NAMUN2015 General Assembly SOCHUM SOCIAL, HUMANITARIAN AND CULTURE COMMITTEE

Background Guide DEAR DELEGATES, Welcome to the 30th North American Model United Nations Conference. It is our sincere pleasure to welcome you to the General Assembly of the Social, Humanitarian, and Cultural Committee (SOCHUM). Prior to proceeding to committee-specific details, the members of the Dais will be introduced.

Nina Modaresi is delighted to serve as one of your chairs for this committee. She is in her last year at the University of Toronto, and hopes to pursue graduate studies in Public Policy and Governance. She is extremely passionate about international and humanitarian concerns, and has explored these subjects through her role as an editor for the Pre-Law Society’s Voir Dire. She looks forward to meeting the delegates, and making NAMUN 2015 a great success!

Priya Soundranayagam is in her third year studying International Relations and History at the University of Toronto, and has a particular interest in the regions of South Asia and the Middle East. This is her first year of involvement with North American Model United Nations. She is very excited to welcome all the delegates to the Conference, and to serve as one of your chairs for this committee.

Tea Cimini will serve as your moderator for this committee. She is a first year student at the University of Toronto, hoping to pursue a double major in International Relations and Peace, Conflict and Justice. This is her first year working with NAMUN, and she looks forward to contribute to create an intellectually challenging environment for her delegates while having a great time.

Novera Khan is a sophomore at the University of Toronto, pursuing a double major in Economics and Political Science and a minor in Philosophy. This is her second year with NAMUN, having served as a Chair for the World Health Organization in 2014. She is honored to return as a Vice Director of the General Assemblies for the Social, Humanitarian, and Cultural Committee this year. She looks forward to hearing innovative new perspectives on the topics to be discussed within this committee.

1 This year’s Social, Humanitarian, and Cultural Committee will examine issues related to the military use of children in combat, and the implementation of Community Based teaching and learning as a means of education to provide immeasurable progress in areas of gender inequality and economic disparity. It shall undoubtedly be an exciting experience for all those who arrive with the intent to partake in stimulating discourse. We wish you the best of luck.

Sincerely,

Nina Modaresi

Chair,Social, Humanitarian and Cultural Committee [email protected]

Priya Soundranayagam

Chair,Social, Humanitarian and Cultural Committee [email protected]

Tea Cimini

Moderator,Social, Humanitarian and Cultural Committee [email protected]

Novera Khan

Vice Director of the General Assemblies [email protected]

2 Background The third committee of the United Nations General Assembly, the Social, Humanitarian and Cultural Affairs Committee, is responsible for a variety of issues relating to, as the name would suggest, the social, humanitarian and human rights issues that affect people worldwide. Under this umbrella fall the issues of the advancement of women, the treatment of refugees and the promotion of fundamental freedoms among other concerns. Being merely a committee of the General Assembly, SOCHUM carries with it only the powers of recommendation and not legislation; their recommendations however can be meaningful in their ability to reflect customary law and to guide the discourse around future decisions that are more binding legally. A particularly important objective of SOCHUM is the protection of children, and so the topic at hand is quite pertinent: the recruitment and use of children for military purposes.1

According to international law, a child soldier is defined as any combatant under the age of eighteen.2 Not only is it illegal to recruit children under the age of eighteen, it is in fact a war crime to recruit those under the age of fifteen. SOCHUM’s mandate for the protection of children can also be broadened in scope to include preventing violence against children in general. For the purposes of our discussion, however, we will narrow our definition to the recruitment and use of child soldiers under the age of eighteen for an explicitly military purpose.

Although it is hard to pinpoint exact figures, it is estimated that children currently serving as involuntary recruits for military purposes worldwide number in the hundreds of thousands – one source puts this number at 300 000 children embroiled in conflicts at this moment.3 Their ages vary, some as young as eight, and both boys and girls are implicated in this violence. The causes for which they are recruited are diverse: government forces, paramilitaries, civil militia and armed opposition groups.4

The purposes for which they are recruited are equally diverse. Many fight on the frontlines, while some act as spies, messengers, lookouts or mere servants. Some are forced to participate in suicide missions, or to lay/clear

1 “Social, Humanitarian & Cultural: Third Committee,” General Assembly of the United Nations, accessed December 15, 2014, http://www.un.org/en/ga/third/ 2 “From Cradle to War,” Child Soldiers, accessed December 15, 2014, http:// www.amnestyusa.org/our-work/issues/children-s-rights/child-soldiers 3 Aryeh Neier, introduction to Innocents Lost: When Child Soldiers Go to War, ed. Jimmie Briggs (New York: Basic Books, 2005), vii. 4 “Children and Human Rights,” Amnesty International, accessed December 15, 2015, http://www.amnesty.org/en/children

3 landmines.5 While both boys and girls fall victim to this, girls specifically are sold into sexual slavery and are at a particular risk of rape and sexual abuse.6 These children are seen as a cheap and unlimited resource, and it is in some cases a form of indoctrination and militarization for authoritarian regimes.7

All evidence indicates that there are very few occasions in which children choose to be recruited of their own volition. For a great majority, there is no choice. They are abducted or brought into the fold by force.8 Those that ostensibly join voluntarily do so most likely out of coercion (i.e. threats to their family). Others join out of desperation, for lack of an alternative lifestyle, with many joining to find individual security – especially in “countries without perceptible prospects of personal development”.9 Under SOCHUM’s purview, the prevention of such a climate of instability that would compel children to make this choice is as unwanted as explicit coercion, and both are to be prevented.

The importance of addressing this issue hardly needs to be stated – the affected children are exposed to terrible dangers, as well as physical and psychological trauma. To name a few examples, the trauma underwent by child soldiers forced through hard marching can deform their spines; they can be exposed to malnourishment due to lack of food and skin diseases from exposure to weather. Those who are either forced or choose to have sexual relations with older soldiers face the risk of contracting STDs. 10 These children are robbed of their childhood and their lives thereafter are forever affected by their experience. The issue has come to the forefront of human rights advocacy in the past three or four decades and numerous organizations have sprung up with the express purpose of preventing the use and recruitment of child soldiers. Despite these efforts, the problem has not diminished and intrastate conflicts increasingly employed such tactics worldwide, the most recent example being the troubling developments in the Middle East and the recruitment of child soldiers by ISIS.11 The failure of these efforts can in some

5 “Child Soldiers,” Human Rights Watch, accessed December 15, 2014, http:// www.hrw.org/node/112941 6 “Children and Human Rights”, Amnesty International. 7 Alexandre J. Vautravers, “Why Child Soldiers are Such a Complex Issue,” Refugee Survey Quarterly 27, no. 4 (December 2008): 102. 8 Human Rights Watch. 9 Vautravers, Alexandre J. “Why Chidl Soldiers Are Such a Complex Issue”, Refugee Survey Quarterly (Vol. 27, No. 4), 2009. 10 James Marten, “Introduction,” in Children and War: A Historical Anthology, ed. James Marten (New York: New York University Press, 2002), 4-5. 11 Kate Brannen, “Children of the Caliphate,” Foreign Policy, October 24 2014.

4 cases be attributed to the problem of international campaigns exacerbating youth-based recruitment. Experts warn of the complications that can arise when these campaigns uncritically apply a Western understanding of children to non-Western settings.12

In this report, we will first outline the historical development of this phenomenon, and how it came to into the purview of the United Nations. Consulting the international organizations such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, as well as sources from the United Nations itself, we will then address the current state of affairs. This will be done on a regional basis, highlighting certain countries that have failed to comply with international law, both historically and in the present. Finally, we will conclude with an overview of attempts made by states to rehabilitate and reintegrate former child soldiers into society.

Historical Overview The history of the use of children in warfare can be traced back to pre-modern Europe, during which the use of child soldiers was in fact quite common. In societies where many children were abandoned to fend for themselves, one of the only options available to them was to join a regiment, which would provide them with a steady source of employment. Younger children of large families were also often sent to join the regiments as an attempt by families to pay “their debt” to society, increasing the manpower of the state’s defenses.13 With the passage of time however, the lives of these children became more regulated, especially given the introduction of mandatory primary education. As such, there was no more reason for children to seek alternative methods of eking out a living when education was an option available to them. More importantly, national armies were professionalized, and conscripted for service (rather than relying on the recruitment of civilian children). This professionalization also entailed a minimum age for service in the national armed forces in most modern European societies. This process was compounded by the escalation of the means of warfare that accompanied the Industrial Revolution – rather than a motley group of ill-equipped and ill-trained child soldiers, national armies now consisted of conscripted and trained professionals.14

12 Kendra E. Dupuy and Krijn Peters, War and Children: A Reference Handbook (Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO, LLC, 2010), xiii. 13 Vautravers, 98. 14 Vautravers, 98.

5 The twentieth century however saw an unprecedented level of conflict in the international arena, and the unfortunate consequence of this was the return of the use of children in warfare. During WWII, in order to resupply the dwindling armies at the warfront, states repeatedly lowered the draft age. On the Allied side, the war effort required mobilization of entire populations, with women substituting for positions vacated by men at the warfront (particularly in the USSR). In the US, the draft system’s age was lowered to 18 so as to maximize the size of the army. The UK adopted similar practices. Germany was by far the worst offender – the entire population was militarized for the war effort, and youth movements (i.e. the Hitler Youth) were conscripted, with boys being eligible for drafting when they were as young as 16. The totality of WWII and the unprecedented level of militarization in the participating nations had an adverse effect on the more vulnerable segments of the population.15

Following WWII, the phenomenon of decolonization only exacerbated the situation, as national movements agitating for independence attracted (and in some case, forcefully compelled) the participation of all aspects of society, including children. All of these instances would be seen as minor, however, in comparison to the post-Cold War increase in the use of child soldiers.16

The nature of warfare itself changed after the Cold War, a result of the shifting dynamics of the international regime that came about with the collapse of the Soviet Union. The most notable difference was an increase in intrastate warfare (as opposed to state-on-state conflict). This signaled the entry of non-state actors into conflicts: insurgent groups, private military companies, etc. These non-state actors, unlike sovereign states, do not having a monopoly on the use of force (i.e. a state-sanctioned, national army), and therefore must resort to unconventional tactics of war, such as ambushes, kidnapping, and terrorism. This proliferation of unsanctioned war tactics is a consequence, according to some scholars, of the erosion of the Westphalian era (i.e. 1648-1989), in which the state had ultimate sovereignty. In effect, these scholars contend that we have entered an era of “Neo-feudalism”, in which non-state actors (and consequently, failed states), endanger the lives of vulnerable segments of the population, including children, in order to carry out their intrastate warfare. The statistics provided by the United Nations illustrate this clearly: while civilian deaths accounted for 10% and 45% of the casualties of WWI and WWII respectively, they now account for an alarming 90% of casualties caused by war. In the 1990s alone, an estimated 1.5 children were killed by warfare, with 4 million injured and another 12 million becoming displaced refugees.17

15 Vautravers, 99. 16 Vautravers, 99. 17 Marten, 2.

6 The issue of child soldiers, and the unfortunate consequences it has on the children affected, came under the purview of the United Nations in the mid- 1990s. In 1994, Graça Machel, a Mozambican humanitarian, was appointed as the head of a commission designed to comprehensively study the issue. The commission published a report for the General Assembly in 1996; this was the first major, multistate study on the impact of war on children, and its content set the agenda for the next decade of international efforts concentrated on ameliorating the situation. The report covered a wide variety of unfortunate fates that could befall children during a conflict, including sexual exploitation and recruitment into warfare. Importantly, the report also discussed the reintegration process for survivors.18

Following the report, the United Nations took action on the matter, culminating with the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the Involvement of Children in Armed Conflict in 2000. Simultaneously, numerous organizations (i.e. Amnesty International, Child Soldiers International, Human Rights Watch, etc.) have made it their priority to prevent future recruitment of child soldiers as well as research into effective methods of reintegrating survivors into society.

