Child Soldiers: Children's Rights in the Time of War and Genocide
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Excerpt
The experiences of children during cases of genocide are varied. Children may be affected as persons succumbing to the deliberate imposition of conditions leading to death from hunger or disease, and as refugees and internally displaced persons, and may even be involved as perpetrators of killings planned by adults. This chapter begins with definitions of children and child soldiers and turns to legal developments surrounding the definitions and their practical impact. The next section of the chapter will deal with genocides involving children or child soldiers in important roles and highlight key aspects of the jurisprudence of the international criminal tribunals relating to child soldiers in the context of genocide or politicide. In this chapter, the main focus will be on child soldiers in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. However, child soldiers have existed throughout the history of mankind (Afua 2003). Yet, political and military elites largely neglected and in some ways aggravated the problem until the late 1990s. The large-scale wars and genocides of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries have influenced the development of an international legislation relating to child soldiers.
ISBN
9781412853552
Publication Date
2014
Publisher
Transaction Publishers
City
New Brunswick, New Jersey
Keywords
Children, Crimes against, 20th century, Crimes against humanity, History, 21st century, Genocide
Disciplines
Human Rights Law | International Humanitarian Law | Law
Recommended Citation
Hannibal Travis & Sara Demir, Child Soldiers: Children's Rights in the Time of War and Genocide, in PLIGHT AND FATE OF CHILDREN DURING AND FOLLOWING GENOCIDE 219, 244 ( Samuel Totten ed., 2014).
