User:Sdmoreno/sandbox

Hello! I am working on updating and expanding upon the Child Soldiers in Africa wikipedia page with some of my classmates. For full disclosure, their wikipedia usernames are Dimvasilk, Yalmazan, and Kekeo1121. In the coming days we were hoping to slowly add to it, but for now, here is a rough outline of how we were planning to structure the page:
 * Child Soldiers in Africa
 * Statistical Overview (If available)
 * Regions of concentration/Environmental factors
 * Trends in gender/age
 * Historical Overview
 * Pre-Colonial times
 * Colonial/Imperialist warfare
 * Modern history by country - List in alphabetical order: https://www.countries-ofthe-world.com/countries-of-africa.html
 * Algeria - Cote d’Ivoire →
 * Djibouti - Liberia →
 * Libya - Senegal →
 * Seychelles - Zimbabwe →
 * Legality
 * Past
 * Present
 * Advocacy work for future
 * Treatment of child soldiers post-conflict
 * Restorative vs. Retributive justice
 * Psychological impact
 * Reintegration efforts
 * Personal Accounts
 * Effects of media
 * Role of international actors in prevalence of children in the military
 * Divide by geographic region/time?

= First Draft of Child Soldiers in Africa =

Child Soldiers in Africa refers to the military use of children under the age of 18 by African nations’ armed forces, or other armed groups within African states. Typically, this classification includes children serving in non-combatant roles (such as cooks or messengers), as well as those in combatant roles. African nations compose 7 of the 14 countries where state forces or other groups are currently listed as recruiting child soldiers. In 2008, it was estimated that 40 percent of child soldiers worldwide were in Africa, and their use in armed conflict was increasing faster than any other continent; the age of children recruited was also decreasing.

Gettleman suggests that the concentration of child soldiers in Africa is due to the shift among armed groups from being ideal-oriented economically-driven. According to him, children are recruited into these groups because they will ask fewer questions and are more vulnerable to the direction of the leadership. Issues related to child soldiers in Africa are linked not only to instability within each nation, but interstate dynamics, business interests, western governments, and arms manufacturers, which each had a role to play in many of the conflicts.

Regions of Concentration and Risk Factors
Exact data on the number of child soldiers in Africa is not known due to the challenge of determining age without birth certificates and inaccessibility of certain regions. There were an estimated 250,000 child soldiers serving in armies around the world in 2007. About 35,500 were accounted for by North Sudan/Darfur, South Sudan, CAR and Nigeria. Overall, incidences of child soldiers appear to be concentrated within central Africa. Risk factors for child soldiers include being separated from family or their home and being in an area of conflict. Another prevalent issue in the African continent is the high number of unregistered births, which makes it difficult to estimate the number of child soldiers in certain countries.

Definitions
The Convention on the Rights of the Child defines a child as any person under the age of 18. The Paris Principles, which have been approved by the United Nations General Assembly, define a child associated with an armed force or group as:"'...any person below 18 years of age who is or who has been recruited or used by an armed force or armed group in any capacity, including but not limited to children, boys and girls, used as fighters, cooks, porters, messengers, spies or for sexual purposes. It does not only refer to a child who is taking or has taken a direct part in hostilities.'"

Obligations
All African states are bound by the Convention on the Rights of the Child, which requires the state to "take all feasible measures to ensure that persons who have not attained the age of 15 years do not take a direct part in hostilities". Most African states are also bound by the higher standards of the Optional protocol on the involvement of children in armed conflict, which requires governments to "take all feasible measures to ensure that persons below the age of 18 do not take a direct part in hostilities and that they are not compulsorily recruited into their armed forces".

Trends
While the majority of African states have set the minimum age of recruitment at 18 and others are actively considering the same, in countries that have had a history of child soldiers, such as Angola, the government has pushed to lower the minimum age to 17. Such cases are legal given that the international law sets the minimum age at 15. Given the age which international law has set, countries like Burundi and Rwanda do have their minimum age of recruitment set at 15. Additionally, in times of war and need, Mozambique reserves the right to lower their minimum age of conscription below 18.

Algeria
Children and youth have been involved in the violence in Algeria, participating armed groups with and without links to the Algerian government. The establishment of Legitimate Defense Groups in 1997 furthered the use of child soldiers, since these groups are not required to report on their activity, and the government has little control over them.