Although the results of the Machel Report may now be dated, the principles of the findings nevertheless remain relevant. Machel urged a holistic approach to the solution, keeping in mind that not all child soldiers are forcibly recruited; in many cases, they choose to join of their volition. Acknowledging their agency in choosing to commit to the war effort is primary to solving the problem in a sustainable manner, according to recent scholars.19 In fact, recent evidence suggests that many child soldiers are not forced but rather voluntarily recruited – of course, the extent to which their decision is truly voluntary is a matter of debate. There might be extenuating circumstances that forced their hand. It is a mistake nevertheless to view these children as victims that do not have sufficient understanding of what the conflict might require of them – in fact, many young people interviewed by these researches showed a remarkably accurate understanding of the war they involved themselves in.20

One last development in the scholarship of child soldiers is the dimension of gender and how perception of gender has affected approaches to preventing child soldiers. It was once presumed that girls, once recruited, would play a largely secondary role (providing support rather than engaging in battle). In fact, female child soldiers often actively fight in frontline positions during conflicts. That is not to say that girls aren’t recruited only for the sake of domestic or sexual services. The reintegration of female child soldiers into society is slightly more difficult because their lived experiences as child

18 War and Children, xi. 19 War and Children, xii. 20 War and Children, xi.

7 soldiers differ from that of their male counterparts. For example, some girls try to establish a relationship with a commanding officer while in the armed forces so as to ensure security and some level of protection (not to mention avoiding the advances of other men in the corps). More importantly, girls that choose to enlist often break a cultural taboo and therefore find it more difficult to reenter society without facing the disapproval of the community. All of these newly discovered factors (and those that are yet to be discovered) must be taken into account if we are to effectively prevent the use of child soldiers, and to provide support for those individuals that survive their experiences in the conflict.21

The following is a brief timeline of the evolution of international law and its efforts to protect the rights of children:

• 1920: International Save the Children Union

• 1924: League of Nations adopted the Declaration on the Rights of the Child

• 1948: Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR)

• 1949: Geneva Conventions

• 1967 Protocol Relating to the Status of Refugees

• 1989 UN Convention on the Rights of the Child

• 1977 Additional Protocols I & II to the 1949 Geneva Conventions

• 1989 UN Convention on the Rights of the Child

• The result of ten years of negotiations and drafting, this is the most widely signed and ratified convention ever

• Article 38: During armed conflicts, there is an obligation for the treatment of children under conflict

• Article 39: Promotes the rehabilitative care of children harmed by armed conflict

• Article 40: Children shouldn’t be held accountable for crimes they committed when under the age limit

• 1990 African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child

21 War and Children, 55.

8 • 1999 International Labour Organization (Convention 182: Convention Concerning the Prohibition and Immediate Action for the Elimination of the Worst Forms of Child Labour)

• 2000 Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the Involvement of Children in Armed Conflict22

Current Conditions and Relevant International Actions There are no shortages of conventions and treaties and protocols both at the international and regional levels between states vowing to prevent the recruitment and use of children in warfare. Notable examples include the aforementioned United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989), African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child (1990) and the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the Involvement of Children in Armed Conflict (2000).23 The UN Convention on the Rights of Child, drafted in 1989, is as mentioned above, the most widely ratified convention in United Nations history, with 190 states having ratified the Convention as of 1997 (almost all member states of the United Nations itself).24 While all of this would suggest that the Machel Report and the subsequent advocacy against child soldiers has been effective, in reality the problem is far from being resolved. As the following portion of the report will illustrate, children in almost every corner of the globe continue to be under threat. Middle East In Afghanistan, it is estimated that thousands of children were recruited to take part in the civil wars that raged from the late 1980s to early 2000s, at which point NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) became involved. Today many children continue to be recruited, this time to fight on behalf of the Taliban. The purposes for which they are used include the deploying and

22 War and Children, 15. 23 “International Standards,” Child Soldiers International, accessed December 10, 2014, http://www.child-soldiers.org/international_standards.php. 24 “Convention on the Rights of the Child,” Amnesty International, accessed December 10, 2014, http://www.amnestyusa.org/our-work/issues/children-s-rights/ convention-on-the-rights-of-the-child-0.

9 operating of mines, IEDs and acting as human bombs for suicide missions.25 Some children who have come forward with their stories explain that they often had no choice but to join due to generational pressure, perhaps from their father, or another male authority-figure in the family who was already part of the conflict. An unfortunate consequence of this familial dimension to this warfare is that many close-knit families and clans are torn apart by divisions between family members who support different factions in the conflict. As of 2009, NATO was attempting to introduce a rehabilitative dimension in their Afghan strategy by trying to reintegrate these forced child soldiers into society. This might include enabling them to return to school and complete their education, or equipping them with the resources to become farmers.26 A flaw in this strategy is that for many children in Afghanistan, the violence they witnessed and were forced to take part in was quite often a direct consequence of the NATO invasion – as such, they may not look so favourably upon any Western-led attempt to rehabilitate them.27 There are however, promising signs of cooperation towards this end from the local government itself. In July of 2014, the Afghan government (in cooperation with UNICEF) endorsed a “road maps” plan, a continuation of the original Action Plan signed in 2011, that would see to strengthening birth registration as well as age verification mechanisms in the state, to prevent the recruitment of child soldiers.28

In Egypt, there were allegations that children were used in the protests of 2011. Egyptian government officials claimed that anti-government protesters were recruiting children for their speed, agility and small size. They also lodged complaints that children were being encouraged by these protesters to throw rocks or Molotov cocktails at soldiers. Advocates on the ground explain that the children in question often saw the revolution as a “way to escape their isolation from society,” given that many came from disadvantaged situations. While there is proof that children are often encouraged by rally organizers to take part in the protests, there is no definitive evidence that they were used for aggressive purposes. Many children’s rights activists in Egypt suspect that the government might have fabricated the allegations in order to discredit the

25 “Afghanistan – Groomed to Kill,” Foreign Correspondent, ABC News. (Sydney, Australia: ABC, May 05, 2014), http://www.abc.net.au/foreign/content/2014/ s3999139.htm. 26 Kim Sengupta, “Independent Appeal: A child is reborn,” The Independent, December 24, 2009, http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/independent- appeal-a-child-is-reborn-1849087.html. 27 “Afghanistan – Groomed to Kill.” 28 “UN welcomes Afghanistan’s recommitment to end recruitment of child soldiers,” UN News Centre, last modified August 1, 2014, http://www.un.org/apps/ news/story.asp?NewsID=48393#.VJu75cAA0.

10 protestors.29 At the governmental level, on the topic of the Egyptian national army, there is an unfortunate lack of clear legislation about the conscription of children under 18. As of 2010, the government is also responsible for the sale of small arms and lightweight weapons to the neighbouring state of Sudan, despite Sudan’s history of the use of child soldiers.30 This is quite problematic, given that a severe roadblock in international efforts to prevent the recruitment of child soldiers is the fact that offending states are often enabled by the import of weapons from other states; these weapons can easily fall into factions that would use them to arm children and there are no effective mechanisms to prevent this.

There are currently numerous non-governmental armed groups operating in Iraq, many in opposition to the invasion and occupation of the state by international forces. Many of these armed groups unfortunately make use of child soldiers, offering children monetary rewards in return for their participation (al-Qaeda is especially guilty of this). Children as young as 10 to 13 are used in suicide bombings, and mentally disabled children are allegedly used by al-Qaeda to conduct night raids, or as decoys in diversionary tactics before the launch of an attack. There is evidence that many of these recruits were in fact children orphaned by the US invasion of Iraq in 2003. This suggests that the Western invasion has played a large role in creating enough frustration among the youth population to warrant their voluntary participation in the conflict. Moreover, many of these child soldiers who are captured by the government’s forces are then interred in detention centers where they are then allegedly subject to abuses such as forced nudity, beatings, and the use of dogs against them. According to Child Soldiers International, by 2008 the Iraqi government was in the process of taking measures to prevent such abuses, with the establishment of the Commission of Child Care.31 The most recent threat to Iraqi children has been the growth and spread of ISIS (Islamic State of Iraq and Syria), which is allegedly training children to become soldiers for their cause. This includes not only teaching them to clean, disassemble and shoot machine guns, but also forcing them to become human shields

29 Soraya Sarhaddi Nelson, “Egypt’s Street Kids Are Revolution’s Smallest Soldiers,” NPR, January 04, 2012, http://www.npr.org/2012/01/04/144692425/ egypts-street-kids-are-revolutions-smallest-soldiers. 30 Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers, Report to the Committee on the Rights of the Child in advance of the examination of Egypt’s initial report on the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the involvement of children in armed conflict, November 2010, http://www.child-soldiers.org/research_ report_reader.php?id=292. 31 Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers, Global Report 2008 – Iraq, 2008, http://www.child-soldiers.org/chapter_reader.php?id=175.

11 and suicide bombers. Analysts believe this indoctrination to be a strategic attempt by ISIS to ensure the longevity of their rebel forces by cultivating a second generation of fighters.32

Much of the literature on child soldiers in Israel concerns the government’s policies on recruitment and training. Although under-18s are not able to engage in combat according to Israeli law, there nevertheless remain a number of ‘supporting activities’ that children under 18 are able to engage in that expose them to risks. Some recruits for example are expected to patron and guard the military bases in which they are trained (some of these bases are located in the West Bank). The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) moreover has elite units of combat forces for which recruitment is open to 17-year-olds – although the government assures the international community that under- 18s are not involved in active combat (the actual legislation for mechanisms in place to prevent this is not made public). Aside from the IDF, Israel also has a Civil Guard (the Israeli Police), which under-18s (some as young as 14) have been allowed to join. Part of the Civil Guard’s responsibilities includes being on call for emergency situations, and there is thus potential for under- 18s to be drawn into active combat. Israel has also been condemned for a lack of transparency regarding military schools. It is believed that the number of military schools operating in the state is much larger than the figure the government has officially put forward. A final aspect in which Israel has proven less than exemplary is it exports of small arms (amounting to an estimated $140 million USD in 2010) to states such as Colombia, India, Philippines, Thailand and Sri Lanka, all having histories of grave violations of children’s rights.33

In Syria, like in Iraq, the most worrisome threat of the moment is the spread of ISIS. Many of the same training operations and processes of ‘radical mental’ indoctrination that are being carried out in Iraq are also taking place in Syria (see Iraq above). ISIS has in fact established an enlistment office specifically targeted at children in Aleppo. In some cases, these children volunteer of their own accord, while others are pressured into doing so by parents who are already part of the rebel group. Recruiting officers from ISIS deny that the children are forced to involve themselves in the combat – rather, they are only taken to the frontlines so as to acclimate them to the atmosphere as part of their training. The UN however believes that ISIS is systematically providing weapons training to children and deploying them during military operations 32 Cassandra Vinograd, Ghazi Balkiz and Ammar Cheikh Omar, “ISIS Trains Child Soldiers at Camps for ‘Cubs of the Islamic State’,” NBC News, November 7, 2014, http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/isis-terror/isis-trains-child-soldiers-camps- cubs-islamic-state-n241821. 33 Child Soldiers International, Report to the Committee on the Rights of the Child in advance of Israel’s second periodic report under the Convention on the Rights of the Child, August 2012, http://www.child-soldiers.org/research_report_ reader.php?id=548.

