Abstract
The problem of gangs is not new to South Africa. This is one of the reasons that Cape Town has been included in an innovative international study that has identified the phenomenon of ‘children in organised armed violence’. Given the youthfulness of South Africa’s population, as well as levels of poverty and unemployment, the risk factors for children’s involvement in armed gangs as recorded by the international study should serve as an early warning to us.
Highlights
In 2003/04 the Institute for Security Studies (ISS) collaborated in a ten-country study to explore the phenomenon of children’s involvement in organised armed violence.[1]
The study explored the experiences of the ten countries and described a phenomenon that had, up to that time, not been identified as a specific problem within the international human right arena – that of children in organised armed violence (COAV)
Who are ‘children in organised armed violence’? The idea of ‘children in organised armed violence’ is a relatively new one, and the phrase was coined to describe the situation demonstrated in earlier work undertaken by Brazilian NGO, Viva Rio, in Rio de Janeiro.[3]
Summary
The problem of gangs is not new to South Africa This is one of the reasons that Cape Town has been included in an innovative international study that has identified the phenomenon of ‘children in organised armed violence’. This article describes some of the key findings of the ten-country study, as analysed by Dowdney.[2] This is followed by a description of the planned follow-up initiative, the COAV Cities project, and a discussion of some of the implications of the new project for South Africa, and for gang-related work in Cape Town. The discussion that follows describes the findings of the ten-country study, with a particular focus on the children who became involved in organised armed groups
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