The Portrayal of Child Soldiers in Documentaries and Hollywood Film

People in the United States are becoming increasingly mindful of child soldiers, with film being a critical means of bringing about awareness. However, awareness can be dependent upon media representation since most individuals in the U.S. do not have direct experiences with child soldiers. The purpose of the present study is to discover how the media has portrayed child soldiers in Hollywood films and documentaries, with an emphasis on the portrayal of violence, the role of women, and the reintegration experiences of child soldiers that are shown. Through a combined qualitative and quantitative content analysis, this study explores the depictions of young children in armed forces as a way to better understand society’s perception of child soldiers. Five Hollywood films and five documentaries were selected at random from an initial pool and viewed by two coders. The coders discovered that while women were portrayed more often than expected, the unique challenges faced by female child soldiers were not represented with great accuracy. Reintegration was depicted in most films; documentaries were more likely to focus on long-term reintegration and Hollywood films were more likely to focus on short-term reintegration. Hollywood films were also more likely than documentaries to portray violent action and show changes in the attitudes and emotions among the child soldiers over time

Sinners or Saints: Child Soldiers and the Persecutor Bar to Asylum After \u3ci\u3eNegusie v. Holder\u3c/i\u3e

There are an estimated 250,000 child soldiers—boys and girls under the age of eighteen—who are being compelled to serve in more than fifteen conflicts worldwide. Child soldiers are forcibly recruited or abducted and are used as combatants, messengers, porters, cooks, and to provide sexual services. International law now recognizes child soldiers as victims of war crimes, deserving of state compassion. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security, however, has opposed asylum for child soldiers on the grounds that their military service subjects them to the “persecutor bar.” Barring child soldiers from asylum protection penalizes them for having been the victims of a crime and undercuts all efforts to protect them. This Article argues that a per se bar of child soldiers from asylum contradicts the United States’ adherence to the international view that the use of child soldiers constitutes a violation of human rights, domestic laws declaring recruitment of child soldiers a crime, and active support of the eradication of the use of child soldiers. Instead, child soldiers should be able to argue that their conduct falls beyond the scope and intent of the persecutor bar. This Article concludes by offering an approach to determine when a child solider should be subjected to the persecutor bar that balances the seriousness of the child soldier’s actions against the circumstances under which he or she was recruited

Child Soldiers in Colombia: The Recruitment of Children into Non-state Violent Armed Groups

Based on in-depth interviews with former child soldiers in Colombia, this article presents the findings from fieldwork conducted among demobilized child soldiers in Colombia. The findings add to the state of knowledge by going in-depth into the circumstances surrounding the processes and mechanisms of recruitment of children and adolescents into armed groups. The former child soldiers had generally joined the armed groups voluntarily. However; one of the challenges with a strong division between ‘voluntary’ and ‘coerced’ recruitment, is that it indicates a sharp dichotomy between two very different situations. This article argues that most cases of recruitment takes place in the grey zone between voluntary and coerced recruitment. However, the demobilization policies work under the assumption that even when the children classify themselves as voluntarily recruited it is considered force due to children’s inability to make a free or conscious choice. This indicates that demobilization programs are based on an assumption that is incorrect. The former child soldiers, both girls and boys, were affected by their involvement in the conflict. They did not, however, constitute a homogeneous group of passive victims, but rather a group of vital agents each one with their choices shaped by their particular experiences and circumstances.

Beyond the Battlefield: Child Soldiers in Armed Conflicts. Advancing Solutions for Prevention, Rehabilitation, and Reintegration in Colombia, Democratic Republic of Congo, and Iraq.

openThis aim of this thesis is to advance solutions for prevention, rehabilitation and reintegration of child soldiers in Colombia, Democratic Republic of Congo and Iraq. For this reason I will examine the international framework regarding child soldiers and its implementation in Colombia, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Iraq. I will also study the causes leading to child recruitment as well as the impacts to better develop solutions for the prevention, rehabilitation and reintegration of child soldiers. I will then, analyze the proposed solutions at the international level and see the effectiveness of their implementation and the challenges encountered in Colombia, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Iraq. To continue, I will examine the treatment of child soldiers in the justice systems at the international and national level to analyze the violations child soldiers might face. Finally, I will analyze the content of the first three chapters in my last chapter to advance solutions for the prevention, rehabilitation and reintegration of child soldiers in Colombia, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Iraq.This aim of this thesis is to advance solutions for prevention, rehabilitation and reintegration of child soldiers in Colombia, Democratic Republic of Congo and Iraq. For this reason I will examine the international framework regarding child soldiers and its implementation in Colombia, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Iraq. I will also study the causes leading to child recruitment as well as the impacts to better develop solutions for the prevention, rehabilitation and reintegration of child soldiers. I will then, analyze the proposed solutions at the international level and see the effectiveness of their implementation and the challenges encountered in Colombia, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Iraq. To continue, I will examine the treatment of child soldiers in the justice systems at the international and national level to analyze the violations child soldiers might face. Finally, I will analyze the content of the first three chapters in my last chapter to advance solutions for the prevention, rehabilitation and reintegration of child soldiers in Colombia, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Iraq

