Reintegration of child soldiers
Child recruitment in South Asian conflicts: Bangladesh
Reducing children’s vulnerability to recruitment as child soldiers
Authors:
Publisher:
Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers, 2007
What drives the use of children as soldiers in conflicts, and what do we know about reducing their vulnerability to recruitment? This document presents information, lessons learned and recommendations on children’s situation in Bangladesh from the report: Child Recruitment in South Asia: A Comparative Analysis of Sri Lanka, Nepal and Bangladesh.
The report describes the current areas of unrest in Bangladesh and the social and economic sources of disaffection. It presents evidence on the conditions that could make children vulnerable to recruitment, should conflict develop. These include poverty, child labour and unemployment, a lack of access to education, food insecurity, abuse by authorities, domestic violence, displacement into refugee camps, homelessness, the rise of militant Islamic elements, discrimination, inequality and exclusion.
Based on these findings, the authors recommend that the government of Bangladesh should:
- act to address poverty, discrimination, the use of child labour and exposure to abuse, including sexual abuse
- develop policy and programmes for groups already identified as vulnerable to recruitment, especially slum and street children, internally displaced children in the Chittagong Hill Tracts, and children from the Rohingya refugee communities
- provide protection and rehabilitation for demobilised child soldiers
- monitor the recruitment and use of children by radical elements and criminal gangs
- ensure access to primary and secondary state education for all children, including those from marginalised communities such as the children of sex workers, internally displaced persons and refugees
- ensure that the arrest, detention or imprisonment of a child is in conformity with the law and is used only as a measure of last resort and for the shortest appropriate time
- legislate to guarantee the prosecution of persons responsible for recruitment of children under the legally permitted age and/or the use of children in military activities.
