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Child Soldiers Annotated Bibliography

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Child Soldiers Annotated Bibliography Child Soldiers Annotated Bibliography Articles The following are several useful articles on issues related to child soldiers and their reintegration into communities. To access online versions of these ar- ticles, click the links below. Child Soldier Use 2003: A Briefing for the 4th UN Security Council Open Debate on Children and Armed Conflict. Copyright 2004, Coalition to Save the Children. London, UK, 2004. http://hrw.org/reports/2004/childsoldiers0104/childsoldiers.pdf This database was created for the fourth UN Security Council open Debate on Chil- dren and Armed Conflict. It summarizes the use of child soldier use in major conflict zones across the globe. This comprehensive database includes both governmental and nongovernmental users of child soldiers, demobilization efforts and organiza- tions involved in particular countries and UN recommendations on actions to negate child soldier use for particular cases. Each section also includes a bibliography. This briefing was compiled from the more extensive Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers list. Child Soldiers Global Report 2004. Copyright 2004, Coalition to Save the Chil- dren. London, UK, 2004. http://www.child-soldiers.org/document_get.php?id=966 This thorough report covers the entire globe and is the basis for the Fourth UN Council Open Debate on Children and Armed Conflict. DDR (Disarming, Demobiliza- tion, and Reintegration) efforts are not discussed in these reports, but are discussed elsewhere on the “Save the children” web site. Regional overviews, data, and meth- odology are included as well as key issues in child soldier discussions. This report also contains area specific bibliographies. Books The following are several books addressing problems related to child soldiers and their reintegration into communities. These books are in print and avail- able through online retailers and at local bookstores. Briggs, Jimmie. Innocents Lost: When Child Soldiers go to War. Basic Books, Cambridge, MA, 2005. Summary: Jimmie Briggs is a free-lance journalist whose coverage of child sol- dier use during the first Iraq War won him the John Bartelow Martin Award from Northwestern University. His book centers on five major conflicts where the use of child soldiers has played a significant part; Rwanda, Columbia, Sri Lanka, Northern Uganda, and Afghanistan. Coverage of these conflicts are broken down into inter- views with former child soldiers and or their families, the background of the conflict and the players involved, and the ongoing DDR efforts involved in the region. Of Child Soldiers Annotated Bibliography particular note is Briggs’ analysis of the Lord’s Resistance Army. A thorough back- ground on Joseph Kony, the LRA?’s leader, is developed within the context of the broader Sudanese/Uganda conflict. This is a very readable book that highlights the human aspect of atrocity and tragedy in the use of child soldiers. Cohn, Ilene and Goodwin-Gill, Guy S. Child Soldiers: The Role of Children in Armed Conflict. Oxford University Press, Inc., New York, NY, 2003. Summary: This book was originally published in 1993 by the Henry Dunant Institute as a study of both the recruitment and participation of children as soldiers in armed conflicts, and the measures to reduce and eventually eliminate such recruitment and participation. As such, the book describes a number of elements of the use of child soldiers, who is using them and why, what the psychological and social impacts of their use are, conscription, the consequences of participation, rehabilitation and the international legal structure in place to discourage the use of child soldiers. Ground breaking for its time, this book traces the use of child soldiers growth of the child soldiers epidemic. It also covers previous conflicts such as the Civil War in El Sal- vador, Angola, Mozambique, the Kurdish PKK and Afghanistan as well as ongoing conflicts such as Sri Lanka, the Palestinian Infitada, and Uganda. Honwana, Alcinda. Child Soldiers in Africa. University of Pennsylvania Press, Philadelphia, PA, 2006. Summary: Alcinda Honwana is the Program Director at the Social Science Research Council (SSRC) Children in Armed Conflict Program and this book is part of the Ethnography of Political Violence series. The book presents a thorough case-study of the child soldiers in Angola and Mozambique. It covers background history for these two conflicts, recruitment and participation of children, the unique impact and role of women and girls in the conflicts, and DDR efforts. What sets this book apart is the attention given to local rites of cleansing given to child soldiers returning to their villages, as well as the depth with which the sociological effects of the conflict are investigated. Iweala, Uzodinma. Beasts of No Nation. Harper Collins Books, New York, NY, 2005. Summary:This novel tells the story of a young boy recruited into a rebel army in an unnamed African country. Agu is a boy whose father is killed in a rebel attack