Child Soldiers-An Integral Element in New, Irregular Wars?

Abstract

At present, 300,000 child soldiers are involved in armed conflicts around the world, and their numbers are growing. They are employed in more than thirty countries, most often in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. But they are also brought into action in Europe (in the Balkans) and in the successor states of the former Soviet Union (e.g., in Chechnya). At the same time, unknown numbers of children participate in military training or are called upon for tasks like guard and patrol duty, as laborers or kitchen helpers, or are abused as “sex slaves” and human minesweepers. It is indeed true that in some Western European countries it is possible for adolescents under the age of eighteen to join their countries’ armies; these young recruits can therefore be formally called “child soldiers.” The phenomenon that I wish to call attention to, however, is an entirely different one: it is the systematic and mostly violent utilization of children and adolescents as a cheap and flexible recruiting pool for so-called “small wars” and irregular armed conflicts. These wars are typically being fought as irregular conflicts with massive participation of civilians. Their aims are often the persecution, expulsion, and even extermination of particular ethnic groups within the population. These kinds of conflicts have considerably increased in number since the end of the Cold War. Why are so many children and adolescents involved in these conflicts? Why is their number still increasing? What is the rationale behind the employment of child soldiers? Moreover, how can this phenomenon be evaluated in the light of peacekeeping and peace enforcement missions, and how are the troops that are to be deployed to such combat zones to deal with it? This essay aims to provide a brief overview of the current situation. To classify the phenomenon, I will first explore some key elements of the settings in which the use of child soldiers is organized today; these elements can be attributed to the changing patterns of warfare as well as the predominant forms of weapons proliferation. Secondly, I will give an outline of the legal and social conditions of child soldiers. And third, a final estimation aims to offer a political consideration of the phenomenon, as well as to shed some light on the involvement of multinational peacekeeping forces in conflict regions.