News
News from around the world relating to child soldiers. Child Soldiers International provides this information as a service but does not necessarily agree with the views expressed in material referenced here.
January 2012
Daily Mail: Britain's boy soldier 2
New Internationalist: From child soldier to civilian - a tough transition in Colombia
IRIN: In-depth: Child Soldiers
Voice of America: US calls for Burma military to account for human trafficking
Sudan Vision: Child soldiers in Sudan...increasing numbers
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New Director of Child Soldiers International - Richard Clarke
12 December 2011
Child Soldiers International is pleased to announce the appointment of Richard Clarke as the organization's new Director. Richard has worked for the UK Audit Commission and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, where he held a number of posts including British High Commissioner to Tanzania and Head of Policy Planning. Richard has experience of working on conflict issues and finding solutions to human rights abuses. In addition, he brings many years of experience of strategic planning, organizational development and fundraising. Richard will build on past achievements, implement the Strategic Plan, and lead Child Soldiers International through its next stage of growth and development. Richard will take up his post on 9 January 2012.
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December 2011
MPS CRITICISE MINISTRY OF DEFENCE FOR CONTINUING TO SEND CHILDREN TO WAR
- Ministry of Defence criticised for lowering standards since WW1
- Despite thousands of planned redundancies, MoD still recruiting children at twice the cost of adults
MPs are expected to criticise the Ministry of Defence for sending underage soldiers to war in a special debate in the House of Commons today (Thursday 10 November). On Monday 7 November, the Ministry of Defence rejected fresh calls to review its policy on deploying underage soldiers, despite recently admitting that it had sent four soldiers aged below 18 to Iraq and Afghanistan between 2008 and 2010.
Fabian Hamilton MP (Labour) said, “On the eve of Remembrance Day, it is remarkable and tragic that the Ministry of Defence insists on recruiting and deploying teenagers who would have been ruled out as too young to join the British forces even in the most desperate hours of the First World War. It is unacceptable that standards are lower now than they were a century ago.
Throughout the First World War the official minimum age for enlistment or conscription was 18 years, and 19 was the minimum age to be sent to the frontline.
The UK now recruits the youngest soldiers in Europe, with a minimum recruitment age of just 16 years. Despite a general policy not to send soldiers into war until they are 18, the Ministry of Defence has always reserved the power to deploy younger recruits in certain circumstances. The United Nations has called for this policy to be reviewed. When challenged by MPs on Monday, the Under Secretary of State for Defence Personnel Andrew Robathan insisted that he “saw no need” to prohibit the use of underage British soldiers. International law prohibits the deliberate use of soldiers aged below 18 in hostilities.
Despite plans to make 11,000 armed forces personnel redundant in order to save money, the Ministry of Defence recruited another 2,760 minors last year. In response to questioning from MPs, the Ministry of Defence recently admitted that minors are almost twice as expensive to train as adult recruits.This new revelation indicates that annual wasted expenditure on the large number of minors who drop out of training is even higher than the £46 million previously estimated.
The Ministry of Defence is under growing pressure from Parliament concerning its policy on minors (under-18s). Former Navy Minister Lord Judd (Labour) was among those expressing concerns about high suicide rates and the poor educational provision for minors in the armed forces during recent House of Lords debate on the Armed Forces Covenant. The recruitment of minors was raised repeatedly during parliamentary debate on the Armed Forces Bill over the summer and in the past few weeks the Ministry of Defence has been challenged by MPs on a range of related issues from underage deployment to the lack of age limits on training with live ammunition.
Children's rights groups including Child Soldiers International, UNICEF UK, the Children's Society, the Children's Rights Alliance for England, and Children in Scotland are campaigning for the Ministry of Defence to raise the armed forces’ recruitment age to 18, in line with standard international practice.
"The Ministry of Defence justifies recruiting minors by claiming they won't be deployed until they reach 18. In reality that's not always true but even if it was, at a time of redundancies and frontline manning shortages, you have to question the logic of deliberately recruiting large numbers of children who are too young to go to war", said Martin Macpherson, interim Director of Child Soldiers International.
