The problem of child soldiers: listening to young combatants in East Asia

One in four of the world’s estimated 300 000 child soldiers are currently serving in the East Asia and Pacific region. What is the family background of children involved with armed groups? How did they become child soldiers? What are their thoughts about the future? How could demobilisation, vocational training and psycho-social care programmes help them reintegrate?

A UNICEF report based on interviews with 69 current and former child combatants in six Asian states and Papua New Guinea provides a qualitative evaluation of the problem of child soldiers in the region. Distressing accounts from children abducted or recruited as combatants, messengers, porters, spies or sex slaves provide powerful evidence that the international community must do more to prevent children trading their childhood for a uniform and a gun.

The children and young people interviewed for the study reported numerous abuses, including brutal training regimens, hard labour and severe punishments while serving in armed groups. Some said they had been forced to witness or commit atrocities, including rape and murder, while others spoke of seeing friends and family killed.

The 1990 UN Convention on the Rights of the Child sets 15 as the minimum age for military recruitment. An Optional Protocol to the CRC which entered into force in February 2002 outlaws involvement of combatants under the age of 18. To date, however, the only countries in the region which have signed up to the Protocol are the Philippines and Vietnam.

UNICEF reports that:

• The average recruitment age of those interviewed was 13 – the youngest started fighting aged seven.
• 58 per cent of the children said that they had joined up ‘voluntarily’; only 23 per cent reported physical coercion.
• Many children fleeing hunger, physical and/or sexual abuse or collapse of their community spoke of finding refuge and support in armed groups.
• The majority of situations where children were recruited as soldiers are conflicts associated with ethnic or religious differences.
• Social and cultural pressures, and family expectations, often drive children to take up arms in defence of a way of life perceived as under attack.
• Parents or leaders often ‘volunteer’ children to serve in armed groups, especially where conflicts span generations and are based on an ethnic minority’s struggle for survival.

Children are plagued by bad dreams and nightmares, both during their period of service and on return to civilian life. They spoke of a persistent fear of death, memories of killing, rape and torture. Other long-term effects include difficulty in controlling anger, alcohol or drug addiction and problems concentrating in school. Many lack self-esteem, hating the violent person they have become.

Critical of the fact that little is being done in the region to address the psycho-social needs of children in post-conflict situations, UNICEF calls for much greater investment in disarmament and demobilisation programmes. It also recommends:

• ratification of the Optional Protocol on Involvement of Children in Armed Conflict and other legal instruments relevant to the protection of children in armed conflict
• ensuring that national legislation is compatible with international standards
• providing child rights, child protection and gender training for army personnel and non-state actors
• identifying and promoting alternative non-violent ways for boys and girls to contribute meaningfully to communities
• developing prevention strategies to reduce the factors that make children vulnerable to ‘voluntary’ recruitment
• ensuring participation of children affected by armed conflict in all research, advocacy and programme planning activities.

Source(s):
‘Adult wars, child soldiers: voices of children involved in armed conflict in the East Asia and Pacific region’, UNICEF, 2001 Full document.

Funded by: UNICEF

id21 Research Highlight: 1 July 2003

Further Information:
Regional Communications Officer
UNICEF EAPRO
P.O. Box 2-154
Bangkok 10200
Thailand

Tel: +66 2 356 9407
Fax: + 66 2 280 3563
Contact the contributor: eapro@unicef.org

UNICEF

Other related links:
'Small arms in the wrong hands. Development, conflict and Britain's arms trade'

UNICEF focuses on Children in War

UNDP features Small Arms and Disarmament

See also the UN Peace and Security through Disarmament section on Small Arms

Refer to the Watchlist on Children and Armed Conflict

More from UNDP Small Arms and Demobilisation Publications

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