12 for active combat.34 Human Rights Watch corroborates this allegation, stating that ISIS is deploying minors in suicide bombings. While ISIS is currently the most notorious, there are other armed groups operating in Syria at the moment, and they too employ child soldiers – notable examples include Harakat Ahrar al-Sham al-Islamiya, Al-Tawhid Brigade, and Jabhat al-Nusra. The Free Syrian Army has also been implicated – while official policy is that those under 18 cannot be recruited, commanders have said that if anyone under 18 volunteers their services, they are not turned away. Monitoring groups on the ground in Syria estimate that as of June 2014, a total of 194 ‘non-civilian’ male children have been killed in the fighting since September of 2011 (these are only the documented cases). In interviews with survivors, a variety of reasons are listed as being the impetus behind why these children choose to join these groups. Some wanted to join male family members or friends who have already been recruited, some no longer had a school to attend, and others had a genuine belief in the doctrine of the groups.35

While the United Arab Emirates has no identified issues with the recruitment of child soldiers on its territory, the international community perceives the state as a potential ally in advancing humanitarian efforts in the Middle Eastern region. The Deputy Executive Director of UNICEF, Dr. Rima Salah, expressed a desire in 2011 to reinforce an alliance between the UN and the UAE. Such reinforcement might require the UAE to aid UNICEF with the procurement of food and immunizations for children in the region. The UAE has been receptive to the idea, pledging $100 000 USD towards UNICEF activities in 2011.36

The government of Yemen has been known to recruit children between the ages of 15-18 for the Yemeni Armed Forces. Some of these child recruits then became involved in a breakaway faction of the army which joined the anti- government forces in 2011. Human Rights Watch has interviewed individuals as young as 14 or 15 who had been fighting in the Yemeni army’s First Armored Division for 2 years.37 As of 2014, the Yemeni government has signed an action plan with the UN to “end and prevent the recruitment of child soldiers by the Yemeni Armed Forces”. Part of this action plan requires that all children currently associated with the forces be released and reintegrated into their

34 “ISIS Trains Child Soldiers at Camps for ‘Cubs of the Islamic State’”. 35 Human Rights Watch, “Maybe We Live and Maybe We Die”: Recruitment and Use of Children by Armed Groups in Syria, 2014, http://www.hrw.org/sites/default/ files/reports/syria0614_crd_ForUpload.pdf. 36 Preeti Kannan, “UN calls for UAE help on child soldiers,” The National, November 17, 2011, http://www.thenational.ae/news/uae-news/un-calls-for-uae- help-on-child-soldiers. 37 “Yemen: Stop Using Children in Armed Forces: Child Soldiers Recruited by Army Now Deployed by Opposition,” Human Rights Watch, April 14, 2011, http:// www.hrw.org/news/2011/04/14/yemen-stop-using-children-armed-forces.

13 communities. This has been seen as a “landmark” victory for the office of the Secretary General’s Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict (the office first established in 1994 with Graça Machel at the helm).38 North America Canada considers itself a leading advocate on humanitarian efforts concerning children and armed conflicts. The state hosted the first International Conference on War-Affected Children in 2000 in Winnipeg, and played a strong role in negotiations over the Optional Protocol. Since 2006, the government has provided over $1.3 million CAD to policy development projects. The Canadian Government website has pinpointed three main goals for its efforts: (1) Strengthening the Monitoring and Reporting Mechanism, (2) Accountability of parties who commit grave violations, and (3) Supporting efforts to expand Monitoring and Reporting Mechanisms to encompass all grave violations.39 There are allegations, however, that during Canada’s stay in Afghanistan the Canadian Forces may have handed over suspected child insurgents to Afghan authorities who then incarcerated the children. This is in violation of the international principle that child soldiers ought not to be punished for acts that they committed while underage. The appropriate course of action for the Canadian Forces would have been to hand the children over to UNICEF. This is a mistake that other states have also made (for instance, the Iraqi government interred children in detention centers – see above), and is an area for improvement in humanitarian efforts.40

The United States of America is one of three countries in the international community (the other two being Somalia and South Sudan), that has failed to ratify the Convention on the Rights of the Child. This is largely a result of domestic opposition to the Convention, stemming from misconceptions about what the treaty would entail. Conservative groups (of the political and religious variety) have claimed that ratification of the treaty would be against the US Constitution and that it would signal the erosion of national sovereignty. Given that the Convention is one of the most widely accepted treaties of the UN, and that the other two non-ratifying states have suggested they will reconsider their participation, the US’s decision is a blight on its record. The Convention would no doubt be reinforced by the support of such

38 “Children, Not Soldiers: Yemen Signs Action Plan to End Recruitment and Use of Children by Armed Forces,” United Nations Children’s Fund, May 14, 2014, http:// www.unicef.org/media/media_73490.html. 39 “Children and Armed Forces,” Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development Canada, last modified November 28, 2014. http://www.international.gc.ca/rights- droits/child_soldiers-enfants_soldats.aspx?lang=eng. 40 Thomas Walkom, “Canada and Child Soldiers,” The Toronto Star, May 28, 2008, http://www.thestar.com/opinion/editorialopinion/2008/05/28/canada_and_ child_soldiers.html.

14 a powerful nation.41 More tangibly, however, there is evidence that the United States, if sufficiently pressured, will withdraw support and aid from states involved in the use of child soldiers. This was the case in 2013, when the US government blocked military aid to Rwanda over the latter state’s alleged backing of M23, a Congolese rebel group known for sending child soldiers into active combat.42 These sanctions also extended to the Central African Republic, Myanmar, Sudan and Syria.43 Central and South America It is estimated that there are thousands (perhaps even hundreds of thousands) of homeless children in the favelas of Brazil, many of them uneducated and with very few or no family members alive to help them. Unfortunately, this causes many to join Brazilian gangs as a means of survival. For children marginalized from society, gang leaders can seem like role models, especially given their relative power and wealth. There are also other, more dire incentives for children to join gangs – many face the threat of police violence, death squads and rival gang violence. These children are therefore vulnerable to gangs looking to recruit individuals eager for power, protection and family ties. They become ‘urban child soldiers’, and can be found in street gangs, ethnic militias and vigilante groups in Brazil.44 At the governmental level, the Brazilian government has ratified the Optional Protocol, and while it is ostensibly illegal to recruit those under the age of 18 for military service, there appears to be some ambiguity in the legislation that suggests recruitments could take place at a younger age, according to Child Soldiers International.45

Although Cuba is party to the Optional Protocol, it does not support the ‘under-18’ principle – in 1996, it confirmed to the UN that the minimum age for conscription in Cuba was 17. Military service is considered an honor and a duty for all Cuban citizens, and youth are encouraged to be militarily 41 “Convention on the Rights of the Child: Frequently Asked Questions,” Amnesty International, 2013. http://www.amnestyusa.org/our-work/issues/children- s-rights/convention-on-the-rights-of-the-child-0. 42 David Smith, “US blocks military aid to Rwanda over alleged backing of M23 child soldiers,” The Guardian, October 4, 2013. http://www.theguardian.com/global- development/2013/oct/04/us-military-aid-rwanda-m23-child-soldiers. 43 “U.S. sanctions Rwanda, others over child soldiers,” Reuters, October 3, 2013. http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/10/03/us-usa-africa-childsoldiers- idUSBRE9920SJ20131003. 44 “From Cradle to Conflict: Child Soldiers’ Growing Role in Latin America’s Drug Wars,” Council on Hemispheric Affairs, April 24, 2012. http://www.coha.org/ from-cradle-to-conflict-latin-americas-child-soldiers-new-direction-to-drug- wars/#_ftn9 45 Child Soldiers International, Child Soldiers Global Report 2008 - Brazil, 20 May 2008, http://www.refworld.org/docid/486cb0ec2d.html.

15 involved. Towards this end, a part of the Cuban army is devoted towards youth population- the Youth Labor Army. There are also numerous military schools and military training is an inherent part of a Cuban curriculum. More specifically, it is part of a “patriotic education” that encourages “participation in political, social and military activities”.46

Following a military coup in Haiti in 2004, there were armed groups agitating for the return of former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, some of them using children as spies, guards, messengers or general helpers (with the transport of weapons, etc.). The situation only deteriorated over the following years and armed rebels and gangs continued to spread, particularly in impoverished urban neighborhoods. In such places, the destitution of the families and the lack of opportunities for education render children vulnerable to recruitment by the rebels. Aside from the tasks listed above, these recruits are also expected to keep guard over kidnapped individuals, or throw stones at government troops. There have also been documented cases of children and women being used as shields by the gangs to escape arrest. Girls were especially at risk, with the UN estimating that in 2006, about 50% of girls living in violent urban neighbourhoods were victims of rape, a tactic used by the rebels to intimidate local populations.47

In Mexico, it is a common practice for drug cartels to recruit children and adolescents to be used in the smuggling of drugs across the border, and for other more violent requirements. Children are preferred for their comparative fearlessness and the recruits themselves are eager to join for monetary incentives, respect and a sense of community and security.48 According to social workers, the influx of child volunteers can be explained by familial and governmental neglect (schools are not open, there is no work and no opportunity for children). Once recruited, these children are given basic weapons training in camps located in forests along the Guatemalan border. They are then used as diversions against the Mexican government’s superior military forces (often engaging in shooting matches with trained soldiers when they themselves do not know how to shoot the guns properly).49

46 Child Soldiers International, Child Soldiers Global Report 2004 - Cuba, 2004, http://www.refworld.org/country,,CSCOAL,,CUB,,49880665b,0.html. 47 Child Soldiers International, Child Soldiers Global Report 2008 - Haiti, 20 May 2008, http://www.refworld.org/docid/486cb10528.html. 48 “From Cradle to Conflict: Child Soldiers’ Growing Role in Latin America’s Drug Wars.” 49 Robert Beckhusen, “How Mexico’s Drug Cartels Recruit Child Soldiers as Young as 11,” Wired, March 28, 2013. http://www.wired.com/2013/03/mexico-child- soldiers/

16 Europe Germany is the world’s third largest arms exporter and as such, is often directly responsible for the supply of small weapons to states in crisis areas where there these weapons often land in the hands of rebel forces that use them to arm child soldiers. In 2012 alone, Germany had approved the export of nearly 67 000 small arms. One of the more notable rifle manufacturers in the state is Heckler & Koch, which produces the G3 automatic rifle. This was also the weapon used in the civil war in Sierra Leone, and is one of the most widely used assault rifles in the world (second only to the Kalashnikov). It does not appear for the moment that Germany will be taking any steps to reduce its exports.50 In fact, H&K has sold the license for production of G3 rifles to multiple other states, meaning that it is all the more likely that rifles will end up in crisis zones. Unfortunately, a company as large as H&K is often vitally important for the local economy in which it is based, and any attempts by the government to curtail arms exports would result in protests from the domestic population.51

In the current situation unfolding in the Crimea between Russia and Ukraine, it is believed that children might be adversely affected. There are allegations that pro-Russian militants in the rebel stronghold of Donetsk are actively recruiting children. Some adolescents join due to familial connections (i.e. having a father already in the rebel forces).52 Separatists have also begun visiting Ukrainian schools to propagandize their cause. While the problem is not widespread (there are not many cases documented), there has been outrage over the way Russian media has handled the story of pro-Russian militant children, portraying them as heroes.53

Great Britain is the only member state in the European Union that still allows for adolescents under 18 years of age to enlist in the army. In fact, the government actively recruits teenagers as young as 16, and the official website for the British Armed Forces has a section targeted towards 14-16

50 Bettina Marx, “German rifles may land in child soldiers’ hands,” Deutsche Welle, February 13, 2014. http://www.dw.de/german-rifles-may-land-in-child- soldiers-hands/a-17426642. 51 Ben Knight, “Oberndorf: the tiny German town that armed the world,” The Guardian, February 25, 2014. http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/feb/25/ oberndorf-german-town-armed-world-heckler-kock. 52 Mat Babiak, “Donetsk terrorists openly recruit child soldiers,” Euromaidan Press, August 2, 2014. http://euromaidanpress.com/2014/08/02/donetsk-terrorists- openly-recruit-child-soldiers/. 53 Vitaly Shevchenko, “Ukraine conflict: Child soldiers join the fight,” BBC, November 25, 2014. http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-30134421.