Angola
Though the government of Angola denies the use of child soldiers, NGOs confirm that child soldiers are involved in both state forces and the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA), and later on in the Front for the Liberation of the Cabinda Enclave. The practice of rusgas, forcible recruitment of youth, was being practiced well into the 90s. The government estimated in 2003 that 10% of the armed fighters had been under 18; however it is suspected that the number is much higher. Child refugees in Namibia are believed to have been recruited to serve in the civil war. As of March 2004, an estimated 16,000 child soldiers needed to be demobilized in Angola, though the civil war technically ended in April 2002. Child soldiers in Angola were excluded from assistance in demobilizing because the government did not classify them as soldiers. Those who had been child soldiers during the war were excused from compulsory military service but could still serve on a voluntary basis; indeed, some children who had come of age while in the armed forces chose to stay in the military.

Benin
There is no evidence of the enlistment of child soldiers in Benin.

Botswana
There is no evidence of the enlistment of child soldiers in Botswana; however there is not a formal age qualification for service.

Burkina Faso
Child refugees in Burkina Faso have reportedly been recruited by armed groups in Sierra Leone and Liberia in the early 2000’s. However, there is no evidence of child soldier recruitment by armed groups within Burkina Faso.

Burundi
Children as young as 8 years old are regularly recruited into Burundi’s army, typically to serve as doria. Those that were not recruited to be doria joined the Peace Guards, a government militia unit, or worse, risked being coerced or bribed to be informants for the opposition. Furthermore, 94 percent of child soldiers were not paid for their service. Recruitment of child soldiers escalated during peace processes as armed groups tried to strengthen themselves prior to negotiations. Children from Burundi were also recruited to fight in the conflict within the Democratic Republic of Congo. When detained, children suspected of being involved with armed groups may be tortured and held for long periods of time.

Cape Verde
There is no evidence concerning child soldiers in Cape Verde. The Coalition to stop the Use of Child Soldiers points out that the high number of unregistered births may be a challenge in determining the use of child soldiers in Cape Verde.

Cameroon
Though there is no evidence of the use of child soldiers in Cameroon, the country is home to refugees from neighboring war-torn countries such as Chad and Central African Republic, where many child refugees and former child soldiers have received social services from NGOs. There have been unconfirmed reports of kidnappings by armed groups in neighboring countries to recruit child soldiers. Furthermore, the high number of refugees meant that some births were not accompanied by legal records, further exacerbating concerns about trafficking of unregistered children for the sake of army recruitment.

Central African Republic (CAR)
As many as 10,000 children were used by armed groups in the armed conflict in the Central African Republic (CAR) between 2012 and 2015, and as of 2016 the problem persists natiowide. The mainly Muslim “Séléka” coalition of armed groups and the predominantly Christian, "Anti-Balaka" militias have both used children in this way; some are as young as eight.

Several high-profile cases of child soldier recruitment into government forces occurred, which contradicted governmental claims of no child soldier recruitment. These child soldiers, though few in number, sometimes attained higher ranks after their service, but were accused of perpetrating human rights abuses and looting.

Although the majority of child soldiers in CAR have been demobilized as a result of the peace process, many remain involved with armed groups; poor access to education and jobs leave children with few alternatives to being soldiers.

In 2016, a measure of stability returned to CAR and, according to the United Nations, 2,691 boys and 1,206 girls were officially separated from armed groups. Despite this, the recruitment and use of children for military purposes increased by approximately 50 per cent, mostly attributed to the Lord's Resistance Army.

The UN estimated in 2014 that up to 6,000 children were involved in the ongoing conflict, with all parties to the conflict recruiting children.

Chad
Governmental turmoil for the past several decades has further increased Chad’s susceptibility to armed conflict, reducing the population of war-ready individuals. As a result, children have been used as soldiers within Chadian forces as well as other armed groups both within Chad and neighboring Sudan. Since 2007, more than 800 children have been demobilized in Chad. By 2017, Chad was considered by the United Nations to have put in place the necessary framework to end the use of child soldiers.

Comoros
There was no large-scale recruitment of child soldiers except for in one isolated conflict.

Democratic Republic of the Congo
From 1996 the former president Laurent Kabila used children widely for military purposes. During the first and second civil conflicts which took place in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), all sides involved in the war actively recruited or conscripted child soldiers, known locally as kadogos, a Swahili term meaning "little ones".