"As long as the Ministry of Defence continues to target minors for recruitment, they will continue to be at risk of unlawful deployment", he concluded
November 2011
UN News: Somalia's leaders commit to UN process to end recruitment of child soldiers
Global Post: Thailand's hidden child soldiers
UN News: UN envoy sees momentum on releasing child soldiers in Central African Republic
Sudan Tribune: South Sudan army release 53 child soldiers
New York Times: A rebel speaks
St Pauls: Remembrance Day poppy installation
October 2011
OpEd News: National interest vs child soldiers
IOL News: Child soldiers criss-cross Sirte battlefield
The Sun: Brit child troops sent to war zones
Open Democracy: Child soldiers, child wives: wounded for life
Human Rights Watch: US: Don't finance child soldiers
UN News Centre: Darfurian armed group makes commitment to UN to stop using child soldiers
AlertNet: France pushes sanctions to end use of child soldiers
September 2011
Guardian: A dilemna for Burundi's war verterans: peace and poverty or return to arms?
DW-World.de: UN wants special legal process for child soldiers
UN News Centre: Number of States joining UN-backed initiative to end use of child soldiers hits 100
Press TV: UK employs US army recruiting tactics (13.35 minutes in)
The Irrawaddy: Burma: we have no child soldiers - but Ethnics do
SOS Children's Villages: Uncertainty remains over prosecuting child soldiers for war crimes
Vanguard: Army stops recruitment of 'child soldiers'
International Businees Times: UN Report: Use of child soldiers still widespread in 2010/2011
August 2011
Reuters: ICC's landmark debut trial concludes after two years
The Lubanga Trial: The ICC's first trial: Milestones mixed with near disasters
Insight: 2011 sees over 300 child soldiers demobilized in Colombia
ISN: The forgotten girl soldier
July 2011
New Yorker: Meet Mexico's child assasins
AHN: Somalia denies recruiting child soldiers
Myanmar Times: Child soldier complaints on the rise, says ILO
SOS Children's Villages: Child soldiers still a protection challenge in Central African Republic
IRIN: Yemen: Conflict generating more child soldiers
AsiaOne: Somali children recruited for combat by Islamists
WorldTribune.com: The targeting of children in 21st Century warfare
The Irrawaddy: Child Soldier Complaints on the Rise in Burma
The Times of India: UN adopts resolution against recruiting child soldiers
Guardian: Britain's own child soldiers
Bemba Trial: Q&A with ICC Deputy Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda
June 2011
ABS-CBNnews.com: 3 'NPA child soldiers' captured in Surigao
UPI.com: HRW irked by Child soldiers and US aid
UN News Centre: Demobilized Chadian child soldiers will need help with reintegration
UN News Centre: UN envoy hails Chad's action plan to end use of child soldiers
OpenDemocracy: Beating the retreat - how much longer for Britian's child soldiers?
AlertNet: Philippines child soldiers bill faces hurdles
AlertNet: Philippines approves bill against use of children in conflict
May 2011
The National: UN berates Yemeni rebels for recruiting child soldiers
Bemba Trial: Witness says Bemba's group used child soldiers
The Irrawaddy: Burmese army still recruits children
VoA News: Child soldiers return to Congolese wars
India Today: Naxals increasingly using child soldiers to swell its ranks
Coalition welcomes Ministry of Defence initiative on discharge for under-18s.
The Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers welcomes the announcement by the Minister for Defence Personnel, Welfare and Veterans that secondary legislation will shortly be introduced granting young armed forces recruits an ongoing right of discharge up until the age of 18 years. The reform was announced in the Government's response to the Select Committee on Armed Forces Bill Special Report on 19 May 2011.
The Coalition believes this new measure will create a much fairer system, end confusion, and provide an essential lawful route for unhappy young recruits to leave the armed forces. We welcome this initiative by the Ministry of Defence, which regonizes the need to provide special legal protection to minors. It is also an important step towards implementing recommendations of the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child regarding the UK's compliance with the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the involvement of children in armed conflict.
The Coalition also welcomes the recommendations made by Parliament's Joint Committee on Human Rights in its review of the Armed Forces Bill, published on 17 May 2011. Amongst its recommendations the Committee called for the minimum period of service for young Army recruits to be reduced, to end the current unfair disparity between adults and minors. The Committee also recommended Parliament use the Armed Forces Bill as an opportunity to reassess the use of under-18s in the armed forces. In this respect, the Coalition believed that the Armed Forces Bill offers an ideal opportunity to raise the UK's minimum recruitment age to 18 years, in line with recommendations of the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child and the practice of the majority of states worldwide.
