- Conference
- 2012 National Black Members' Conference
- Date
- 20 September 2011
- Decision
- Carried
Child Soldiers from Arfica, Asia and the Middle East.
Throughout history and in many cultures, children have been involved in military campaigns even when such practices were supposedly against cultural morals.
Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the child on the involvement of Children in armed conflict (2000) sets 18 as the minimum age for direct participation in hostilities, for recruitment into armed groups and for compulsory recruitment by governments.
The definition, therefore, does not only refer to a child who is carrying or has carried weapons but based on the (Cape Town Principles, 1997). The Cape Town Principles and Best Practices, adopted by the NGO working group on the Convention on the Rights of Children and UNICEF at symposium on the prevention of recruitment of children into armed forces and on demobilisation and social regeneration of child soldiers in Africa in April 1997, proposed that African Governments should adopt and ratify the Optional Protocol on the involvement of children in armed conflict raising the minimum age from 15 to 18 and that African Governments should ratify and implement other pertinent treaties and incorporate them in national law.
Up to half of the world’s child soldiers are in Africa according to UNOCHA in 2004 one estimate put the number of children involved in armed conflict including combat roles at 1000,000. Countries like Burundi, Chad, Sierra Leone, Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda, Somalia, Uganda, and Zimbabwe.
In Asia and the Middle East in 2004, the coalition to stop the use of child soldiers (CSUCS) reported that thousands of children involved in fighting forces in active conflict and ceasefire situations in Afghanistan, Burma, Indonesia, Nepal and Sri Lanka, although government refusal of access to conflict zones has made it difficult to document the numbers involved.
In Europe and Britain, child soldiers are experienced as refugees and asylum seekers. This means that their debilitating situations are not very well known to the society and as such are not being addressed when they seek support and assistance in their emotional wellbeing, education and welfare.
Most children in armies come from conditions of poverty; they would have been recruited in area where there were high levels of illiteracy amongst their families and violence. Children respond to stress of armed conflict with increased anxiety, development delay, withdrawn behaviour, learning difficulties and aggressive behaviour.
It is critical that their issues are taken on board for effective planning and service delivery purposes.
Conference therefore calls on the National Black Members Committee to:
Work with the International Committee and Migrant Workers Groups/Campaigners to fact find the extent of child soldiers and their experiences in Britain.
Collaborate with other key agencies in this work, including sending a delegate to areas affected, gathering information on these important issues.
Report back to conference 2013 giving a detailed summary of the level of the problems and suggested interventions to help support these initiatives.