“Both Rebels and government should stop misusing children as soldiers”
Wenne Madyt Dengs
January 13, 2015 (SSB) — The conflict in South Sudan is dramatically graduating into a full scale war that has its negative repercussions on every citizen either on a rebel or government’s spot. I feel touched when I see children under the universal adult age being unsophisticatedly used as opinionated tools to achieve the war of greed and self-indulgence in the light of ingenuousness and innocence.
Looking at International Humanitarian Law (commonly known as rules of armed conflict) and international laws on the rights of children agreed upon by almost all states in the world a child can be recruited to armed forces from the age of 15. Subsequently, many countries considered this age limit too low, so a new rule was issued, through which the age limit became 18 years. It is also now prohibited to recruit children by force and to let children participate in armed conflict.
“The Parties to the conflict shall take all feasible measures in order that children who have not attained the suggested age do not take a direct part in hostilities and, in particular, they shall refrain from recruiting them into their armed forces. In recruiting among those persons who have attained the age of fifteen years but who have not attained the age of eighteen years, the Parties to the conflict shall endeavor to give priority to those who are oldest” ~ Geneva convention.
However, the use of children as soldiers is not uncommon today. Children are not supposed to be soldiers, and they have a right to be especially respected and protected from the effects of war. Children are often forced in different ways to become soldiers, in some cases they are even forced or kidnapped and then trained to become soldiers.
Contemporary in South Sudan, many street children are being collected and recruited, and taken to front line or for military training by both government and guerrillas.
The warring parties in South Sudan have taken advantage on children as the war has affected them:
When the war started in South Sudan, children were dependent on the care, empathy, and attention of adults who love them. Their attachments are frequently disrupted in times of war, due to the loss of parents, tremendous anxiety of parents in protecting and finding subsistence for the family, and emotional unavailability of depressed or distracted parents. The child may be in substitute care with someone who cares for him or her only slightly – relatives or an orphanage and these alternatives are not available in South Sudan; therefore, the conflicting political agents managed to scoop all the children and used them advantageously to achieve their military objectives.
Both parties should make this war less damage to children by implementing international humanitarian law regarding the protection of children in war. The Geneva Conventions and the Convention on the Rights of the Child deal with protection of war-affected children with regard to food, clothing, medicine, education, and family reunion. In addition, they are intended to protect children from ethnic cleansing and recruitment into armed forces. However, compliance with these instruments is poor, especially when recruiting children to armed forces is concerned.
Not only has that but also the government should ensure special consideration for children who are in flight from war zones and who live in camps for refugees and internally displaced people, especially children who are unaccompanied by adults. Special considerations need to be given for family reunion, systems of distribution of resources (sometimes to women rather than to men), internal layout of camps (to prevent attacks on girls), the provision of facilities for education and play, and special help for child-headed families.
Children generally do not realise the consequences of their actions, which make them extremely dangerous as soldiers. In the transitional constitution of South Sudan the age limit for becoming a soldier and participating in war is 18 years.
Children have to be protected from the effects of war and should not be used as soldiers.
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The writer can be reached through: E-mail: wennemadyt63@gmail.com
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