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4.500

Push and pull factors: Maoists have kidnapped individual children, have abducted large groups of children from school, and have used propaganda campaigns to attract children as “volunteers.”. Lack of education is also one of the push factors. There are still frequent reports of children being forcibly abducted from school or on their way to or from school in order to attend involuntary educational sessions during mass rallies.

Since 2000 international law has banned the recruitment and use of children under age 18. The International Labour Organization has prohibited the forced recruitment of children under the age of 18 for use in armed conflict in its convention on the Worst Forms of Child Labour, which Nepal ratified in 2002. Nepal has also signed the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the involvement of children in armed conflict, which entered into force in 2002. The protocol, which explicitly applies to non-state armed groups in addition to government forces, established 18 as the minimum age for any recruitment into nongovernmental armed groups.

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Amount of child soldiers in Afghanistan: Approximately 2000 in Taliban, and around 4000 in total.

Push and pull factors:

Poverty can be an important motivating factor to join armed forces and groups. For some children joining armed groups ensures one meal which is why some parents give their children to the movement in the hope that they will be fed and housed.

Discrimination is also a key motivating factor. Ethnic, tribal and religious identity, linked to the notion of discrimination, is potent in the mobilization of whole communities including children. When children witness the killing, humiliation of their parents and watch their sisters being raped, they might join out of a feeling of revenge. Many children are also requested by their families and communities to play their part in the defence of the community.

Sometimes young boys and girls can be attracted by the idea of martyrdom and heroic Death.

What is being done to save child soldiers?
The UN and Amnesty International is campaining to tighten up laws on selloing guns to stop them reaching battlefields where child soldiers are fighting.

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1. Human Rights Watch estimate that around 10,000 children are recruited to be child soldiers in Sierra Leonne.
2. The civil war is a huge push factors, forcing the children to become soldiers.

3.  To provide for themselves or an optional family..

4. According to legal scholar Sandesh Sivakumaran, the special court has provided needed clarification over the use of children in combat, and had identified certain actions which could be deemed as illegal with regards to the use of children in combat.

In 2007 the special court passed the first convictions for war crimes during the conflict. Three members of the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (AFRC) were found guilty of various human rights abuses, which included the recruitment of children for use in combat.

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Which role do they play in the case of child soldiers?

In the world today, according to the UN there are about 280 000 child soldiers. The majority of them (an estimated 200 000) are found on the African continent (UN 2016). The push factors for joining armed forces as a child can be poverty, lack of family or it could be the family’s wishes. It can be because of perceived danger if they do not join or the county’s political situation. Pull factors can include the promise of riches and power, safety of becoming victims of the situation themselves and the protection of family and loved ones.

Human Rights Watch is an independent non-profit organization that works to secure human rights all over the world. The organization investigates and try to shed some light on the issue of children joining armed forces, as well as other humanitarian issues. During the Obama administration, the organization urged the government to limit military assistance to countries that have child soldiers. They had a goal to make the US demand the end of children in armed forces in exchange for military assistance. Human rights watch also work with other organization to help former child soldier, including the DDR.  Their ultimate goal concerning the issue of child soldiers is to stop the use of children in armed conflicts (Human Rights Watch 2008).

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Which role do they play in the case of child soldiers?

There are roughly 280 000 cow soldiers worldwide today, but there are probably more, as it is difficult to document the exact numbers due to secrecy etc.

Some of the push factors are political issues and the need of money and resources. In general poverty and a hopeless life is what pushes the children into it.

The want for power and possibly a better life is a great pull factor as it might be the only or the fastest way out of their lives. Revenge is also a pull factor, for example, if a family member is killed by a certain group, then you might wish to join an opposing group to get revenge for your loss.

To stop the use of child soldiers, we need to make everyone aware of the issue first of all. People need to know what is going on in the world before we can solve the issue. A big step in the right direction is the protocol that was made in May, 2000. the protocol said that no girl or boy under the age of 18 is to be used in armed conflicts. In 2012 over 100 nations worldwide had signed the protocol, which is roughly 60 % of the worlds countries. Apart from this, the most efficient way to help stop the use of child soldiers would be to help give funds to organizations such as Human Rights Watch, who actively make a big effort to make everyone aware of the issue so that the politicians are forced to take action.

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http://tiny.cc/childsoldiers

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Beasts of No Nation | Official Trailer [HD] | Netflix

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Focus on one country and answer the following questions. Be ready to present to your class:

1. What are the numbers?
2. What are the PUSH factors?
3. What are the PULL factors?
4. What are being done to save the child soldiers?

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1. Un.org's number of child soldiers in Uganda is 30,000.

2. Poverty is one of the main factors that pushes children towards armed groups.
A long civil war in the country has been an big impact on the children in Uganda.
LRA used to raid schools because they saw that it would be easier to influence bigger groups of young children.

3. In 1996 the Ugandan government had to evacuate many people from their homes and placed them in camps. The camps were filled with violence, this led to many children being born and raised in a criminal society. For some children, being criminals is how they were raised so it is a push factor towards LRA.
Many children have nothing to go back to because they are forced to kill their family and relatives.

4. The SOS Social Centre in Gulu supports adults and children who have been affected by the civil war. UNICEF is working to provide child soldiers a better life, and the ability to get out of war and regain childhood

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1. It is estimated that as many as, 15,000 to 20, 000 have served as child soldiers in Liberian civil war.

2. Push factor is for exsample: Some children choose to join a military organisation as a route out of poverty, for protection, or as a way of making up for the loss of family or a lack of education.