17 year olds.54 Presently, individuals under 18 comprise of more than a quarter of incoming British Army recruits, and although they cannot legally be sent into active combat, the government withholds the right to deploy them if it perceives a genuine military need. It is believed that at least 20 Britons under 18 served active duty during the British occupation in Iraq and Afghanistan, a mistake made by the administration. Despite both domestic and international complaints, the government considers this a non-issue, claiming that a career in the military is often a viable and attractive option for youth.55 Asia As of 2008, Burma’s military had the largest number of child soldier recruits, with thousands of children and adolescents (some as young as 11 years old), serving in the national army. The UN Secretary General had condemned the state as one of the worst perpetrators of child recruitment for several consecutive years. The Security Council has unfortunately failed to take effective action to condemn the state for its behavior. Previously, the Security Council has adopted tough stances on states such as the Ivory Coast, or the Democratic Republic of Congo, and on non-state actors such as the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, with effective results. In the case of Burma however, the Security Council could not unanimously agree to take action to condemn the state, the biggest reason being China’s staunch support of Burma as an ally of its military regime. The Chinese have been recalcitrant towards the issue, not allowing the Council to discuss Burma’s history of violations against children. Had the state been more accommodating, a resolution for the Burmese child soldiers might have arrived more swiftly.56 As of October 2014, the Burmese government had formally discharged 108 boys that had been recruited as children to fight in the military. This act follows the election in 2010 of a quasi-democratic government that replaced the military dictatorship that had ruled the country for the past 50 years. The new government, seeking to avoid international condemnation, has begun the process of reforming the national forces, and had signed an action plan with the UN in 2012 to demobilize all child soldiers and stop future recruitment. Thus far, 472 children have been discharged under the plan. Unfortunately for

54 Leo Hickman, “Why do the British armed forces still allow 16-year- olds to enlist?,” The Guardian, April 23, 2013. http://www.theguardian.com/uk/ shortcuts/2013/apr/23/british-armed-forces-16-year-olds. 55 Katie Rucke, “For British Army, Most New Recruits are Child Soldiers,” Mint Press News, May 28, 2014. http://www.mintpressnews.com/for-british-army-most- new-recruits-are-child-soldiers/191493/. 56 Jo Becker, “Child soldiers and the China factor,” The New York Times, September 12, 2008. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/12/opinion/12iht- edbecker.1.16101114.html?_r=0.

18 these soldiers, with very little training or education, they have trouble finding employment once they have returned to their communities. Reintegration into the community has proven very difficult.57

In Pakistan, where the Taliban is a threatening presence in the region, a disturbing number of suicide bombers (an estimated 90%) are between the ages of 12 and 18. The Taliban themselves have come forth to say they recruit those as young as 5-7 years old. Testimonies of those who have been rescued by the Pakistani military suggest that these children were heavily indoctrinated with the group’s beliefs. This is an important recruitment mechanism, playing on the Pashtun culture’s intrinsic link to concepts of honor and revenge, branding non-Muslims in Afghanistan and Iraq as a threat against vulnerable Muslim populations. In the process of rehabilitating survivors into communities after their safe retrieval, the Pakistani government must take into consideration the conditions that compelled these children to volunteer in the first place. Many came from disadvantaged situations, with very few skills that would allow for them to access opportunities employment-wise. Any program of reintegration ought to include de-radicalization, and more importantly, the provision of skill-building courses that will prepare the children for the future. Moreover, these programs need to be adapted for each particular village, taking into consideration the individual culture and society, in order to be truly effective on a large scale.58

The twenty-five year conflict in Sri Lanka between government forces and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam has had a very negative effect on civilian Tamil children, with the UN estimating that between 2002 and 2007 alone, 6,903 children were recruited by the LTTE to be used as child soldiers. These boys and girls would be used as scouts and sentries (and in the late 1990s, this escalated to use in combat). Once the conflict concluded in May of 2009, UNICEF successfully oversaw that the return of 594 children (between the ages of 12 and 18) to the government was carried out in a way as to ensure the safety of the children – they were seen as victims and were thus not persecuted. UNICEF also helped create a legal framework to carry out the rehabilitation of these child soldiers (providing education, recreation and vocational training). This included, importantly, psychological support to help with the transition.59 Unfortunately, these efforts have not proven entirely sufficient, as some child soldiers still face problems reintegrating, challenged

57 Dani Patteran, “Burma’s child soldiers return home to face a fresh set of challenges,” The Guardian, October 2, 2014. http://www.theguardian.com/global- development/2014/oct/02/burma-child-soldiers-army-recruitment 58 Alana Horowitz, “Pakistani Militants Using Children in Bombings,” The Huffington Post, March 14, 2012. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/03/14/ pakistani-militant-group-children_n_2875768.html 59 Suzanne Davey, “Once a child soldier now an ice-crème truck driver,” Sri Lanka – UNICEF. http://www.unicef.org/srilanka/reallives_7924.htm.

19 especially by having to gain the acceptance of their former communities. Coordinated efforts between the Sri Lankan government and the UN continue at present to establish community-based reintegration of the survivors.60 Africa At the governmental level in Chad, officers of the Chadian National Army are known to have used boys as young as 14 years old as soldiers. To compound this problem, there are also armed groups in the state which employ under- 18s for their own use. Following recent violence in the state, an estimated 500 000 people live in refugee or displacement camps in the state, and these camps are fertile ground for rebel officers to recruit children for their cause. These adolescents have very little access to education in the camps, and even fewer employment opportunities. They also lack a social support system, as many have lost relatives and friends in the fighting. While the armed groups cannot always provide monetary incentives for recruitment, the children are sometimes guaranteed the spoils of looting raids carried out by the group. Rebels are even known to send in well-dressed children (carrying money and cigarettes) to the camps to speak highly of the advantages of joining the rebel group as a recruitment strategy. Of those recruited adolescents, those between the ages of 13 and 17 are most likely to be used in active combat, while those as young as 10 are used as porters and messengers. Through cooperation with UNICEF, the Chadian government attempted to launch an action plan to demobilize and reintegrate these children in 2007, but the program proved to be a disappointment. While underfunding was a reason for this failure, the efforts also fell through because of the continuation of the conditions that triggered children to volunteer in the first place (i.e. extreme poverty and a lack of programs to alleviate conditions).61

Although the civil war in the Democratic Republic of Congo (between the national army and numerous Congolese and foreign armed rebel groups) came to an end in 2002, fighting continues in the eastern region of the state. All factions involved in the conflict are known to have recruited children for military purposes. Although the phenomenon is relatively lower in the national army, there is still a lack of effective mechanisms to prevent underage recruitment by the government. A recent spike in the violence in 2011 and 2012 exacerbated the problem. In March of 2012, the International Criminal Court convicted Thomas Lubanga, the leader of Union of Congolese Patriots

60 “Sri Lanka: Former child soldiers struggle for a normal life,” IRIN News, November 10, 2010. http://www.irinnews.org/report/90973/sri-lanka-former-child- soldiers-struggle-for-a-normal-life. 61 “Chad must end the recruitment and use of children in armed conflict,” Amnesty International, February 9, 2011. http://www.amnesty.org/en/news- and-updates/report/chad-must-end-recruitment-and-use-children-armed- conflict-2011-02-09.

20 (a rebel group) for war crimes related to the enlistment of children under the age of 15 for combat. This is a welcome step for advocates for the rights of children, for it signals that those who engage in the recruitment of child soldiers will be held accountable by the international community. There are nevertheless areas for improvement, as the local Congolese authorities have failed to do their part by investigating individuals suspected of recruitment.62 According to a report by the UN in October 2013, an estimated 10 000 children had been retrieved from armed groups in last five years, but during the same period of time, another 1000 had been recruited by the 25+ armed groups in the state. To effectively alleviate this situation, efforts must be made by the local government itself, in tandem with the United Nations.63

In 2009, Charles Taylor of Liberia became the first African leader to appear at The Hague, facing charges of crimes against humanity for his recruitment of child soldiers in the national army. He faced a total of 11 charges, all of them in relation to the ten-year civil war that occurred in the neighbouring state of Sierra Leone. Additionally, as a leader of a rebel group prior to his presidency, he had formed the Small Boys Unit (made up of children aged 11 and under), known as one of his most feared rebel battalions. Through his brutality, thousands of children’s lives were irredeemably damaged. Many lost members of their families, and those who survived combat find it very difficult to reintegrate into society, such is the psychological trauma. In Liberia alone, 60% of child soldiers witnessed another child being beaten to death, while a shocking 87% had seen a family member killed. The psychological trauma has led to increased suicide rates across the region. Many find that they have become a social pariah in their former community – girls that were forced to become soldiers and sexual slaves are labeled as ‘rebel wives’ and accused of being complicit in the violence carried out on their own communities. These girls are forced into transactional sex (bartering sex for food, security, etc.) for lack of any viable alternatives.64 The stigma of being a child soldier extends beyond the village to local and central government as well. Many of the returning children become hostile and fall into drug use as a result. Efforts are being made to alleviate the situation, an example being the Disarmament, Demobilization, Rehabilitation and Reintegration programmed, which offered $300 and training to children who were able to return their weapons.65

62 Child Soldiers International, Democratic Republic of Congo. http://www. child-soldiers.org/country_reader.php?id=3. 63 “Growing up in war – the DRC’s child soldiers,” IRIN News, March 31, 2014. http://www.irinnews.org/report/99869/growing-up-in-war-the-drc-s-child-soldiers. 64 Annie Kelly, “Agony without end for Liberia’s child soldiers,” The Guardian, July 12, 2009. http://www.theguardian.com/world/2009/jul/12/liberia-child-soldiers. 65 “Liberian child soldiers face ongoing battle,” Business Day Live, May 27, 2014. http://www.bdlive.co.za/africa/2014/05/27/liberian-child-soldiers-face-ongoing- battle.

