Child Soldier Victims of Genocidal Forcible Transfer: Exonerating Child Soldiers Charged With Grave Conflict-related International Crimes PDF
Preview Child Soldier Victims of Genocidal Forcible Transfer: Exonerating Child Soldiers Charged With Grave Conflict-related International Crimes
Child Soldier Victims of Genocidal Forcible Transfer . Sonja C. Grover Child Soldier Victims of Genocidal Forcible Transfer Exonerating Child Soldiers Charged With Grave Conflict-related International Crimes SonjaC.Grover LakeheadUniversity FacultyofEducation 955OliverRoad ThunderBay,OntarioP7B5E1 Canada [email protected] ISBN978-3-642-23613-6 e-ISBN978-3-642-23614-3 DOI10.1007/978-3-642-23614-3 SpringerHeidelbergDordrechtLondonNewYork LibraryofCongressControlNumber:2011944194 #Springer-VerlagBerlinHeidelberg2012 Thisworkissubjecttocopyright.Allrightsarereserved,whetherthewholeorpartofthematerialis concerned,specificallytherightsoftranslation,reprinting,reuseofillustrations,recitation,broadcasting, reproductiononmicrofilmorinanyotherway,andstorageindatabanks.Duplicationofthispublication orpartsthereofispermittedonlyundertheprovisionsoftheGermanCopyrightLawofSeptember9, 1965,initscurrentversion,andpermissionforusemustalwaysbeobtainedfromSpringer.Violations areliabletoprosecutionundertheGermanCopyrightLaw. Theuseofgeneraldescriptivenames,registerednames,trademarks,etc.inthispublicationdoesnotimply, evenintheabsenceofaspecificstatement,thatsuchnamesareexemptfromtherelevantprotective lawsandregulationsandthereforefreeforgeneraluse. Printedonacid-freepaper SpringerispartofSpringerScience+BusinessMedia(www.springer.com) This book is dedicated with great respect and love to the memory of my parents GinaandDavidGazanandthatofmybrother Albert all of whom championed the cause of universal human rights in their own way. Itisalsodedicated toallvictims ofgenocidal forcible transfer in whatever form and especially to the child victims. This work is but a small contribution made in the hope that child victims of genocidal forcible trans- fer (such as child soldiers recruited to armed groups or forces perpetrating mass atrocities and/or genocide and the chil- dren born of mass wartime rape) will be acknowledged as such, that the survivors receive fair reparations from the State and that the international community implement effective ongoing strategies to prevent all forms of genocide and other grave international crimes. . Preface Thecurrentinquirychallengesthedemonizationofandbacklashagainstacertain segment of the child soldier population which seeks to frame these children as culpableforatrocitiestheycommittedaschildmembersofnon-Statearmedgroups orStatenationalforcescommittingsystematicmassatrocityand/orgenocide.Itis argued that these children are the victims of genocidal forcible transfer to these armedgroupsorforcesregardlessthemanneroftheirso-calledinitial‘recruitment.’ Various judicial and extra-judicial modes of accountability for these children are assessed from this perspective and found to be irrelevant and inapplicable to the factualcircumstancesofsuchcases. In Chapter 1, State obligations under international law relating to the special protected status of children during armed conflict are addressed as are children’s participationrightsbalancedagainsttheirprotectionrights.Aviewofchildsoldier members of armed groups or forces that consistently commit grave violations of IHLasholdingthelegalstatusunderIHLofcivilian‘noncombatants’isdiscussed. Theparticipationofthese children inmassatrocities and/orgenocideasmembers of armed groups or forces systematically using such tactics is considered as a quintessentialexampleof(tousetheinternationallabororganizationterminology) the ‘worst forms ofchild labor’.1 The State’s burden to protect children from this horrendousworstformofchildlaborisconsidered. Chapter2includesanexaminationofthelegalimplicationsofthefailuretoset auniversalminimumageofcriminalculpabilityfor,forinstance,theissueoffair prosecutorial treatment of child soldiers charged with grave conflict-related inter- national crimes. Also discussed is the lack of International Criminal Court (ICC) jurisdiction over child soldiers (persons under age 18 at the time of their alleged commission of war crimes, genocide and/or crimes against humanity) as ‘substantive law’ rather than just a jurisdictional matter. It is argued that the RomeStatutesetsoutastandardforthehumanetreatmentofchildsoldiersaccused of conflict-related atrocity who are the victims of genocidal forcible transfer to 1InternationalLaborOrganization(2011). vii viii Preface a murderous State force or non-State rebel armed group. In addition, a challenge is advanced to the presumptions (currently being promulgated by some social scientists and even certain legal scholars) that: (1) child soldiers who commit conflict-relatedatrocitiesaspartofanarmedgrouporforcecommittingsystematic mass atrocities and/or genocide had, in some if not most instances, the alleged optiontoexercise‘tacticalagency’andresistcommittingtheseinternationalcrimes and/or that (2) IHL requires that these children offer such resistance despite the coercivecircumstancesinwhichtheyweresituatedasvictimsofgenocidalforcible transfertothesearmedgroupsorforces. Chapter3includesanexaminationofcaseexamplesofarmedforcesorgroups