April 2011
VOANews:Aid workers say child soldiers involved in escalating Somali violence
Scotsman: Gaddafi's new force of child soldiers revealed
Lubanga Trial: Two witnesses testify for defense
Human Rights Watch: Yemen: Stop using children in armed forces
The Australian: Pressure on Sri Lanka for war crimes probe
Lubanga Trial: Bosco Ntaganda Secretary Testifies
Lubanga Trial: Use of child soldiers against Mr. Lubanga's values
New York Times: Filipino rebels agree to stop using child soldiers
The Canadian Press: Philippine Muslim rebels discuss with UN how to wean their child soldiers from war
Lubanga Trial: Witness insists Thomas Lubanga was not a military leader
Lubanga Trial: UPC had no military objectives, witness states
March 2011
UK: High drop-out rate and imprisonment of teenage soldiers calls MoD policy into question
Channel 4 News: Ivory Coast; Cocoa and child soldiers fuel warring factions
Lubanga Trial: Trial resumes with testimony that Lubanga ordered demobilization of child soldiers
Sify News: Iran using child soldiers to fight protesters
SOS Children's Villages: Trial of Charles Taylor concludes in The Hague
The Guardian: Britain's child soldiers
Canadian Press: UN says reports of child soldiers being recruited in Libya
Reuters: Taylor war crimes trial is politically biased says defence
Read the Coalition and JPF's joint report on children's association with village defence militias in southern Thailand. A press statement is also available here.
Departure of Director and appointment of Interim Director
16 March 2011
The Coalition’s board of trustees regretfully announces the departure of Victoria Forbes Adam from her post as director. Victoria brought considerable representational skills, human rights knowledge, country expertise and political judgement to the post which she occupied from 2006. In addition to ensuring funding for the organization and leading its program work, Victoria coordinated the research and production of two editions of the Coalition’s flagship publication, the Child Soldiers Global Report and – from 2008 – supported an exciting period of review, growth and development within the organization. Victoria will continue to work with the Coalition as a part time consultant until the end of June 2011, acting as an ambassador and fundraiser for the organization.
The post will be taken up by Martin Macpherson who has agreed to serve as Interim Director until March 2012. Martin is a founder member of the Coalition and a member of its governing body since its creation in 1998, serving as Chair for some of that time. He has been a longstanding advocate for child soldiers and was involved in the drafting of and negotiations for the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the involvement of children in armed conflict. As Head of Amnesty International’s International Law and Organizations Program over a number of years, Martin has additionally been a source of indispensable management support and substantive expertise to successive Coalition directors and staff. The trustees and staff are delighted to welcome him to the post.
February 2011
Lubanga Trial: Trial to resume after judges reject defense call for dismissal
BBC News: 'Boy Soldiers' artwork shown outside Parliament
UN News Centre: Use of child soldiers in Chad is an ongoing problem
BBC: Trial of Charles Taylor put on hold
Deutsche Welle: Prosecution urges court to convict Charles Taylor
Reuters: War crimes dismisses Taylor's claims of bias over cables
New York Times: Afghan plans to stop recruiting children as police
January 2011
Reuters: Charles Taylor lawyers to use US cable in court challenge
New York Times blog: An insider's portrait of Joseph Kony
December 2010
The Nation: 3,000 child soldiers withdrawn from ANA
M&C: Germany charges Rwandans over Congolese actrocities
Bloomberg: Former Congolese rebels mobilizing new recruits, child soldiers
UPI: London praises sanctions on Congo warlords
AllAfrica.com: Prosecutor argues investigator's notes not subject to disclosure
Bloomberg: UN imposes sanctions on Congolese official over child soldiers
Lubanga Trial: Witness testifies in closed session
November 2010
Lubanga Trial: Investigator and child soldier deny charges of falsifying evidence
The Times of India: UN to probe charges of Maoists still keeping child soldiers
Lubanga Trial: Defense concludes examination of investigator, child soldier testifies
SOS: Child soldiers meet UK minister
New York Times: For ICC frustration and missteps in first trial
Lubanga Trial: Defense examines reliability of Intermediary 316
CBN News: Child soldiers waiver angers human rights groups
PBS News Hour: (Video) In Uganda former childs soldiers struggle to overcome horrors of war
Play the Game: Mathare youth wins global peacekeeping award
The Stylus: Students rally to end the use of child soldiers
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