21 The government of Rwanda is accused by the international community for backing the M23 rebel forces in the Democratic Republic of Congo, a group known to recruit children for combat.66 There is much evidence to support these allegations, with Rwandan officials playing a role in the assistance of recruitment for M23 on sovereign Rwandan territory. They aid the recruitment of Congolese children located in refugee camps in Rwanda. The Security Council has strongly condemned the crimes against children carried out by M23, and has asked that states in the region do not help the rebels in any way. The Rwandan government, however, continues to deny these allegations. It has also refused to conduct any effective (and impartial) investigation into the suspected Rwandan officials.67

In 2000, a rebel group in Sierra Leone, calling themselves the Revolutionary United Front, was responsible for recruiting child soldiers for use in the front lines of combat. The recruits included those who had already served as child soldiers but then were able to escape and had the potential to reintegrate into society. Other uses for the adolescents included transportation of military equipment and looted goods. Female recruits were regularly subject to sexual abuse and rape. These rebels found their vulnerable targets in camps meant for demobilized child soldiers, where they spread misinformation about the future these children would have if they chose to stay rather than rejoin the group (i.e. that they would be sold when they left the camp, etc.). In other cases, they threatened the children with the killing of the camp’s other members if they themselves do not volunteer. 68 Once enlisted, these children became forcefully desensitized to violence, and any show of emotion was violently punished by commanders. The trauma they underwent at the hands of their captors often fuelled their frustration into destructive behavior in combat zones.69

In 2012, parts of Somalia were under the control of Al-Shabaab, an Islamist militant organization, which sought to increase the number of its fighters by recruiting children, in some cases as young as 10. Although child recruitment has been an issue in the region for many years, the scale of enlistment from 2010-2012 was unprecedented. Once enlisted, these children were put into

66 “Rwanda denies M23 child soldier claims as ‘ludicrous’,” BBC News Africa, October 7, 2013. http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-24424868 67 “Press Release: Rwanda must heed UN calls to end child recruitment in its territory,” Child Soldiers International, July 23, 2013. http://www.child-soldiers.org/ news_reader.php?id=692. 68 “Sierra Leone Rebels Forcefully Recruit Child Soldiers,” Human Rights Watch, June 1, 2000. http://www.hrw.org/news/2000/05/31/sierra-leone-rebels-forcefully- recruit-child-soldiers. 69 Errol Barnett, “Ex-child-soldier: ‘Shooting became just like drinking a glass of water’,” CNN World, October 9, 2012. http://www.cnn.com/2012/10/08/world/africa/ ishmael-beah-child-soldier/.

22 training camps, where they were trained for use as human shields to protect other fighters from gunfire.70 An attempt by foreign governments to help fund the rehabilitation of these children was criticized when allegations surfaced in 2014 that the children were in fact being incarcerated without trial and denied visits from their family.71

As conflict rages on in South Sudan, it is believed that the South Sudanese Army employs the use of children under 18. When questioned by Human Rights Watch, army officials admitted that their forces do include minors, but that these children came voluntarily once the conflict began, looking for work and security. Since 2003, the Sudan People’s Liberation Army has been on the United Nations’ annual list of the worst offenders when it comes to child recruitment; they are what are known as ‘persistent perpetrators’. The recent escalation in violence has caused an increase in child soldiers as well – until then, the UN claims the government had been making tangible progress in reformation. The SPLA is not the only guilty party – opposition forces have also made use of child soldiers.72 They kidnap these children from schools, or refugee camps, forcing them to take part in the state’s civil war. The UN estimates that a total of 11 000 children are fighting in the war, both with government and anti-government forces, with 70% of the 11 000 belonging to rebel groups. The only relatively safe places for children are UN camps, where they have no access to education (nearby schools being closed as a result of the war and occupying soldiers). In such conditions, they have nothing to do and are vulnerable targets for recruitment. International efforts to alleviate the situation are hindered by limited access to the region, and recruitment continues unabated.73

One of the groups most notorious for their recruitment of child soldiers is Uganda’s Lord’s Resistance Army, led by Joseph Kony. For several decades, the rebel group has terrorized the civilian population, and as of 2013 had been dispersed across the Democratic Republic of Congo. Kony cultivated a cult of personality around himself as part of his recruitment strategy. Once enlisted, officers often beat the children, both to toughen them up and render them

70 Kathryn Tancos, “More child soldiers in Somalia fighting,” CNN, February 21, 2012. http://www.cnn.com/2012/02/21/world/africa/somalia-child-soldiers/ 71 “Somali child soldiers ‘punished’ in foreign-funded camps: UN,” Yahoo News, August 21, 2014. http://news.yahoo.com/somali-child-soldiers-punished-foreign- funded-camps-un-134726122.html. 72 Tom Burridge, “Child soldier still being recruited in South Sudan,” BBC News Africa, October 26, 2014. http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-29762263. 73 “South Sudan: Child Soldiers Thrust into Battle,” Human Rights Watch, August 20, 2014. http://www.hrw.org/news/2014/08/20/south-sudan-child-soldiers-thrust- battle.

23 more aggressive fighters as a result of their anger at the abuse.74 Those that have escaped now face an uphill battle for rehabilitation and reintegration. Many do not have an education or skills that would enable them to find employment. Many, however, are simply grateful for the opportunity to leave the rebel group.75 NGOs and Relevant International Action As mentioned above, efforts to abolish the recruitment of children for military purposes was institutionalized by the United Nations in 1994, when Graça Machel, a Mozambican humanitarian, was appointed as the head of a commission to study the issue. Following the commission’s detailed report published in 1996, the United Nations took action on the matter by establishing the office of the Secretary General’s Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict. In 2000, the international community’s consensus on the issue of child soldiers took the form of the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the Involvement of Children in Armed Conflict, which has been ratified by all but three of the United Nations’ members.

In tandem with efforts put forward by the United Nations (specifically UNICEF), numerous other organizations (i.e. Amnesty International, Child Soldiers International, Human Rights Watch, etc.) have also prioritized prevention of the recruitment of children as part of their mission. More importantly, these NGOs also often explore and introduce programs to rehabilitate and reintegrate the victims into society. Their collective mandates generally tend to focus on several overarching principles:

The monitoring the actions of both sovereign states and non-state actors around the world and reporting accurately any breaches of the Optional Protocol

Raising awareness about offenders of the Optional Protocol in the international community so as to hold actors accountable for their actions

Recommending courses of actions that can be undertaken both by the state and the United Nations to better the circumstances

74 Will Storr, “Kony’s child soldiers: ‘When you kill for the first time, you change’,” The Telegraph, February 12, 2014. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/ africaandindianocean/uganda/10621792/Konys-child-soldiers-When-you-kill-for- the-first-time-you-change.html. 75 Malcolm Webb, “Uganda’s former child soldiers return home,” Al Jazeera, May 3, 2014. http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2014/05/uganda-former- child-soldiers-from-lord-resistance-army-ret-2014539240489470.html.

24 Providing on-the-ground support (both in terms of material security, and psychological counseling) for victims, and creating programs of rehabilitation and reintegration (specific to regional and cultural circumstances)

The following is a list of some of the larger NGOs involved with the prevention of child soldiers, and their more noteworthy initiatives (the websites includes are excellent additional resources for research).

• Child Soldiers International (http://www.child-soldiers.org/)

One of the largest NGOs in the field, Child Soldiers International conducts extensive monitoring and research on states in an effort to hold them accountable for their actions. Their research focuses on the state’s legislatives mechanisms for preventing child recruitment and the national military’s use (or lack thereof) of minors in the armed forces, and civilian forces. They also conduct thorough research on non-state actors and rebel groups that are suspected of recruiting minors.

They publish regular “Global Reports” in which they publish the results of their findings, and include in these reports current developments and efforts undertaken by the states to better the situation. They conclude with recommendations of their own for what can be done to resolve any problem areas. These reports can all be found on their official website.

One of the organizations most important mandates is to encourage a dialogue about psychosocial research relevant to the issue of child soldiers and their rehabilitation.76

• War Child (http://www.warchild.org/)

Founded in the United Kingdom, (later expanded Canada and the Netherlands), War Child is an on-the-ground NGO that provides humanitarian assistance and long-term rehabilitation programs for children and families affected by conflict in their regions.

Their mandates, as listed, are education, opportunity and justice. Their efforts are carried out in coordination with local communities and organizations.

Education: providing education in regions where conflict has forced the closure of schools by “pioneering new delivery methods, adapting curriculums, and training new educators”.

Opportunity: enabling economic stability in a community by providing “skills training, investment and support for families whose opportunities have been compromised by war”.

76 “Introduction,” Child Soldiers Initiative. http://www.child-soldiers.org/our_ work.php.

25 Justice: creating accountability at the local level for those who violate the rights of the child by “helping to rebuild legal structures, providing access to free legal council and making sure judges, police and communities understand the meaning of rights”.77

• Roméo Dallaire Child Soldiers Initiative (http://www.childsoldiers. org/)

Founded in Canada, Child Soldiers Initiative has three main mandates: training, research and advocacy.

The “training” aspect of the mandate is particularly unique in that it focuses on the training and education of militaries and peacekeeping officers, delivering “comprehensive, prevention-oriented training to military, police, peacekeeping and other security forces, which are often the first point of contact for child soldiers”.78

• Human Rights Watch (http://www.hrw.org/topic/childrens-rights/ child-soldiers)

One of the largest Western-oriented NGOs in the world, HRW is a research- oriented monitoring group with many mandates, the prevention of child soldiers being one of them.

The organization produces lengthy reports detailing violations against the Optional Protocol in various regions around the world, many of which can be found online.79

• Amnesty International (http://www.amnesty.org/en/children)

Similar to Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International is another large NGO which has the prevention of child soldiers as only one of its mandates.

This organization too produces reports on current situations internationally, but not always as thorough as those of HRW, or those of Child Soldiers International.80

77 “Core Programming Areas,” War Child. http://www.warchild.ca/whatwedo. 78 “What We Do,” The Roméo Dallaire Child Soldiers Initiative. http://www. childsoldiers.org/what-we-do/. 79 “Child Soldiers,” Human Rights Watch. http://www.hrw.org/topic/childrens- rights/child-soldiers. 80 “Children and Human Rights,” Amnesty International. http://www.amnesty. org/en/children.

26 Issues to be Addressed • Preventing circumstances that render children vulnerable to recruitment

• Abject poverty

• Lack of opportunities for education or employment

• Loss of family members and friends in times of war (loss of support system)

• Improving mechanisms for monitoring and reporting on violations

• Improving legal frameworks for holding offenders accountable

• At the international level (United Nations, International Criminal Court, etc.)

• At the local level (individual governments)

• Garnering international support for the Optional Protocol

• Ratification by the United States, Somalia and South Sudan

• Potential for further initiatives undertaken by the United Nations and UNICEF

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Babiak, Mat. “Donetsk terrorists openly recruit child soldiers.” Euromaidan Press, August 2, 2014. Accessed December 17, 2014. http:// euromaidanpress.com/2014/08/02/donetsk-terrorists-openly-recruit- child-soldiers/.

Barnett, Errol. “Ex-child-soldier: ‘Shooting became just like drinking a glass of water’.” CNN World, October 9, 2012. Accessed December 17, 2014. http://www.cnn.com/2012/10/08/world/africa/ishmael-beah-child- soldier/.

27 Becker, Jo. “Child soldiers and the China factor.” The New York Times, September 12, 2008. Accessed December 17, 2014.http://www.nytimes. com/2008/09/12/opinion/12ihtedbecker.1.16101114.html?_r=0.

Beckhusen, Robert. “How Mexico’s Drug Cartels Recruit Child Soldiers as Young as 11.” Wired, March 28, 2013. Accessed December 15, 2014. http://www.wired.com/2013/03/mexico-child-soldiers/.