3. Poverty can be an important motivating factor to join armed forces and groups. For some children joining armed groups ensures one meal which is why some parents give their children to the movement in the hope that they will be fed and housed.

Discrimination is also a key motivating factor. Ethnic, tribal and religious identity, linked to the notion of discrimination, is potent in the mobilization of whole communities including children. When children witness the killing, humiliation of their parents and watch their sisters being raped, they might join out of a feeling of revenge. Many children are also requested by their families and communities to play their part in the defence of the community.

Sometimes young boys and girls can be attracted by the idea of martyrdom and heroic death

4. According to "bbc.co" Groups like amnesty international and the UN are working to end the use of a child soldier in war. The UN is campaigning to tighten up laws on selling guns to stop them reaching battlefields where child soldiers are fighting. Help them to get a better life.

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1.     Over the past 40 years of the Columbian civil war between government and paramilitary groups, they have recruited around 14, 000-child soldiers.

2.     The rebels force the children to become child soldiers, and train them as guerrillas to lay mines and fight. Some of the children have also been kidnapped.

3.     Children from the poor areas in Columbia are appealed to the rebel groups as they offer them food and shelter, and take them away from domestic violence.

4.     Children are saved because of a peace deal between the rebel groups and the Columbian government.

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1) -Human Rights Watch estimates that the number of children in Burma's army may be as many as 70.000 soldiers under the age of 18.

2)Burma's army preys on children, using threats, intimidation and often violence to force young boys to become soldiers.

3) The pull factors may be that the children are too young to realize what is wrong and what is right, and also that they aren't educated enough so they dont know any better. Another factor may be money, not only for themselves, but for their family. However, children that dont have families, may feel safe in these armies because they feel at home.
KOPIKOPIKOPI

4) Human Rights Watch called on Burma's army and all armed opposition groups to immediately end all recruitment of children under the age of 18, and to demobilize all children currently serving as soldiers. It urged the government and armed groups to cooperate with international agencies such as UNICEF to reunify former child soldiers with their families and facilitate their rehabilitation and social reintegration.

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1. According to refworld.org, a global report on child soldiers in 2001, estimated that 7000 child soldiers were participating at that time. This mainly covers the time period from 1998 to 2001.

2. In the civil war between the government and armed oppositions, child soldiers was common to use in the armed conflicts. As many as 30,000 girls were estimated to be abducted by the groups. In this case, the factor for them fighting was mainly a push factor. They did not have any other options when abducted, than fight. Not all these were children, but the factor for them joining is the same, they were pushed.

3. Children in Angola are forced to enlist into the rebel army-groups because of many different factors. Some of the most common pull-factors that makes the children join these groups, is to either get fame, protection or because they simply do not know better, and lack education.

4. There are demobilization programs, that help the child soldiers recover and be able to become a part of society again.

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The precious stones are at the heart of former Liberian leader Charles Taylor's war crimes trial in The Hague, who allegedly used them to buy weapons for Sierra Leone's Revolutionary United Front (RUF).

Taylor denies ever handling or possessing the diamonds but is alleged to have given one as a gift to Naomi Campbell, the supermodel, following a charity dinner hosted by Nelson Mandela in 1997.

Giving evidence at the trial, Campbell admitted she was given a pouch of "small, dirty looking stones" by two men in the middle of the night following the dinner.

Conflict diamonds are defined by the United Nations as "diamonds that originate from areas controlled by forces or factions opposed to legitimate and internationally recognised governments, and are used to fund military action in opposition to those governments, or in contravention of the decisions of the Security Council."

Under a UN resolution, an international certification scheme for rough diamonds was set up in 2003 to halt the trading of blood diamonds, in an effort to ensure they could not be used to finance conflict.

As a result the Kimberley Process, which controls rough diamond production and trade, came into being and is now in action in 75 countries which account for 99.8 per cent of the world's rough diamonds.

Through the scheme - named after the South African city where the agreement was reached - all diamonds traded by member countries are certified so that buyers can be sure they have not contributed to atrocities.

There is no international law on the trading of blood diamonds but countries who have signed up to the Kimberley Process are prevented from importing or exporting them through domestic laws.

Blood diamonds are indistinguishable from ordinary rough diamonds, and individual jewellers are not certified by the Kimberley process, but buyers are advised only to use businesses who can guarantee that their diamonds are conflict-free and explain where they are sourced from.

However, the Kimberley Process was too late to stop the alleged use by Taylor of the stones to arm and control the RUF, a rebel force responsible for widespread attacks in Sierra Leone.

Taylor allegedly used blood diamonds from the RUF to buy weapons which he is said to have shipped from Burkina Faso to the Sierra Leone junta at the Magburaka airfield in October 1997.

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The precious stones are at the heart of former Liberian leader Charles Taylor's war crimes trial in The Hague, who allegedly used them to buy weapons for Sierra Leone's Revolutionary United Front (RUF). Taylor denies ever handling or possessing the diamonds but is alleged to have given one as a gift to Naomi Campbell, the supermodel, following a charity dinner hosted by Nelson Mandela in 1997.

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This is "Child Soldiers of Burma" by Goodmorningbeautiful Films on Vimeo, the home for high quality videos and the people who love them.

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In a desperate attempt to return home, an abducted child soldier risks his life to flee from Joseph Kony's Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) deep in central Africa after years of being forced to fight. When capture appears imminent, he encounters a stranger who must decide whether to help him - risking his own life, and the respect of his community.

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https://www.hrw.org/news/2008/04/16/coercion-and-intimidation-child-soldiers-participate-violence

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http://ndla.no/en/node/99878?fag=56850