Children deprived of childhood: the mandate of international law for the protection of the rights of children affected by armed conflicts.

Abstract

Children have always played a role in conflicts, both international and non-international in nature. However, in the last decades, the problem of children affected by armed conflicts has caused momentum. Children deprived of their childhoods, freedoms and liberties are forced to commit horrendous acts and are also exposed to extreme violations. Some of them – upon which part this thesis will be focused – are exploited as child soldiers. Estimates show that there are some 300,000 child soldiers around the world asking for their rights to be protected. This is why the international community, together with national governments and NGOs have worked hard and, today, the issue of children involved in armed conflict is tackled extensively by international law. Specifically, international humanitarian law, international human rights law and international criminal law have laid out the foundations to approach the issue from a legal point of view, taking into account the different violations of children’s rights. The aim of this thesis is to understand whether the existing international law instruments are enough to protect children involved in armed conflict and underscore the role of justice in the process. Therefore, the main legal instruments will be considered, e.g. the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child of 1989 and its Additional Protocol, together with the literature on international humanitarian law. Moreover, through the analysis of some international courts and tribunals – and some important cases – this research points out how the provisions are enforced and, whenever possible, how individuals are held accountable of violations against children, particularly child soldiers. Among the many case law available in the international law literature, cases by the International Criminal Court, the European Court of Human Rights, the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda and the Special Court for Sierra Leone will be addressed. Drawing my conclusions, I will stress how the existing literature on children’s rights can cover the violations perpetrated during armed conflict, though a more efficient implementation system, both at the national and international level, should make the protection and promotion of the rights of children affected by armed conflict the priority of action. In this respect, the role of justice – non-prosecutorial, prosecutorial and restorative transitional justice – is of utmost importance, particularly for the implications of the violations of international law provisions committed by children during armed conflicts.