Brannen, Kate. “Children of the Caliphate.” Foreign Policy, October 24 2014.

Burridge, Tom. “Child soldier still being recruited in South Sudan.” BBC News Africa, October 26, 2014. Accessed December 17, 2014. http://www.bbc. com/news/world-africa-29762263.

“Chad must end the recruitment and use of children in armed conflict.” Amnesty International, February 9, 2011. Accessed December 17, 2014. http://www.amnesty.org/en/news-and-updates/report/chad-must- end-recruitment-and-use-children-armed-conflict-2011-02-09.

“Child Soldiers.” Human Rights Watch. Accessed December 15, 2014. http:// www.hrw.org/node/112941

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Child Soldiers International, Democratic Republic of Congo. Accessed December 17, 2014. http://www.child-soldiers.org/country_reader. php?id=3.

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28 “Children and Armed Forces.” Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development Canada. Last modified November 28, 2014. Accessed on December 12, 2014. http://www.international.gc.ca/rights-droits/child_soldiers- enfants_soldats.aspx?lang=eng.

“Children and Human Rights.” Amnesty International. Accessed December 15, 2015. http://www.amnesty.org/en/children

“Children, Not Soldiers: Yemen Signs Action Plan to End Recruitment and Use of Children by Armed Forces.” United Nations Children’s Fund, May 14, 2014. Accessed on December 10, 2014. http://www.unicef.org/media/ media_73490.html.

Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers. Global Report 2008 – Iraq. 2008. Accessed on December 10, 2014. http://www.child-soldiers.org/ chapter_reader.php?id=175.

Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers. Report to the Committee on the Rights of the Child in advance of the examination of Egypt’s initial report on the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the involvement of children in armed conflict. November 2010. Accessed on December 10, 2014. http://www.child-soldiers.org/ research_report_reader.php?id=292.

“Convention on the Rights of the Child.” Amnesty International. Accessed December 10, 2014. http://www.amnestyusa.org/our-work/issues/ children-s-rights/convention-on-the-rights-of-the-child-0.

“Convention on the Rights of the Child: Frequently Asked Questions.” Amnesty International, 2013. Accessed on December 12, 2014. http:// www.amnestyusa.org/our-work/issues/children-s-rights/convention-

“Core Programming Areas.” Accessed December 17, 2014. War Child. http:// www.warchild.ca/whatwedo.

Davey, Suzanne. “Once a child soldier now an ice-crème truck driver.” Sri Lanka – UNICEF. Accessed December 17, 2014. http://www.unicef.org/ srilanka/reallives_7924.htm.

Dupuy, Kendra E. and Peters, Krijn. War and Children: A Reference Handbook. Santa Barabara: ABC-CLIO, LLC, 2010.

“From Cradle to Conflict: Child Soldiers’ Growing Role in Latin America’s Drug Wars.” Council on Hemispheric Affairs, April 24, 2012. Accessed December 15, 2014. http://www.coha.org/from-cradle-to-conflict- latin-americas-child-soldiers-new-direction-to-drug-wars/#_ftn9

29 “From Cradle to War.” Child Soldiers. Accessed December 15, 2014. http:// www.amnestyusa.org/our-work/issues/children-s-rights/child-soldiers

“Growing up in war – the DRC’s child soldiers.” IRIN News, March 31, 2014. Accessed December 17, 2014. http://www.irinnews.org/report/99869/ growing-up-in-war-the-drc-s-child-soldiers.

Hickman, Leo. “Why do the British armed forces still allow 16-year-olds to enlist?.” The Guardian, April 23, 2013. Accessed December 17, 2014. http://www.theguardian.com/uk/shortcuts/2013/apr/23/british-armed- forces-16-year-olds.

Horowitz, Alana. “Pakistani Militants Using Children in Bombings.” The Huffington Post, March 14, 2012. Accessed December 17, 2014. http:// www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/03/14/pakistani-militant-group- children_n_2875768.html

Human Rights Watch. “Maybe We Live and Maybe We Die”: Recruitment and Use of Children by Armed Groups in Syria. 2014. Accessed on December 10, 2014. http://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/reports/syria0614_crd_ ForUpload.pdf.

“International Standards.” Child Soldiers International. Accessed December 10, 2014. http://www.child-soldiers.org/international_standards.php.

“Introduction.” Child Soldiers Initiative. Accessed December 17, 2014. http:// www.child-soldiers.org/our_work.php.

Kannan, Preeti. “UN calls for UAE help on child soldiers.” The National, November 17, 2011. Accessed on December 10, 2014. http://www. thenational.ae/news/uae-news/un-calls-for-uae-help-on-child- soldiers.

Kelly, Annie. “Agony without end for Liberia’s child soldiers.” The Guardian, July 12, 2009. Accessed December 17, 2014. http://www.theguardian. com/world/2009/jul/12/liberia-child-soldiers.

Knight, Ben. “Oberndorf: the tiny German town that armed the world.” The Guardian, February 25, 2014. Accessed December 17, 2014. http://www. theguardian.com/world/2014/feb/25/oberndorf-german-town-armed- world-heckler-kock.

“Liberian child soldiers face ongoing battle.” Business Day Live, May 27, 2014. Accessed December 17, 2014. http://www.bdlive.co.za/ africa/2014/05/27/liberian-child-soldiers-face-ongoing-battle.

30 Marten, James. “Introduction.” In Children and War: A Historical Anthology, edited by James Marten, 1-10. New York: New York University Press, 2002.

Marx, Bettina. “German rifles may land in child soldiers’ hands.” Deutsche Welle, February 13, 2014. Accessed December 17, 2014. http://www. dw.de/german-rifles-may-land-in-child-soldiers-hands/a-17426642.

Neier, Aryeh. Introduction to Innocents Lost: When Child Soldiers Go to War. Edited by Jimmie Briggs. New York: Basic Books, 2005.

Nelson, Soraya S. “Egypt’s Street Kids Are Revolution’s Smallest Soldiers.” NPR, January 04, 2012. Accessed December 10, 2014. http://www. npr.org/2012/01/04/144692425/egypts-street-kids-are-revolutions- smallest-soldiers.

Patteran, Dani. “Burma’s child soldiers return home to face a fresh set of challenges.” The Guardian, October 2, 2014. Accessed December 17, 2014. http://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2014/oct/02/ burma-child-soldiers-army-recruitment

“Press Release: Rwanda must heed UN calls to end child recruitment in its territory.”

Child Soldiers International, July 23, 2013. Accessed December 17, 2014. http://www.child-soldiers.org/news_reader.php?id=692.

Rucke, Katie. “For British Army, Most New Recruits are Child Soldiers.” Mint Press News, May 28, 2014. Accessed December 17, 2014. http://www. mintpressnews.com/for-british-army-most-new-recruits-are-child- soldiers/191493/.

“Rwanda denies M23 child soldier claims as ‘ludicrous’.” BBC News Africa, October 7, 2013. Accessed December 17, 2014. http://www.bbc.com/ news/world-africa-24424868

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31 Smith, David. “US blocks military aid to Rwanda over alleged backing of M23 child soldiers.” The Guardian, October 4, 2013. Accessed on December 12, 2014. http://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2013/ oct/04/us-military-aid-rwanda-m23-child-soldiers.

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32 Vinograd, Cassandra, Balkiz, Ghazi and Omar, Ammar C. “ISIS Trains Child Soldiers at Camps for ‘Cubs of the Islamic State’.” NBC News, November 7, 2014. Accessed December 10, 2014. http://www.nbcnews.com/ storyline/isis-terror/isis-trains-child-soldiers-camps-cubs-islamic- state-n241821.

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TOPIC 2: COMMUNITY BASED EDUCATION Introduction Education provides the knowledge and skills necessary for individuals to acquire independence and self-sufficiency, in addition to the social skills necessary to exist as active members of an interdependent civil society. Education is universally accepted as a human right —an influential agent against poverty, disease, and social inequity.81 Unlike traditional public education systems, community-based education recognizes the importance of student engagement within their own communities coupled with exogenous, international actors.

81 “Child Development and Education.” UNICEF Canada. http://www.unicef.ca/ en/discover/education.

33 The terms community-based education and community-based learning refer to a broad scope of educational programs wherein instructors “connect what is being taught in schools to their surrounding communities, including local institutions, history, literature, cultural heritage, and natural environments.”82 These education plans are often designed to match community involvement and interests.83 The use of community-based learning and resources creates a participatory learning environment aimed to foster community change and increase quality of life.

In the past, community-based education has been applied through the following process: a village or town allocates a remit for a school; outside actors provide training for teachers and parents who lead said schools; textbooks, and other learning materials such as stationary are then provided by the same classification of actors; and finally the national government merges the newly-created school with the existing system, providing official certification and compensation for teachers.84

Along with the traditional cognitive emphasis surrounding education, community-based education introduces the importance of the social and the emotional aspects of learning.85 It is within such community-based educational systems that children gain what is considered academic knowledge and understanding in addition to developing a sense of empowerment and self- value. The emotional and social development of children depends, not only on concerted parental efforts, but also more importantly, on the equal and collaborative efforts of their respective schools and communities.

Community-based learning has often been implemented as a source of sustainable progress in the Global South and as a tool of quality basic education in countries of emergency and post-crisis transitions.86 Through their engagement in educational practices and principles, students actively seek to improve and address issues in their respective communities. This, in turn, aids in the restoration of their communities.

82 Abbott, S. “Community-Based Learning.” The Glossary of Education Reform. http://edglossary.org/community-based-learning/. 83 Harvey, L. “Community-Based Education.” Analytical Quality Glossary. http:// www.qualityresearchinternational.com/glossary/communitybasededucation.htm. 84 Burde, Dana. “It Takes a Village to Raise a School.” International New York Times, September 1, 2010. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/17/opinion/17burde. html?_r=0. 85 O’Neil, J. “Building Schools as Communities.” Educational Leadership. http:// www.ascd.org/publications/educational-leadership/may97/vol54/num08/Building- [email protected]. 86 “Child Development and Education.” UNICEF Canada. http://www.unicef.ca/ en/discover/education.

34 Historical Overview Education: A Duality Education is the sole means for social progress and amelioration of the human condition. Yet, the rudimentary need for it has been historically exploited to further political aims. Throughout the 20th century, ethnic divisions were emphasized in school environments furthering the education system from the goal of promoting learning. Indeed, both the Global South and Global North have experienced tumult through biased education systems.

For instance, Catholic missionary schools in Rwanda singularly favored the Tutsi minority, inhibiting the Hutu majority from social advancement. Burundi experienced a congruent situation wherein an artificial, ethnicity-based hierarchy was created through indoctrination. In Turkey, a prohibition on the Kurdish language was enforced in state-based systems.87 The United States, too, played host to budgetary imbalances that discriminated against ethnic minorities— this was rectified with structural changes in the latter half of the 20th century.88 Yet, the patent solutions are now being fostered, globally, as we shall see in our expansive chronology of community-based education. Community-Based Education: A Chronology International efforts to provide every child and adult with access to primary education began in 1990 when delegates, governmental, and non- governmental organizations adopted the World Declaration on Education for All. This document reaffirmed the notion of education as a fundamental human right and urged countries to intensify efforts to address the basic learning needs of all.89

Since 1990, there have been many global challenges that continue to hinder the development of individuals and societies. Economic decline, displacement from war, crime, and widespread environmental degradation are only a few challenges that are currently encountered on a global scale.90 Governmental and non-governmental organizations agree that human development is the

87 Bush, K and Saltarelli, D. The Two Faces of Education in Ethnic Conflict: Towards a Peacebuilding Education for Children. Florence: UNICEF, United Nations Children’s Fund, Innocenti Research Centre, 2000, 15 88 Bush & Saltarelli, 16 89 “World Conference on EFA, Jomtien, 1990.” UNESCO. Accessed November 18, 2014. http://www.unesco.org/new/en/education/themes/leading-the-international- agenda/education-for-all/the-efa-movement/jomtien-1990/. 90 “Meeting Basic Learning Needs: A Vision for the1990’s.” UNESCO. http:// unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0009/000975/097552e.pdf.

