Children in Armed Conflicts: Transcending Legal Responses

1 Martin Adler, Children of War (newsletter, Save the Children, Sweden), no. 2, 1996.

2 Rachel Brett & Margaret McCallin, Children: The Invisible Soldiers, 2nd edn (Stockholm: Save the Children, Sweden, 1998); Ilene Cohn & Guy Goodwin-Gill, Child Soldiers: The Role of Children in Armed Conflict (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1997).

3 See Ian Brownlie, Principles of Public International Law (New York: University Press, 1990); Geoffrey Best, War and Law Since 1945 (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1994).

4 Geraldine Van Bueren, International Documents on Children (Boston, MA & London: Martinus Nijhoff & Save the Children, 1993); Geraldine Van Bueren, The International Law on the Rights of the Child (London: Martinus Nijhoff & Save the Children, 1995).

5 For examples, see the International Labour Conference of 1919, the 1921 International Convention on Traffic of Women and Children, and the 1924 Geneva Declaration of the Rights of the Child. See Van Bueren, 1993 (note 4 above); see also Eugeen Verhellen, Convention on the Rights of the Child (Leuven Apeldoorn: Garant, 1994).

6 See Van Bueren, 1993 (note 4 above); Verhellen (note 5 above).

7 See Sharon Detrick, ed., On the Rights of the Child: A Guide to the `Travaux Préparatoires' (Zoetermeer: Martinus Nijhoff, 1992); Geraldine Van Bueren, `The International Legal Protection of Children in Armed Conflict', International Comparative Law Quarterly, vol. 43, no. 4, October 1994, pp. 809-826.

8 The current prominence of the Convention within the legal arena of children's rights stems from the fact that all countries, with the exception of the United States and Somalia, are legally bound by it.

9 See Van Bueren, 1993 (note 4 above); 1994 (note 7 above).

10 Krijn Peters & Paul Richards, `Fighting with Open Eyes: Youth Combatants Talking About War in Sierra Leone', in Celia Petty & Patrick Bracken, eds, Rethinking the Trauma of War (London & New York: Free Association Books & Save the Children, 1998), pp. 76-111.

11 Peters & Richards (note 10 above).

12 See Article 41.3 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child; Jenny Kuper, International Law Concerning Child Civilians in Armed Conflict (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1997).

13 See Brett & McCallin (note 2 above); database of Save the Children, Sweden, available at http://www.rb.se/childwardatabase/.

14 The term `conventional' is here employed to refer to the set of rights outlined by the 1989 Convention on the Rights of the Child.

15 Michael Howard, `Temperamenta Belli: Can War be Controlled?', in Jean Bethke Elshtain, ed., Just War Theory (Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1992), pp. 22-35.

16 Field research interviews, Mozambique 1989, 2000.

17 See Howard (note 15 above).

18 See Brett & McCallin (note 2 above).

19 Helen Charnley & Terezinha da Silva, The Reintegration of Demobilised Child Combatants/Young Soldiers in Mozambique: Needs and Resources (Case Study for International Save the Children Alliance, 1995).

20 Field notes and interviews from El Salvador, 1997.

21 Peters & Richards (note 10 above).

22 See office of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict, at http://www.un.org/special-rep/children-armed-conflict/.

23 Mary Kaldor, New & Old Wars: Organised Violence in a Global Era (Oxford: Polity Press, 1999).

24 Mary Kaldor, `Introduction', in Mary Kaldor & Basker Vashee, eds, Reconstructing the Global Military Sector: New Wars (Vol. 1) (London and Washington, DC: Pinter, 1997), pp. 3-33. See also Kaldor (note 23 above); Cherif Bassiouni, `Organised Crime and New Wars', in Mary Kaldor & Basker Vashee, eds, pp. 34-54.

25 For counter-argument, see Kaplan, `The Coming Anarchy', Atlantic Monthly, no. 273, February 1994, pp. 44-76.

26 Kaldor, 1997 (note 24 above), p. 3.

27 See Derek Summerfield, The Impact of War and Atrocities on Civilian Populations: Basic Principles for NGO Interventions and a Critique of Psychological Trauma Projects, Relief and Rehabilitation Network Paper 14 (London: Overseas Development Institute, 1996); Carolyn Nordstrom & Jo Ann Martin, eds, The Paths to Domination, Resistance and Terror (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1992).

28 Joseph Hanlon, Beggar Your Neighbours (Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 1996).

29 See Robert Reich, The Work of Nations: Preparing Ourselves for 21st Century Capitalism, (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1991); Alex De Wall, `Contemporary War in Africa', in Kaldor & Vashee, eds (note 24 above), pp. 287-332.

30 Howard (note 15 above); Brownlie (note 3 above).

31 John Mackinlay, ed., A Guide to Peace Support Operations (Providence, RI: Brown University, Thomas J. Watson Jr. Institute for International Studies, 1996), pp. 14-15.

32 Brett & McCallin (note 2 above); database of Save the Children, Sweden (note 13 above); United Nations, Impact of Armed Conflict on Children: Report of the Expert of the Secretary-General, Ms. Graça Machel, Submitted Pursuant to General Assembly Resolution 48/157 (New York: United Nations, August 1996).

33 Cohn & Goodwin-Gill (note 2 above).

34 UNICEF, Summary: The State of the World's Children (New York: UNICEF, 1996); Mark Frankel, Joshua Hammer, Joseph Contreras, Ron Mareau & Christopher Dickey, `Boy Soldiers', Newsweek, 7 August 1995, pp. 10-21.

35 See John Keegan, The Face of Battle (New York: Penguin, 1978).

36 UNICEF, Press Release: War Against Children (London: UNICEF United Kingdom Committee, 11 November 1996); Major Frederick Myatt MC, An Illustrated Guide to Rifles and Sub-Machine Guns (London: Salamander Books, 1981).

37 Cohn & Goodwin-Gill (note 2 above).

38 United Nations (note 32 above); Brett & McCallin (note 2 above).

39 See Alison Benjamin, Children at War (London: Save the Children, 1994); see also Centre on War and the Child, Iran's Child Martyrs: A Summary Report (Eureka Springs, AR: Centre on War and the Child, 1987).

40 Brett & McCallin (note 2 above).

41 Ibid.

42 UNICEF (note 34 above).

43 Brett & McCallin (note 2 above); database of Save the Children, Sweden (note 13 above); United Nations (note 32 above).

44 Brett & McCallin (note 2 above).

45 Ruth Jacobson, Research Fellow at the Department of Peace Studies, Bradford University, unofficial interviews, Bradford, 1997.

46 Norma Vázques, Cristina Ibánez & Clara Murguialday, Mujeres Montaña: Vivencias de Guerrilleras y Colaboradoras del FMLN [Mountain Women: Experiences of Female Guerrillas and Collaborators in the FMLN] (Madrid: Horas y Horas, 1996).