Child Soldiers; a Focus on Sierra Leone

Shivangi Seth

Child Soldiers and the Worst Forms of Child Labour

The recruitment of child soldiers is considered one of the worst forms of child labour per ILO Convention No. 182 on the Worst Forms of Child Labour. The first ILO Convention to achieve universal ratification, this Convention obligates member states to counter the worst forms of child labour, including through the implementation of penal sanctions. The Rome Statute also categorises the recruitment of child soldiers as a war crime. Furthermore, the 2007 Paris Principles to Protect Children reiterate that the definition of a child soldier is not only limited to a child who has directly engaged in hostilities. Rather, it refers to any person below eighteen years of age recruited or used by an armed group in any capacity, including as fighters, cooks, porters, messengers, spies or for sexual purposes. Nevertheless, as of today, approximately 250,000 children across the world find themselves directly involved in armed conflicts as child soldiers.

Child Soldiers in Sierra Leone’s Civil War

The decade-long civil war that raged across Sierra Leone in the 1990s is particularly infamous for the widespread recruitment of child soldiers by all parties and factions. It is estimated that approximately 10,000 child soldiers were involved in the Sierra Leonean conflict. Subsequent to their recruitment, these children witnessed crimes such as summary executions, rape, torture, and detentions.

In addition to forced recruitment, experts have posited that the pre-existing socio-cultural factors in Sierra Leone made children easy targets for armed groups. These factors include family and community structures that circumvented children’s agency, combined with insufficient educational opportunities and unemployment among youth. As such, when the conflict erupted, less than 45% of school-going age children attended primary school, 9% attended secondary schools and 1% made it through tertiary institutions. However, evidence also suggests that the practice of using child soldiers itself had been established in Sierra Leone before the conflict, through government recruitment of child soldiers into the military.

Collectively, these factors predisposed Sierra Leonean children to mobilisation by armed groups. 

Child Soldiers and Post-Conflict Reconstruction

Following the Lomé Peace Agreement of 1999, Sierra Leone became the site of vast post-conflict reconstructing, state-building, and transitional justice projects. These included the creation of the Sierra Leone Truth and Reconciliation Commission (SLTRC) to establish an impartial historical record of the conflict and facilitate reconciliation; the Special Court for Sierra Leone (SCSL) to prosecute war criminals; and Disarmament, Demobilization and Reintegration (DDR) programs. Given the widespread use of child soldiers in the conflict, it is critical to examine the efficacy of these mechanisms in addressing their unique needs.

The SLTRC was the first truth commission that was explicitly required to give special attention to children’s experiences of the conflict. It aimed to ensure that the voices of child soldiers were heard and to facilitate their reintegration into society. Therefore, the SLTRC initiated special training for its staff to take statements of children and even conducted hearings in-camera to preserve their security and confidentiality. The Commission recommended tackling issues such as lack of education and ensuring the security of former child soldiers to prevent their re-abduction by armed groups. However, without implementation by its companion organisations, the SLTRC could not bring about tangible impact.

For instance, the government along with international organisations such as UNICEF, set up new schooling systems like the Complimentary Rapid Education for Primary Schools (CREPS) project. However, such programs suffered due to a lack of ownership by the state’s Ministries, evident in the unpaid salaries of teachers and resultant high teacher absenteeism.

The DDR programs also often failed to ensure the security of former child soldiers, with many children being re-abducted by armed groups from DDR camps. In addition to this, of the 6,774 children incorporated within the DDR program, only 513 were girls, despite the fact that almost 30% of child soldiers in Sierra Leone were girls.  

The SCSL was the first international tribunal where prosecutions were undertaken against the crime of recruiting child soldiers. The Court, thus, set a critical international precedent. However, the SCSL Statute criminalised the recruitment of children under 15 years of age, entailing that there remained an accountability gap pertaining to the recruitment of child soldiers between the ages of 15 and 18.

State-building and transitional justice mechanisms set up in Sierra Leone have certainly strengthened international norms in addressing post-conflict situations. However, the shortcomings of these mechanisms in fully tackling the trauma faced by child soldiers underpin a threat to the ambitions of true reintegration and rehabilitation, and provide critical lessons for other such mechanisms to consider. Child soldiers are a complex sub-group within conflict-impacted states as they are both victimised by pre-existing societal structures and armed groups. A return to pre-conflict structures wherein their rights are left unprotected again can trigger recidivism and reignite conflict.