35 basis of any development process; it is a human right and social responsibility. Moreover, the onus has been demonstrated to lie both on affected countries as well as observing actors.

In 2002, a new organization, The Global Partnership for Education (GPE) was established to boost international collaboration in education aid. The organization’s main goal is to allow access to safe and adequately equipped spaces to learn with skilled teachers.91 When 69 percent of girls in GPE countries completed primary school in comparison to the 56 percent in 2002, the program was considered successful., In 2011, twenty-eight developing countries that were partners of GPE, were either close to achieving, or had in fact already realized gender equality in school enrolments.92

Afghanistan and Pakistan have faced notable community-based education reforms due to gender disparity and political turmoil. In Afghanistan, community-based schools were implemented when Taliban posed a problem for girls walking to school. According to statistical data from 2007, only 37 percent of primary school-age children attended school in Afghanistan. Of those students, girls made up only one third of enrolment.93 The long- term goal of community-based education will help integrate these students into the national education system. With the help of community-based education, the number of primary school-age children out of school declined by fourteen million within the past five years, and “roughly two thirds of the world’s countries and territories have met the target for gender parity in primary education”.94

The Partnership for Advancing Community Education in Afghanistan (PACE-A) is a project that partners with the Ministry of Education (MOE) to increase access to basic education for children in areas lacking government schools. The Emergency Community Based Education program (ECBE) was implemented through PACE-A in response to a request for assistance from the MOE. This ensures that the right to education of displaced populations

91 “About GPE.” Global Partnership for Education. http://www.globalpartnership. org/about-GPE. 92 “10 Key Results.” Global Partnership for Education. http://www. globalpartnership.org/10-key-data-results. 93 Burde, Dana, and Leigh L. Linden. “The Effect of Proximity on School Enrollment: Evidence from a Randomized Controlled Trial in Afghanistan.” Centre for Global Development. May 1, 2009. http://www.cgdev.org/doc/events/10.21.09/ Proximity_and_Enrollment_2009-05-02.pdf. 94 “Child Development & Education.” UNICEF Canada. http://www.unicef.ca/ en/discover/education.

36 and those threatened by displacement is respected and protected.95 As of 2011, the PACE-A alongside the ECBE had established 636 fully operational primary-grade classes across 29 districts within nine provinces. They have also enrolled 19,550 students, 44 percent of whom were female, in primary- grade ECBE classes.96

The literacy statistics from Pakistan are less alarming than those from Afghanistan. According to the UNDP, approximately 21 percent of children between the ages of six and 16 years were not enrolled in schools as of 2013.97 In Pakistan however, the displacement of individuals due to war is not as great of a concern as it is in Afghanistan. Weak governance and public sector failures are often pointed to as reasons for the low enrolment rates.

The charts below provide the literacy rates in Afghanistan and Pakistan as collected by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).98

Adult Literacy Rates (15+ years - both sexes)

Adult Literacy Rates (15+ years - female)

95 “Partnership for Advancing Community Based Education in Afghanistan (PACE-A) -- Emergency Community Based Education (ECBE) Initiative.” USAID | AFGHANISTAN. http://www.usaid.gov/sites/default/files/documents/1871/Fact_ Sheet_ECBE_FINAL_Mar_2011.pdf. 96 “Partnership for Advancing Community Based Education in Afghanistan (PACE-A) -- Emergency Community Based Education (ECBE) Initiative.” USAID | AFGHANISTAN. http://www.usaid.gov/sites/default/files/documents/1871/Fact_ Sheet_ECBE_FINAL_Mar_2011.pdf. 97 “Improving Public Sector Education: The Role of Community-based Organizations.” UNDP. http://www.pk.undp.org/content/pakistan/en/home/library/ hiv_aids/development-advocate-pakistan--volume-1-issue-2/opinion--improving- public-sector-education--the-role-of-communit.html. 98 “ADULT AND YOUTH LITERACY, 1990-2015 Analysis of Data for 41 Selected Countries.” UNESCO Institue for Statistics. http://www.uis.unesco.org/Education/ Documents/UIS-literacy-statistics-1990-2015-en.pdf.

37 Adult Literacy Rates (15+ years - male)

Current Conditions and Relevant International Action Education empowers individuals of any age and allows them to develop lasting skills in numeracy, literacy, problem solving and critical thinking.99 Today, it is estimated that 57 million children of primary school age lack the opportunity to attend school even for a day.100

However, the definition of community-based education varies greatly as different areas of the world understand the notion differently. In some areas, it is introduced to help children learn basic education while in other areas, community-based education is used to empower individuals and other community members regarding health and business.

Nonetheless, investment in global education remains a topic of great discussion in current academic circles worldwide — it was also considered in the year 2013, at the UN Global Leaders Summit in New York.101

99 Ibid 100 Ibid 101 Brown, Sarah, and Edith Asiby. “Why Investment in Universal Education Makes Business Sense.” The Guardian. October 4, 2013. http://www.theguardian.com/ sustainable-business/investment-universal-education-business-sense

38 North America Community-based education is prevalent throughout the world including western countries such as Canada and the United States of America. Many times, community-based education is needed in western societies mainly due to a decline in economic conditions, a rise of certain chronic illnesses and inaccessible times and locations of schools.102 United States of America Community-based health education is a widely-practiced concept in the United States of America. The community asthma prevention program was developed in Philadelphia in 1997 to serve children suffering from the condition, along with their parents and caregivers. The program works without a fee in many communities around Philadelphia offering free asthma education, home visits, and training to school personnel and primary care providers. 103 The program is run through different community avenues such as day care centers, churches and community centers. They primary aim of such an extensive community-based educational program is to form connections with the target community and actively meet with community organizations. This would allow the model to successfully integrate itself into the community as a development program. However, with every community program of such great capacity comes a cost. In the case of the aforementioned program, , there is a $65 cost to families that would like to join the program. All other costs are absorbed by the Department of Health , Human Services and the Office of Minority Health.104 Canada An expansive community-based education project has been developed at Trent University, where professors initiated an experiment geared to solidify a network of researchers, undergraduate students and the community all working toward the same goal. This experiment eventually led to the birth of the Trent Centre for Community Based Education (TCCBE) in 1996. 105 The TCCBE boasted great success through multiple programs and community based research projects that enhanced the social, environmental, cultural and economic health of the community. In 1999, through aid from the 102 Slutsky, Phyllis, and Tyra Bryant-Stephens. 2001. Developing a comprehensive, community-based asthma education and training program. Pediatric nursing 27, (5) (Sep): 449-52, 455-7, 461, http://search.proquest.com/ docview/199424190?accountid=142373. 103 Ibid 104 Ibid 105 “Background.” Trent Centre for Community Based Education. http://www. trentcentre.ca/about/background/.

39 TCCBE, the U-Links Centre for Community Based Research (U-Links) was established.106 In 2004, the TCCBE received a generous grant of $985,000 to expand their research and to incorporate themselves as an independent not- for-profit organization. 107 This initiative allowed the communities involved to obtain research and complete projects that otherwise would not have been completed. It also allowed students the opportunity to interact with the community and understand the need for community-based education.108

In 2008, the University of Victoria hosted a global conference whose goal was to establish a network amongst representatives of various higher-level institutions in order to further community-driven processes. The Community Expo Conference was very much successful, and the Global Alliance for Community Engaged Research continues to materialize connections within and without Canada. Their cumulative result was an efficacious policy brief, titled Higher Education, Communication and the World We Want, that encouraged further linkage to be made between sustainable, grassroots solutions — directly referencing education — and universities for an inspired, bias-free effort.109 South America South America is infamous for its ever rising social issues including the lack of education, infant mortality, poverty and crime. Headlines such as: “One in twelve young people in Latin America and the Caribbean fail to complete primary school and lack skills for work” are commonplace.110 The tenth Education for All Global Monitoring Report, Putting Education to Work, reveals the urgent need to invest in skills for youth. In Latin America and the Caribbean, over 8 million people aged 15 to 24 have not even completed primary school and need alternative pathways to acquire basic skills for employment and prosperity. 111

106 Ibid 107 Ibid 108 Ibid 109 “Higher Education, Communication and the World We Want.” Community- Based Research Canada. June 1, 2009. http://communityresearchcanada.ca/res/ download.php?id=4199. 110 “One in Twelve Young People in Latin America and the Caribbean Fail to Complete Primary School and Lack Skills for Work | United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization.” http://www.unesco.org/new/en/media- services/single-view/news/one_in_twelve_young_people_in_latin_america_and_ the_caribbean_fail_to_complete_primary_school_and_lack_skills_for_work/ VI3ilItUS8k. 111 Ibid

40 Brazil Brazil caught media attention in 2012 when its fast growing economy report claimed that 35 million Brazilians escaped poverty.112 Despite this statistic, 16 million people in Brazil still live in extreme poverty, which is equivalent to the population of the Netherlands and a staggering 14 percent of women in Brazil are employed as maids.113 When it comes to children, it is estimated that 1.4 million children are forced to work due to poverty in the country.114

In Brazil, the federal Water Law of 1997 requires participation by civil society, along with public officials, on watershed management committees at the local, state, and federal levels which determine the allocation of resources and have the power to institute water charges to pay for water, sewer, flood control and irrigation infrastructure.115 Women, however, are underrepresented on these committees. Due to gendered poverty in Brazil, women are seriously impacted by water issues and have invaluable knowledge that would help in water decision-making.116 Community based environmental initiatives are working to overcome this inequality, as Brazilian ecofeminist leader Moema Viezzer believes that this initiative is much more than putting women in positions of power. She mentioned that it is transformative in the sense that it challenges the existing structures of power. Guyana There is an urgent need to develop models of community-based rehabilitation in Guyana. Parents in Guyana are not receiving enough help with the care, education and training of their disabled children.117 The goal of community- based rehabilitation (CBR) is to train individuals in the community who will

112 Alhames, Rami. “35 Million Escape Poverty – But Can Brazil Overcome Inequality? · Global Voices.” Global Voices Overall RSS 20. September 29, 2012. http:// globalvoicesonline.org/2012/09/29/35-million-escape-poverty-but-can-brazil- overcome-inequality/. 113 Ibid 114 Ibid 115 Perkins, Patricia. “Pedagogies of Resistance: Community-based Education for Women’s Participation in Watershed Management in São Paulo, Brazil.” September 1, 2008. http://www.yorku.ca/siswater/Outputs/CWS paper 08 -- women, water, education.pdf. 116 Ibid 117 O’toole, Brian. “Involvement of Volunteers, Parents and Community Members with Children with Special Needs.” UNESCO. http://www.unesco.org/education/ pdf/281_74.pdf.

