Child Soldiers - In the firing line
Updated: 23 November 2009
Former child-soldiers look through a barbed wire fence in a Gitega camp in Burundi, 10 December 2004, shortly after they joined the programme aimed at transforming them back into the normal society. The demobilisation involved about 7,000 children who fought in various rebel movements in a country that is now trying to emerge from 11 years of war .
ESDRAS NDIKUMANA/AFP/Getty Images
"Any fighter or children suspected of being reluctant to do the killings was badly beaten."
A former child soldier kidnapped by the RUF in Sierra Leone when he was about eight years old.
More than 300,000 children are thought to be fighting in some 30 conflicts around the world. Most are between 15 and 18 years old, but many are as young as 10. Some are even younger.
Casualty rates are extremely high. Child soldiers are often subjected to sexual violence and extreme physical and emotional abuse intended to make them obedient and ruthless killers. This is in addition to the harm done by the denial of basic childhood needs for security, health and education.
In January 2000, the governments of the world agreed to ban the use of children in combat. This treaty, called the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the involvement of children in armed conflict, came into force on February 12, 2002. Canada was the first government to ratify.
The Optional Protocol requires governments to take all feasible measures to ensure that children under the age of 18 do not take part in hostilities. All compulsory recruitment - or conscription - of under-18-year-olds is banned, and governments are required to raise the age of voluntary recruitment to a minimum of 16. Unusually, the Optional Protocol also applies to armed groups, banning all military recruitment (voluntary or compulsory) and use of children under 18.
A number of governments have already signed the Protocol but not yet made a final legal commitment by ratifying. These include: Sudan, the Netherlands, Lebanon, Cuba and Indonesia.
TAKE ACTION:
Please write to the diplomatic representatives of these countries:
- Commending their governments for having signed the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the involvement of children in armed conflict.
- Urging them to carry through on their commitment by ratifying the Optional Protocol without reservations.
WRITE TO:
His Excellency Solomon Azoh-Mbi Anu’a-Gheyle
High Commissionerer
High Commission for the Republic of Cameroon
170 Clemow Avenue
Ottawa, Ontario
K1S 2B4
Fax: (613) 236-3885
Email: not currently available
His Excellency Raymond Baaklini, Ambassador
Embassy of Lebanon
640 Lyon Street,
Ottawa, Ontario
K1S 3Z5
Fax: (613) 232-1609
Email: info@lebanonembassy.ca
His Excellency Luis Eladio Arias Nunez, Ambassador
Embassy of the Dominican Republic
130 Albert Street, Suite 418
Ottawa, Ontario
K1P 5G4
Fax: (613) 569-8673
Email: not currently available
Mr. Sadewo JOEDO (m), Minister & Chargé d'Affaires, a.i.
Embassy of the Republic of Indonesia
55 Parkdale Avenue
Ottawa, Ontario
K1Y 1E5
Fax: (613) 724-1105
Email: info@indonesia-ottawa.org
Salutation for all: Your Excellency