretary-General: Children and Armed Conflict’ UN Doc. A/59/695-S/2005/72 (2005). Annexes I and II.
242.
‘Sri Lanka rebels to end child soldiers’ CNN (Berlin, 9 February 2003) http://edition.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/asiapcf/south/02/09/slanka.peace/index.html Accessed 1 December 2011; UNGA, ‘Report of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict’ UN Doc. A/58/328 (2003) [21–22].
243.
Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (entered into force 12 January 1951) Article IV.
244.
Vandergrift questions the deterrent value of prosecutions: ‘I certainly think it is important to prosecute those who recruit or use children in armed conflict. It matters for the child and for their communities and societies, but I do not count on these prosecutions having a deterrent effect in the short-run’. Kathy Vandergrift, ‘International Law Barring Child Soldiers in Combat: Problems in Enforcement and Accountability—Question & Answer Session’ (2004) 37 CILJ 555, 557.
245.
Beber and Blattman 2011, abstract.
246.
UNGA ‘Report of the Secretary-General on Children and Armed Conflict’ 65th Session, Agenda item 64 (a), UN Doc A/65/820 (2011).
247.
Human Rights Watch (n 102 above), 125.
248.
The Prosecutor v Sam Hinga Norman (Fourth Defence Preliminary Motion Based on Lack of Jurisdiction (Child Recruitment)) SCSL-2004-14-AR72(E) (31 May 2004) [22].

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McBride, J. (2014). The Child Soldier Dilemma. In: The War Crime of Child Soldier Recruitment. T.M.C. Asser Press, The Hague. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-6704-921-4_1

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-6704-921-4_1
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