41 help the families of these children. An essential requirement for the success of CBR is the involvement of the community in the planning, implementation and evaluation of the programme.118 Africa UNESCO released its most recent Education for All Global Monitoring Report, which revealed that a global learning crisis is costing governments $129 billion a year.119 In Sub-Saharan Africa, this particular situation has left 40 percent of young people unable to read a single sentence.120 These results are unbelievable as they are, but only get worse as the report looks further into gender statistics. Community-based education will not only help individuals but also help the current economic conditions in Africa. The report shows that ensuring an equal, high-quality education for all can generate huge economic rewards, increasing a country’s gross domestic product per capita by twenty- three percent over forty years.121 Zambia Zambia currently faces concerns with its educational system. Several Zambian citizens are facing difficulties in meeting the basic education requirements for their children, due to economic hardships, unemployment, and a socio- economic landscape that propagates poverty.122 Despite working with UNESCO and several other organizations, the Ministry of Education in Zambia still faces many challenges and is on course to achieve Universal Primary Education (UPE) by 2015.123 Malawi Malawi faces many of the same challenges as Zambia: economic hardships, unemployment and poverty. The Nyasa Times, Malawi’s online news source attempted to answer a critical question in their article, “Why Malawi’s

118 Ibid 119 “Global Learning Crisis Is Costing $129 Billion a Year.” Education for All Global Monitoring Report. January 1, 2014. Accessed December 17, 2014. http://www. unesco.org/new/fileadmin/MULTIMEDIA/HQ/ED/GMR/pdf/gmr2013/Press_Release_ SSA.pdf. 120 Ibid 121 Ibid 122 “UNESCO: Zambia.” World Data on Education. http://www.ibe.unesco.org/ Countries/WDE/2006/SUB-SAHARAN_AFRICA/Zambia/Zambia.pdf. 123 Ibid

42 education sector is in a mess”.124 The piece explains that Malawian teachers teach in schools that are unfit for learning and are always paid late.125 The failures of the education system are symptomatic of the general failures of the country as a whole. Asia Being the largest continent in the world, Asia is home to a diverse group of people, economies and cultural and political societies. Some of the major pedagogical problems currently facing the rest of the world are evident in Asia as well. According to UNESCO, it is estimated that 625 million illiterate people reside in Asia. This number corresponds to 71 percent of the world’s total illiterate people, 64 percent of whom are female.126 The reasons for these disturbing statistics are similar to those found around the rest of the world: poverty, social exclusion, socio-economic gaps, urban-rural disparities, rampant mismanagement of resources and mainly the lack of adequate education programs.127 Pakistan Pakistan has been struggling with its education system for decades now with a specific disparity between the education levels of male and female residents. According to the UNDP, there are 27 million children eligible for Primary School education in Pakistan, however the literacy rate stands at just 59 percent, of which 69 percent are boys and 49 percent are girls.128 Pakistan had set a Millennium Development Goal (MDG) to achieve 100 percent primary enrolment ratios and an 88 percent literacy rate by 2015.129 Girls’ education in Pakistan has improved over the past few decades, however, the literacy rate ratio of males to females is 65:40, which is quite an alarming statistic.130

124 Sharra, Steve. “Why Malawi’s Education Sector Is in a Mess: Part I.” Malawi Nyasa Times Malawi Breaking News in Malawi. December 14, 2012. http://www. nyasatimes.com/2012/12/14/why-malawis-education-sector-is-in-a-mess-part-i/. 125 Ibid 126 Ordoñez, Victor, and Rupert Maclean. “Education in Asia: Some Current Issues, Concerns and Prospects.” UNESCO. http://www.ibe.unesco.org/publications/ Prospects/ProspectsOpenFiles/pr115ofe.pdf. 127 Ibid 128 “Improving Public Sector Education: The Role of Community-based Organizations.” UNDP in Pakistan. http://www.pk.undp.org/content/pakistan/en/ home/library/hiv_aids/development-advocate-pakistan--volume-1-issue-2/opinion- -improving-public-sector-education--the-role-of-communit.html. 129 Ibid 130 Ibid

43 Afghanistan The education sector in Afghanistan has been affected mainly by civil war. UNICEF estimates that approximately two million primary school aged children are not attending schools, 65 percent of them are girls.131 Despite the huge number of enrolment from 2001 and 2002, Afghanistan still needs to work on its educational system to help its children obtain some form of formal education.132 Non-Governmental Organizations and Corporations The alarming statistics worldwide from the lack of education have prompted an unprecedented response from many non-governmental organizations (NGOs). In Afghanistan, UNESCO worked with the government to establish the Independent High Commission of Education whose goal is to propose policy, objectives and strategies for the revival and development of education in the country.133 UNICEF has made significant progress in helping Afghanistan’s female literacy rate. For instance, a UNICEF initiative, the 60 Million Girls Foundation works to ensure that education is brought closer to home through the establishment of community-based schools.134

In Sub-Saharan Africa, an estimated 12 million children under the age of 18 have lost one or both parents to AIDS.135 SOS Village, an NGO in Malawi provides support to these children in order to give them access to clothing, food and education.136

Tennis legend, Roger Federer built the Roger Federer Foundation to support the People’s Action Forum in Zambia. The goals of this project were to improve the quality of education at the primary school level and strengthen community-based schooling initiatives.137

131 “Basic Education and Gender Equality in Afghanistan.” UNICEF. http:// www.60milliongirls.org/content/projects/docs/UNICEF_final_report_may2010.pdf. 132 Ibid 133 Ibid 134 Ibid 135 “A Costing Analysis of Community-Based Programs for Children Affected by HIV/AIDS: Results from Zambia and Rwanda.” USAID. http://ovcsupport.net/ wp-content/uploads/Documents/A_Costing_Analysis_of_Community_Based_ Programs_for_Children_Affected_by_HIV_AIDS_Results_from_Zambia_and_ Rwanda_1.pdf. 136 Ibid 137 “Involvement of the Roger Federer Foundation.” Roger Federer Foundation | COMMUNITY SCHOOL INITIATIVE. http://www.rogerfedererfoundation. org/en/initiatives/education-in-africa/zambia/community-school-initiative.

44 Analysis and Job of the Committee As non-static corollaries continue to persist, such as conflict and economic downturns, social change can be brought about through a mutable means— that being the incipient concept of community-based education. Whether through an alliance of engaged researchers or the sprouting of partnerships, there must be a ubiquitous application of a system that eliminates gender disparities, government-based biases such as those stemming from maligned textbooks,138 and yet maintains the autonomy of nation-states. Responsibility must be grappled, and certainly teaching methods must be revisited, textbooks edited, and infrastructure erected. This year, 2015, is the concluding year of the UN’s ambitious MDGs, whose foci range from poverty to literacy. Said factors are interconnected through education, and exemplified in, for instance, the application of European-style education in Rwanda, wherein social advancement was assumed. Poverty and literacy may include a third partner — well-being: must a government distanced from a community replete with landmines and other barriers decide upon which skills are necessary, as in Bosnia?139 The framework exists, per the application of our established process of implementation, in Afghanistan; however, the solution emerged in a society split by conflict and one that has been influenced through immense outside recognition. Replication may indeed be the answer, but how does circumstance influence education, and does an established primacy surrounding the Millennium goals already exist? Adverse effects may materialize in unanticipated formats; certain actors supplied textbooks aimed at the strengthening of mujahedeen ideology from 1986 to 1992.140 All in all, this multi-faceted topic requires great scrutiny and a non-traditional analysis.

Issues to be Addressed • Role of Conflict

• Application of community-based education in post-conflict situations

• Infrastructure loss

• Waning legitimacy in government

138 Heath, Jennifer, and Ashraf Zahedi, eds. Children of Afghanistan: The Path to Peace. University of Texas Press, 2014, pg 18 139 Burde, Dana. “Conflict and Education.” Lecture, PCJ361H1, University of Toronto, March 11, 2014 140 King, Elizabeth. “Peace, Conflict, and Education.” Lecture, PCJ361H1, University of Toronto, March 4, 2014

45 • National education system incompatible with international standards

• Historical Grievances

• Traditional or religious factors

• Textbooks

• Methods of teaching

• Education precipitating conflict

• Schools as sites for violence

• Vulnerable target

• Locus for child soldier recruitment

• Locus for military operations

• Interference from International Community

• Education as military policy

• Circumstance-specific textbooks

• Genesis of counter-norm ideology

• Attainment of Peace

• As a factor stemming from Community-based Education

• Decline in participation rates during intrastate conflict

• Isolation from endemic social and geopolitical issues

• Environment conducive to relation building

• Supplants home as place of security and safety

• Reduction of Poverty

• European-style system

• Limited opportunities requires a limited number of participants

• Issue of ubiquity

• Known, hence efficient and cost-effective

46 • Stringent government regulation

• Community-based education

• Provision of material incentives to households

• Securing funding or material support

• Ensures jobs remain within the locality

• Somewhat autonomous from potentially maligned, overarching government

Points of Consideration If assumed as divergent polarities, community-based education and European-style education, is there a milieu?

Do international non-governmental organizations represent sources of funding, or unsustainable means of temporary interest? If the latter is the case, must grassroots organizations be exclusive partners in the internationalized effort for effective education systems?

Per the established definition of community-based education, is it singular to multi-ethnic, geographically disparate regions that are in a post-conflict state?

The Canadian Government has spearheaded a capacity-anchored project aimed solely at girls within Afghanistan.141 Address the organic issue of compatibility with the contemporary notion of inclusivity rather than exclusivity in the sphere of education.

An ascribed important rests on the Global South as a place for implementation; but, per the Norwegian standard, the Global North is ostensibly in a condition that would benefit from community-style programmes. Discuss the nature of this postulation and contrast it with the assertion that community-based education is indeed limited to post-conflict zones.

141 “Project Profile: Community-Based Girls’ Education Project.” Foreign Affairs, Trade, and Development Canada. http://www.acdi-cida.gc.ca/cidaweb/cpo.nsf/ vWebCSAZEn/5DFCB5F4F075DA8785257ACC003B2282.

47 Conclusion Orbiting issues form a byzantine picture of an otherwise single-stranded topic — education. There is, as of yet, no multi-spectrum solution to derisory literacy rates and spiraling poverty. Nevertheless, Dr. Dana Burde, a topic-specific scholar, has put forth a novel and innovative programme that has challenged the status quo, atomized gender barriers, and localized institutions; still, codification lacks and the Global North’s regard on the matter varies. This committee must tackle: post-conflict situations necessitating altered education systems; the development of sites from which conflict is precipitated; the feasibility of global implementation of the novel concept; and the need for a forum from which further research, discussion, and observation of emerging alternatives to European-style education will stem. In closure, the requisite deliberation will no doubt stimulate a renewed focus upon the general amelioration of the human condition, universally and indiscriminately, with education as its championed focus.

Abbreviations and Acronyms CBR: Community-Based Rehabilitation

ECBE: Emergency Community-Based Education

GPE: The Global Partnership for Education

MDG: Millennium Development Goal

MOE: Ministry of Education

PACE-A: The Partnership for Advancing Community Education in Afghanistan

UNDP: United Nations Development Programme

UNESCO: The United Nations Education, Scientific, and Cultural Organization

UNICEF: The United Nation’s Children Fund

UPE: Universal Primary Education

Additional Resources http://www.education-inequalities.org

48 A novel and interactive hub showcasing inequalities related to education

http://www.ibe.unesco.org/en.html

A database containing country profiles on education

http://www.unicef-irc.org/publications/pdf/insight4.pdf

Comprehensive source on “constructive and destructive impacts of education”

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