Children affected by armed conflict – reintegration of child-soldiers from the International Humanitarian Law perspective

Abstract

The recruitment and use of minors in armed conflicts, which is contrary to humanitarian law, applies to any race, religion, or political system. Still, there is a harmful tendency to associate this problem only with undemocratic, poor, and underdeveloped countries, far from the large geopolitical decision-making centers. Most children are abducted, intimidated, coerced, and manipulated by actors of armed conflicts, both formally functioning in the state apparatus as soldiers, but also guerrillas, members of terrorist groups or other non-state entities. Minors are not only witnesses of brutality and suffering but are also forced to participate in torture and murder. This, in turn, causes traumatic mental reactions, such as depression, suicide attempts or lack of sensitivity to harm as adults. Hence, the reintegration of child soldiers is a long-term and troublesome process also for their families and communities, which, nevertheless, do not receive sufficient help at the mental, financial, and logistical level to be able to take care of the returning children. Global solutions still fail to deliver the expected solutions, to the detriment of children’s development and rights.