and ends up becoming a soldier himself. As such, he participates in a series of battles and atrocities. He has a friend and fellow child soldier Strika, who is rendered dumb by the death of his parents. They and the other rag tag rebels are lead by the brutal but complex Commandant. This book offers a unique, though fictional, window into the thoughts and feelings of a child soldier. Child Soldiers Annotated Bibliography Singer, P.W. Children at War. Berkley and L.A., CA: University of California Press, 2006. Summary: PW Singer is the Senior Fellow and Director of the Project on U.S. Policy Towards the Islamic World at the Saban Center of the Brookings Institute and has also served as an advisor on child soldiers for the C.I.A. and U.S. Marine Corps. Chapters in the book discusses the contemporary rise of child soldier use while also providing historical background, addressing the role of the widespread avail- ability of small arms and charting changes in the use of child soldiers. The book addresses questions such as the significance of the use of child soldiers for warfare in general, the indoctrination, training, and use of child soldiers in different countries across the globe, why child soldiers are attractive to armies for use, the role of girls as child soldiers and the atrocities and human rights abuses that are a necessary and unavoidable outcome when children are used in a combat capacity. Children at War provides basic information on Child Soldiers while also covering theoretical and concrete concerns from child soldier use in regular armies to their use in terror cells. The book provides a broad overview that addresses the broad, global implications of the use of child soldiers in conflicts around the globe. Web Resources The following are several websites addressing problems related to child sol- diers and their reintegration into communities. Click each URL to see the web- site and learn more. Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers http://www.child-soldiers.org The Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldier is a London based NGO whose mis- sion is to “prevent the recruitment and use of children as soldiers, to secure their demobilization and to ensure their rehabilitation and reintegration into society.” Their website includes a global map with links related to the use of child soldiers in each region, a comprehensive report covering the global use of child soldies, links to local coalitions working on the child soldier problem, links to news articles on child soldiers, a demobilization and reintegration bibliography, briefings on international law pertaining to child soldiers, resources for journalists and a collection of psycho- social reports on child soldiers. Defense for Children International http://www.dci-is.org DCI is a non-governmental and non-profit organization founded in 1979. Through its sections, DCI sets up concrete programs to promote and protect the rights of children. DCI also works on specific children’s rights concerns through the creation of inter- Child Soldiers Annotated Bibliography national programs such as the International Network on Juvenile Justice (INJJ) and the Child Labour Desk. It is a member of the NGO Group for the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers. DCI sub- mits effective interventions at the United Nations, thanks to the reliable information received from the field. DCI consults with the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), UNICEF, UNESCO and the Council of the Europe. United Nations Children’s Fund Web Page on Child Soldiers http://www.unicef.org/emerg/index_childsoldiers.html UNICEF works “with others to overcome the obstacles that poverty, violence, disease and discrimination place in a child’s path.” Their Child Soldiers page pro- vides links to laws and meetings on child soldiers, such as the “Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the Involvement of Children in Armed Conflict ,” which banned the use of soldiers under the age of eighteen and lifted the minimum age of volunteering for armed services from 15 to 18, as well as making it a war crime to conscript children under 15 into armed forces or armed groups a war crime. Fact Sheet: Child soldiers http://www.unicef.org/protection/childsoldiers.pdf From the UNICEF website, this article gives a briefing on child soldiers across the globe and explains UNICEF actions across the world in fighting the use of child soldiers. The International Save the Children Alliance http://www.savethechildren.net/alliance/index.html Save the Children’s mission is to fight for children’s rights and “deliver immediate and lasting improvements to children’s lives worldwide.” The alliance is based in London, though they have nearly 30 membership organizations located around the world. The organization “has helped demobilize and rehabilitate more than 60,000 former child soldiers in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Sierra Leone, Sri Lanka and Liberia.” Their website offers a brief review of their efforts and programs, as well as a useful map outlining their work around the world.
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