The Democratic Republic of the Congo witnessed many human rights violations from all sides in the conflict. Even after demobilization efforts had begun to take place, the efforts were not taken seriously and the groups continued to utilize child combatants in addition to the violations perpetrated against women and girls including violence and trafficking.

The use of child soldiers in the Democratic Republic of Congo has been described as "endemic" by United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO), and in 2011 it was estimated that there were 30,000 children currently being used in combat.

In 2011 it was estimated that 30,000 children were still operating with armed groups in the country.

Republic of Congo
Child soldiers were used in both government and Ninja militia forces and were recruited, according to some sources, with bribes. The Ninjas, a branch of Ninja militia actively recruited child soldiers. By early 2004, 2,000 child soldiers that had been involved with the Ninja militia had registered for demobilization.

Cote d'Ivoire
Armed groups in Sierra Leone and Liberia reportedly recruited child refugees in Cote d’Ivoire in the early 2000s. Civil war erupted in late 2002, and both governmental and non-governmental forces recruited child soldiers. Apart from recruitment into child combat, children were also sexually trafficked.

Djibouti
The incidence of child soldiers in Djibouti in modern history was reported by Stolwijk and Horeman to be tied to the Front for the Restoration of Unity and Democracy (FRUD), formed in 1991. This group signed a peace treaty with the government in 2001, though violence briefly resurged in 2014.

Egypt
Data suggests that child soldiers are not currently employed in Egypt; however it has been noted that they are utilized to conduct terror attacks.

Equatorial Guinea
Data suggests that child soldiers are not currently employed in Equatorial Guinea, as there is no ongoing conflict in that state.

Eritrea
Though Eritrea has been known to use child soldiers in the past, it is unclear whether child soldiers are currently being used by the country’s armed forces. This is especially hard to track given inconsistent and incomplete birth records.

Ethiopia
There is conflicting data on recent instances of child soldiers in Ethiopia. Though the government claims that it it actively working against the employment of child soldiers by the army--even turning away underage recruits-- there is some evidence that child soldiers were being forcibly recruited in the late 90’s.

Gabon
Data offers no evidence of child soldiers in Gabon.

Gambia
There were no reports of child soldiers in Gambia.

Ghana
Data suggests that child soldiers are not currently employed in Ghana, as there is no armed conflict there.

Guinea
By early 2004, there remained approximately 2,000 child soldiers in Guinea that needed to be demobilized. Neighboring countries of Liberia and Sierra Leone pose a threat to the safety of refugees and civilians in Guinea, particularly children, while their conflicts were underway. In the early 2000’s, armed groups in these countries reportedly recruited child refugees staying in Guinea.

Guinea-Bissau
Child soldiers are believed to have been involved in Guinea-Bissau’s armed conflict up until it ended in 2002. Though some concerns about young recruits have arisen among governmental and non-governmental forces, the number of child soldiers in Guinea Bissau currently appears to be quite low, despite the state’s previous armed conflicts.

Kenya
There is no evidence of child soldiers employed in Kenya’s armed forces or in other armed groups.

Lesotho
There is no evidence of child soldiers employed in Kenya’s armed forces or in other armed groups.

Liberia
Liberian forces utilized child soldiers extensively. The Small Boy’s unit formed an integral part of Liberian rebel forces in both Liberia and Sierra Leone’s civil wars; the unit was first designated by Charles Taylor. The boys were not provided with sustenance-- they were expected to engage in “snake patrol,” looting surrounding villages. Taylor and others were later tried before the Special Court for Sierra Leone because of his involvement in recruiting child soldiers, and the prevalence of child soldiers declined soon after he went out of power. Soldiers were frequently given valium before a battle, known as “bubbles” or “10-10.” Lack of reintegration resources prompted child soldiers in Liberia to enroll in other armed groups, seeking some form of employment. By early 2004, about 21,000 child soldiers still needed to be demobilized.

Libya
It is obligatory to serve in the armed forces once each citizen reaches 18 years of age. However, children receive military training from the age of 14.

Madagascar
Madagascar reports no requirement for children under 18 to serve in their armed forces.

Malawi
There is no use of child soldiers in Malawi. The minimum age to enter armed forces, military school, or training camps is 18.

Mali
While there is no evidence of children being recruited to the armed forces. The minimum age of entry to a military school is 12 years of age.

