Situation of children and adolescents involved in the armed conflict in Colombia

On every February 12, for the last nine years, Red Hand Day has been commemorated as a way of openly rejecting all practices related to the recruitment, involvement and use of minors in armed conflicts

Recruitment, involvement and use of children and adolescents in armed conflicts, as well as other forms of violence, are crimes against one of the most vulnerable sections of the population: boys, girls and adolescents.

Despite the seriousness of these crimes against a section of society protected by international humanitarian and human rights law, this issue is still unknown to ample sectors of world population. Only relatively recently have states began paying attention to this issue which affects minors regardless of their age, gender or nationality.

The region of Latin America has not escaped this reality, hosting one of the world’s longest conflicts: the Colombian armed conflict. This conflict has spilled over its national borders affecting neighbouring countries, as evidenced by reoccurring patterns of violence – including murders, massacres, kidnappings, threats to civilians, forced displacement and the presence of armed groups involved in the conflict that has plagued Colombia for over 50 years.

Please update to our new RSS adress

Our blog has a new RSS feed URL, which should provide a more stable platform and faster load times. Please subscribe to
http://jrsusa.wordpress.com/feed/
in your favorite reader.

UN: Sri Lanka should allow children to return home

AFP reports Retired Major General Patrick Cammaert, the UN special envoy on children and armed conflict, said children who had been conscripted by the Tamil Tiger rebels should be allowed to return to their families.

“Hundreds of children are still missing or separated from their parents. They must be reunited as soon as possible,” the Dutch UN official said during a visit to Sri Lanka.

Cammaert is in Sri Lanka on behalf of the Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict, Radhika Coomaraswamy.

The six-day mission, at the invitation of the Government, is aimed at following up on the recommendations of the Security Council Working Group on Children and Armed Conflict on Sri Lanka within the framework of Security Council Resolution 1612 from 2005.

Mr. Cammaert will ascertain firsthand the situation of the children affected by the recent conflict with a view to ensure greater child protection. Particular attention will be paid to the situation of displaced children and the reintegration of children formerly associated with armed groups into civilian life.

He will meet with Government officials, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), civil society representatives and children, and report to the Security Council Working Group when he returns.

Conflict in Colombia knows no borders

On Universal Children’s Day, November 20, Jesuit Refugee Service expresses extreme concern about the continuing widespread, systematic and habitual use, recruitment, and exploitation of children in the Colombian armed conflict.

Although the exact magnitude and geographical extension of child recruitment is unknown, as many as 11,000 Colombian children are deployed either as combatants, or in support roles, in the war. Being forcibly compelled to risk one’s life and/or commit atrocious acts while being exposed to physical illnesses and injuries, sexual violence and torture, can only be described as inhumane. This recruitment and use of children by illegal armed groups is a crime against humanity, according to the JRS Latin America and Caribbean regional office.

(Listen to a radio interview here.)

Child Soldiers Coalition calls for UN to investigate abductions of children in Sri Lanka

Press statement issued by the Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers:

Sri Lanka: Child Soldiers Coalition calls for UN Special Envoy to urgently investigate abductions and other abuses of children

London, 20 May 2009

Children (under-18s) are being abducted from refugee camps and from Vavuniya town in northern Sri Lanka by paramilitary groups who enjoy tacit support from the Sri Lankan government, the Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers said today.

The Coalition welcomed the recent initiative by the Special Representative of the Secretary General (SRSG) on children and armed conflict to send a special envoy to Sri Lanka to investigate these and other abuses against children. The Sri Lankan government is reported to have agreed in principle to such a visit.

“The last phase of fighting in Sri Lanka has had a catastrophic impact on children. The special envoy’s visit needs to take place without delay,” said Victoria Forbes Adam, Director of the Coalition. The envoy must be given all necessary support to carry out an independent assessment of the situation to identify measures needed to protect children from abuses. The special envoy also needs to investigate the impact of the broader humanitarian disaster on children. The findings of the special envoy should be formally submitted to the Security Council, the Coalition said.

Long Struggle for Peace in Colombia

Mauricio García, S.J., executive director of Cinep, the Jesuit Center for Research and Education in Bogotá, sits down with America magazine to discuss the effects of the internal displacement of three million people over the last 25 years.

Father García has a longstanding involvment in peace-related work. “During the 1990s, while I was in my formation program as a Jesuit seminarian, I was investigating human rights violations in Colombia,” he said. “Eventually, though, I wanted to move beyond ‘counting dead people’, so to speak.” His superiors sent him to work at Cinep in Bogota. “I began to focus on wider issues, like peace negotiations…addressing the ongoing violence, and in time I went to England for four years to do a Ph.D. in peace studies at the University of Bradford,” said García. He wrote his dissertation on the peace movement in Colombia. “Over the last decades,” he noted, “it has become one of the largest mobilizations for peace in the world, with millions mobilizing for it.”

Read the article in America here.

Sri Lanka civilians tell of war ordeal

The BBC reports today that civilians fleeing the area of northeast Sri Lanka where Tamil Tiger rebels and government forces are in fierce conflict have been sharing stories of the ordeal of life under almost constant gunfire.

The BBC says civilians have confirmed accusations by human rights groups that the rebels are forcefully recruiting young children and are stopping people from moving out to government-controlled areas.

Estimates of the number of civilians trapped in the rebel-controlled area of only 20 square kilometers vary from 50,000 to 200,000.

The Sri Lankan government and international organizations have repeatedly urged the rebels to free civilians in the conflict zone, but the rebels claim the civilians are choosing to stay of their own free will.

An elderly woman broke down while speaking to the BBC:

“There is fighting everywhere, bombing and deaths… Oh God how much we have suffered… What we did to endure this… Nobody is there to save us. No-one is helping us,” she said.

Read the BBC story here.

Serious violations of international law committed in Sri Lanka conflict says UN human rights chief

The following statement comes from the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Refugees:

GENEVA (OHCHR) — The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay expressed her growing alarm March 13, at the increasing number of civilians reported killed and injured in the conflict in northern Sri Lanka, and at the apparent ruthless disregard being shown for their safety.

“Certain actions being undertaken by the Sri Lankan military and by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam may constitute violations of international human rights and humanitarian law.” Pillay said. “We need to know more about what is going on, but we know enough to be sure that the situation is absolutely desperate. The world today is ever sensitive about such acts that could amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity.”

Becoming a child soldier

by Joseph Mangbi

In 1983, when the second civil war started in his country of Sudan, Joseph was only 11 years old. That year the Sudanese People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) was established; they began broadcasting on the radio, a very powerful war propaganda tool.

At the time, Joseph was far too young to be able to understand what was going on; but many people and events would subsequently convince him of the necessity for war.

JRS urges U.N. to safeguard children

JRS supports call to take further steps to safeguard children

On February 12, former child soldiers and other youth representing a grassroots campaign from around the world will present thousands of symbolic “red hands” to Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to demand stronger action by international leaders to end the use of child soldiers.

A United Nations treaty prohibiting the forced recruitment or use of children under the age of 18 in armed conflict, the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the involvement of children in armed conflict, has been ratified by 126 countries and entered into force on February 12, 2002, a date commemorated annually as “Red Hand Day.”

But child soldiers are still being used in at least 15 countries or territories, including some that have ratified the treaty.