Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers Q1 2009

The Coalition has been busy throughout the first quarter of this year, meeting with community groups in Béni and Lubéro, researching into how child recruitment in the Congo takes place and participating in Red Hand Day. All the details are below.

Community Meetings in Béni, Congo

Local defence groups such as Mai Mai and PARECO are active in the Béni area of North Kivu and continue to recruit boys and girls and reports confirm that they account for the highest numbers of  children recruited in the Congo, often with the support of the surrounding communities. The Coalition wants to speak to community leaders in order to understand how children are recruited in the region and how community leaders could promote the protection of children from child soldiering.

To do so, the Coalition carried out four sessions with communities and children in Béni and Lubéro in February. Sessions were held with local authorities and representatives of Mai Mai and the armed forces.  The sessions provided a forum for open debate on the causes and consequences of child recruitment and allowed the Coalition to inform the participants of the illegality of child recruitment and provide information on the international DDR (Disarmament, Demobilisation, Reintegration) process. The sessions were conducted in collaboration with the DRC national coalition, North Kivu DRC coalition committee, Save the Children UK, Executive Unit of the National DDR program (UE-PNDDR) and local child protection NGOs.

In the rural area of Lubéro, where voluntary recruitment of children takes place, there is very limited awareness that recruitment of child soldiers is illegal and that the government has a duty to try and prevent this and the children in attendance were unaware of these rights.  In contrast, in the urban area of Béni, where reports of voluntary recruitment are fewer, participants were better informed about children’s rights and the existence of legislation prohibiting child soldiering. Some children in the Béni sessions were familiar with the 2009 child protection law through sources such as school, radio or transit centres for former child soldiers.

Perhaps most importantly, during the session in Béni, the representatives of Mai Mai Kasindiens and Mai Mai Virundo publicly committed to releasing the children remaining in their ranks.

Research into child recruitment in eastern DRC

Research into the recruitment and use of children by Mai Mai militia groups in North and South Kivu has now begun. The aim of the research is to identify patterns of recruitment and use by local defence groups in the DRC, in order to establish the extent and nature of the practice and outline the responsibility of the State in preventing this phenomenon. The current researcher is gathering secondary source information, by looking at existing documentation and through interviews with relevant parties, including members of the national Coalition, active in the field. A plan for a field mission to the area is being drawn up and is currently scheduled for June 2009.

A comprehensive report will be published later in the year, to include the results of the field research. The report will be released with the support of Congolese Government officials and the UN Special Representative on Children and Armed Conflict. It is hoped the report could generate pressure to end recruitment and use of child soldiers by Mai Mai groups in the DRC.

Red Hand Day Campaign, DRC
 
Red Hand Day, held on 12 February, is an annual commemoration day created to draw attention to the plight of children who are forced to serve as soldiers in wars and armed conflicts. The German Coalition launched the Red Hand Day Campaign 2009 to collect one million “red hands” to present to the UN Secretary-General with the goal of raising international awareness of the plight of children in armed conflict. Events were held in New York, Brussels and in the DRC.

In New York, over 250,000 “red hands” created during the year-long international Red Hand Day Campaign were presented by four young people, including two former child soldiers, to the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. Representatives from 46 governments took part in the event. The Special Representative to the Secretary-General on children and armed conflict, and UNICEF’s executive Director, the chair of the Security Council’s working group on children and armed conflict and 17 government representatives signed “red hands” to indicate their support of the Campaign. The UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon described the forced recruitment and use of child soldiers as “one of the most appalling human rights abuses in the world today” and stated that “the entire United Nations system and I are determined to stamp out such abuse.” In addition, a letter was sent with a selection of “red hands” to governments that had not yet ratified the OP, urging them to do so.

In Brussels, the Great Lakes program manager received over 65,000 “red hands” at a public event including speeches and presentations highlighting the recruitment and use of child soldiers, particularly in the Great lakes of Africa. The Minister for Foreign Affairs and the Minister for Cooperation and Development of Belgium made strong statements which highlighted the commitment of Belgium to play a leading role against the use of children in armed conflict.

In the Congo, civil society organizations held an awareness-raising event on 12 February in Kinshasa. Several government ministers attended and confirmed their political commitment to protect Congolese children from recruitment and support their reintegration.

Broadcasting public education messages

The Coalition continued to broadcast a public education radio appeal containing key messages on the rights of children and the illegality of child recruitment. The messages, which ran from November 2008 to March 2009, called for the release of all child soldiers and for communities to discourage children from joining armed groups. Some 50 children from the Mai Mai group Binza/Rutshuru movement were released in January 2009 where the broadcasts were aired. The children released from the armed group were between 10 and 14 years old. Child protection NGOs working with the children have identified that most voluntarily joined the ranks in response to mobilization efforts by armed groups calling on them to defend their communities and families. Feedback from local child rights and child protection NGOs confirmed that the use of radio appeals can aid in deterring children joining such groups and can help in securing the release of those how have already joined.