Mauritanie
There is left over tension from conflict with Senegal in 1989 and in 1991, Article 18(1) of the Constitution went into effect, stating that every citizen has the responsibility to protect their country. Thus, citizens are allowed to voluntarily join the armed forces at the age of 16.

Seychelles
As of 1998, there has been no evidence of militarization of children in Seychelles. Military service is performed on a voluntary basis, and can only be performed when one has fulfilled one year of National Youth Service, after reaching the age of 16.

Sierra Leone
Main Article: Child Soldiers in Sierra Leone

Existing evidence indicates that children have been viewed by military commanders as more trusting than adults, due to the fact that they are less likely to break rules; and they are also more likely to show bravery and commitment to military conduct–including principles such as sexual abstinence and refraining from using drugs.

Common use of children in warfare was common for a period of time during the Sierra Leone Civil War; though sociopolitical circumstances in Sierra Leone have improved to an extent, and policies have improved in subsequence. In 1998, children under the age of 18 were not allowed to be recruited. In the case of Kamajor culture, becoming a soldier was also seen as part of one's initiation into adulthood; and the Kamajors would also provide shelter and food for children who were able to survive and escape from attacks by the Revolutionary United Front.

Somalia
Main Article: Child soldiers in Somalia

The Convention of the Rights of the Child was signed by the Somalian government in October 2015, affirming efforts to formally protect the rights of children to keep them from entering the war zone. In the past, children have been incentivized through promises for monetary provisions to be given to their families, or promises to future education.

South Africa
In the past, children in South Africa have been incentivized to fight for things such as social justice, identity, and vengeance. Current laws dictate that individuals cannot be deployed into combat before they are of 18 years of age; though there may be exceptions in the case of an "emergency."

Sudan
As of January 2017, an estimated number of 335 children were reported to have been recruited amidst the affairs of the current ongoing conflict in (North) Sudan within the last five years.

Children have been used in the military for decades in Sudan. Many of these children are grateful for being taken into the military, for it provided them with protection and the opportunity to protect or avenge those close to them.

In 2015, it was that 15,000 to 16,000 children may have been involved in the South Sudanese Civil War–which is currently still ongoing. Daniel Bekele, Africa director at Human Rights Watch, observed that many people find that "there is no cost to [the] crime" of sending out children onto the battlefield, and that many commanders have never been held accountable for the crime of leading thousands of children within their military troops.

Swaziland
There is no existing literature on child soldiers in Swaziland. The minimum age for military recruitment is 18 years old.

Tanzania
There is no existing literature on child soldiers in Tanzania. Government jobs, higher education and vocational training schools–however, require military service from individuals.

Togo
There is no existing literature on child soldiers in Togo. There seem to be laws protecting children under the pretense that there is a minimum age requirement for military service in Togo (some sources say 18 years of age, some sources say 20 years of age).

Tunisia
There is no existing literature on child soldiers in Tunisia. Current laws seem to protect the recruitment of children for military service.

Uganda
Ugandans have a history of having militarized children in the historical context of the Lord's Resistance Movement, dating back to a little over a century ago. In the midst of the affairs of the LRA, children made up about 90% of the LRA's military forces, and were forced to perform atrocities on family members, Ugandan villages and towns. Negotiations on the possibility of coexistence between the LRA and the Ugandan government have occurred in recent times, but little has changed in regards to the situation that is highly dependent on children who are actively in military service.

Current laws seem to protect children from engaging in activities that would be detrimental to their education or health in any regards; but there also exists laws that provide a loophole for those laws, that give parents the ability to give consent for their child to be recruited for military service.

Zambia
There is no existing literature on child soldiers in Zambia, though laws provide a way for entities to recruit children for military purposes provided that consent is given by their parents.

Zimbabwe
There is no existing literature on child soldiers in Zimbabwe; and there is no formal evidence of underaged recruitment in the past in Zimbabwe.

Treatment of child soldiers post-conflict
Many efforts are focused on mitigating the deprived situations of war-zoned areas–where children are more likely to be sent into battle–and work towar providing food, water, medicine and construction materials. However, the concept of psychological trauma in people who performed military service as children is a topic that has only recently garnered attention–and socialization has been a concept that has been emphasized in recent inquiries as well. In regards to the possible ways in which the militarization of children can be dealt with, socio-political circumstances hold much potential for accountability.