thatarecommittingsystematicmassatrocitiesand/orgenocideandtheirso-called ‘recruitment’ of children for the purpose of the children’s active participation (directly or indirectly) in these atrocities. It is argued that ‘recruitment’ under the aforementioned circumstances amounts to ‘forcible transfer to another group’ (where ‘forcible transfer’ is not restricted to the use of physical force but can include transfer basedonexploitationofcoercivecircumstances and/orthe useof threatsofviolencetothechildorhisorherfamilyandotherformsofintimidation) in violation of Article 2(e) of the Genocide Convention. Prevalent narrow, arbi- trarilyrestrictedinterpretationsoftheGenocideConventionArticle2(e)areshown to reflect an underestimation of: (1) the status of children as autonomous rights bearers,andof(2)theadverseimpactoftheforcibletransferofchildrenfromtheir grouptoanarmedgrouporforcecommittingmassatrocitiesand/orgenocideonthe persistence/survival, vitality and mental and physical integrity of the children’s groupoforigin(atleastasoriginallyconstituted)andofthechildgrouptransferred. Chapter 4 examines the role of high profile international human rights gate keepers of human rights claims and academic scholars in promoting the notion that child soldiers who have committed conflict-related atrocities (as part of amurderousnon-StatearmedgrouporStatenationalforce)arebestcharacterized inalegalandpracticalsensenotsimplyasvictimsbutas‘perpetrators’or,atbest, ‘victim-perpetrators’.Thelatterattempttocharacterizethesechildrenascriminally culpableisshowntobecontrarytothefactspointingtotheirbeingthevictimsof genocidal forcible transfer to armed groups or forces engaged in mass atrocities and/orgenocide.Parallelsaredrawnwiththesituationofchildrenbornofwartime rape who also have not been adequately recognized under IHL and international humanrightslawasanindependentseparatecategoryofpersonswhohavesuffered gravehumanrightsviolationsasvictimsofgenocidalforcibletransfer.Thespecial plight of girl child soldiers and their experience as victims of genocidal forcible transfertothearmedgrouporforcecommittingmassatrocitiesand/orgenocideis also discussed. The case of child soldier Omar Khadr as a victim of genocidal forcible transfer to the Afghan Al Qaeda-linked Taliban is considered and his prosecution for international crimes by the US analyzed from this perspective. ICC cases involving persons who were, on the analysis here, the child victims of genocidalforcibletransfertoarmedgroupscommittingheinousmassatrocitiesare discussed(i.e.DominicOngwenandThomasKwoyelo;bothchildabducteesofthe LRA who rose in the ranks to senior positions and committed conflict-related Preface ix atrocitiesbothaschildandasadultmembersoftheLRA).Theissueisraisedasto whether these ICC defendants’ history as child abductees of the LRA ought be consideredasamitigatingfactorataminimuminthesentencingphaseofanICC trial(iftheyareconvictedinregardstothegraveinternationalcrimestheyallegedly committedasadultmembersoftheLRA). Chapter 5 examines Truth and Reconciliation processes in Sierra Leone and Liberiainraisingtheissueofwhethersuchmechanismsareasuitablealternativeto criminal prosecutions for holding child soldiers accountable for conflict-related graveinternationalcrimesallegedlycommittedaschildren(asisclaimedbymost of those who hold these children are culpable and had ‘tactical agency’ to resist committing conflict-related atrocities as members of armed groups or forces engagedinperpetrating systematicmassatrocitiesand/orgenocide).Theproposi- tion that: (1) child soldiers are culpable who have engaged in conflict-related atrocitiesaschildmembersofarmedgroupsornationalforcesthatusesuchtactics againstciviliansasamatterofcourseandthat(2)theseindividualsshouldprovide anarrationoftheirallegedoffensesbeforeaTruthandReconciliationCommission are both challenged. The latter propositions are found to be inconsistent with the properadministrationofjustice.ThefactthatTruthandReconciliationmechanisms areoftentimesnon-therapeuticandevencounter-productivefortheexchildsoldier population accused of conflict-related atrocities and for the local communities involvedisdiscussed. Chapter6presentsconcludingremarksregarding:(1)theongoingoccurrencein variousconflict-affectedregionsofgenocidalforcibletransferofchildrentoarmed groupsorforcescommittingsystematicmassatrocitiesand/orgenocideand(2)the failure oftheinternationalcommunitytorecognizethephenomenonofchildren’s ‘recruitment’intoarmedgroupscommittingsystematicatrocitiesasawartacticas aformofgenocidalforcibletransferofchildrentoanothergroup.Thepointismade thatjusticedemandsthat:(1)childrenwhohavesufferedthisformofgenocidebe regardedasthevictimstheyare;and(2)itbeacknowledgedthattheconflict-related atrocities they may have committed as children were carried out under coercive circumstances which preclude their criminal liability or responsibility on any account.Rather,itisargued,theStateandtheinternationalcommunitymustbear the full burden of responsibility for these child-perpetrated conflict-related atro- cities as a result of their failure to protect this most vulnerable population from genocidalforcibletransfer. ThunderBay,ON,Canada SonjaGrover
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