Enfants-soldats au Nigeria : les romanciers témoignent

During an interview, Ishmael Beah, conscripted in Sierra Leone when he was 13, testified to the fact that the rights of child‐soldiers were constantly violated. In recent years, the plight of these soldiers defined as “anyone under the age of eighteen who is part of any kind of regular or irregular armed force or armed group in any capacity”, started attracting the world’s attention, following the conflicts which have been ravaging most of the African continent for the last century. While former Biafrans and foreigners who experienced the conflict first hand wrote about casualties and the plight of refugees, the stories of young boys conscripted into the Biafran army has so far attracted very little attention. The present study seeks to assess the impact of the recruiting of child-soldiers during the Nigerian civil war on four Nigerian novelists: Abani, Adichie, Iweala and Saro-Wiwa

Do Child Soldiers Influence UN Peacekeeping?

The use of child soldiers in conflicts has received increasing academic attention in recent years. This article examines post-conflict periods to see whether the use of child soldiers mobilizes United Nations peacekeeping operations (UN PKO) in the aftermath of a conflict. Taking into consideration how child soldiers affect conflict and how important their reintegration is to sustainable peace and post-conflict development, we analyse whether the presence of child soldiers in a civil war increases the likelihood of the presence of a PKO. We argue that the UN deems a conflict with child soldiers as a difficult case for conflict resolution, necessitating a response from the international community. This is in line with our empirical results confirming that the use of child soldiers significantly increases the likelihood of peacekeeping

Liability of Child Soldiers Under International Criminal Law

The phenomenon of child soldiers has gained increased attention since the condemnation, last year, of Thomas Lubanga for recruiting and using child soldiers. However, not much has been said about the crimes perpetrated by those children. This article looks at child soldiers as perpetrators of crimes and examines their potential criminal accountability under international criminal law. Interpretation of international instruments suggests that child soldiers could be prosecuted by international criminal tribunals. However, those prosecutions would have to respect specific standards

Children at War: The Criminal Responsibility of Child Soldiers

The problem of child soldiers is not going to go away. While it may not be a popular solution, child soldiers need to be prosecuted for the actions they commit during conflicts in addition to the prosecution of child soldier recruiters. Without legal ramifications, there is no incentive for the child soldier recruiters to stop their actions. This article explores how both child soldiers and their recruiters can be prosecuted for actions committed during conflict

Child Soldiers and Peace Agreements

A child soldier is “any person under 18 years of age who is part of any kind of regular or irregular armed force or armed group in any capacity, including but not limited to cooks, porters, messengers and anyone accompanying such groups, other than family members. The definition includes girls recruited for sexual purposes and for forced marriage. It does not, therefore, only refer to a child who is carrying or has carried arms”. For societies transitioning from conflict to peace, the phenomenon of child soldiers poses significant challenges. These challenges include: difficulties associated with how to prevent future recruitment and use of child soldiers; reintegration of serving child soldiers into normal life; and ensuring accountability both of those who utilise child soldiers, and perhaps child soldiers themselves for crimes committed in this capacity. While no one mechanism or response can address those range of issues, peace agreements, as foundational documents that serve as the blueprint for peacebuilding and the post-conflict state, can make a useful contribution and even put in place responses to some or all of them. Of peace agreements signed between 1990 and 2022, 252 agreements include some reference to children. Of these, 77 peace agreements across 32 peace processes address child soldiers. The 189 peace agreement provisions in these 77 peace agreements serve as the basis for the analysis in this report. This report makes recommendations on how to best address the issue of child soldiers, drawing on a new dataset, the Children and Youth in Peace Agreements Database and Dataset, which codes references to children in peace agreements signed between 1990 and 2022