The Human Rights Watch has lobbied for the rehabilitation of child soldiers worldwide, with–over time–much success efforts related to changes in policy. However, it stands to be the case that there are still organizations that deploy children for military purposes–most of whom fall under radar.

Restorative vs. Retributive justice
Retributive justice is characterized usually by the imprisonment of criminal offenders for the sake of preventing future offenses from occurring. Retributive justice is more typically exemplifying of the traditional justice system, where criminals are punished based on an "eye for an eye" principle, and where imprisonment and/or punishment that is equivalent to the crime committed is imposed on the offender.

In contrast, restorative justice aims to rehabilitate individuals–and is more characteristic of the enlightenment period, where all available knowledge can be used to create an etiological account of why a criminal offense occurred. In the case of militarized children, the identification of the most effective way to prevent future offenses from occurring involves identifying and examining all people and other influential factors involved in the murder of other people. In most cases, restorative justice efforts involve the displacement of blame from individuals onto the conditions that forced them to enter into combat (e.g., environments where the lives of family and friends are constantly at-risk of death), and are carried out with the objective of reintegration into a local community.

Both kinds of practices are oriented towards the future well-being of people–but the main difference lies in the accountability of war crimes, in which minority-aged soldiers may be held fully or partially accountable and imprisoned, or deemed as innocent through the personalization of crimes.

Psychological impact
War-affected children have been deemed as more at-risk of suffering from trauma and other mental health consequences; but child soldiers–children who were militarized in an armed conflict–in specific, seem to show more potential for negative psychological consequences. Observed psychological consequences have included major depression, suicidal thoughts, distress, anxiety. Studies have identified these specific consequences as a result of–or coincidental with–the reoccurrence of nightmares, perpetual sadness, and/or constant anxiety.

Changes in personality, changes in physical appearance, and changes in mentality–are also among the potential consequences of being forced to become a soldier as a child; often times, it is an inherent part of the initiation process into becoming a soldier.

Reintegration efforts
There are many problems that have arisen in past-to-present efforts of reintegration. Individuals sometimes pretend to be ex-combatants for the purpose of benefiting from assistance programs; screenings which test practical military skills are conducted to mitigate this potential. Individuals who entered into combat when they children often times do not remember much from before they were soldiers–hindering efforts to reunite families. Problems such as these are compounded by difficulties in identifying strategies for meeting both immediate and long-term needs of ex-combatants; and especially by the limitation of resources and access to education, which is doubly compounded by political instability and in many (African) countries.

Role of International Actors
The role of international actors has been crucial in protecting children from recruitment into armed forces. The Additional Protocols to the four Geneva Conventions of 1949, added in 1977, state that 15 is the minimum age for serving in armed forces. In 1989 the United Nations passed the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC). Article 38 states that "state parties shall take all feasible measures to ensure that persons who have not attained the age of 15 years do not take a direct part in hostilities." In 1999 the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child came into force-- the only regional treaty that addresses the issue of child soldiers. Children are defined as anyone below 18 years of age according to the charter.

The UN Security Council, specifically, has identified the recruitment or use of child soldiers as one of the council’s “six grave violations.” It has passed several resolutions regarding the use of child soldiers: 1261 (1999), 1314 (2000), 1379 (2001), 1460 (2003), 1539 (2004), 1612 (2005), 1882 (2009), 1998 (2011) and 2225 (2015). In 2002 the Optional Protocol on the Involvement of Children in Armed Conflict came into force which stipulates that state actors, "shall take all feasible measures to ensure that persons below the age of 18 do not take a direct part in hostilities and that they are not compulsorily recruited into their armed forces". Most African states have now ratified the Optional Protocol.

Also by 2004, Africa had become the first continent where recruiters of child soldiers faced the consequences of international law with indictments from the Special Court of Sierra Leone, and investigations into child soldier recruitment in Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo under the Rome Statute.

The United Nations launched a campaign in 2014 called “Children, Not Soldiers” to emphasize that children should not be involved in armed conflicts. This campaign was launched in 8 countries of concern, 5 of which were African nations: Chad, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Somalia, South Sudan, and Sudan. The campaign was considered to be particularly successful in Chad, as well as South Sudan and Somalia; since its inception, the “Children, Not Soldiers” campaign has spread to other countries of concern.