"Child soldier from the perspective of International Law" (Thesis title) This diploma thesis deals with a protection of a child and relation between international humanitarian law and human rights law. The main emphasis is put on particular legal agreements governing status of children in armed conflicts and providing them with protection. In this work are also discussed merits of particular international conventions, as well as issues of their application and supervision. The first chapter pursues rise in interest of society in position of child soldiers and inspects motives and causes of participation of children in armed conflicts. After that the thesis explores historical connection between children and their involvement in armed conflicts. In the end it considers impact of those conflicts on physical and mental health of children and consequences, which arise by their involvement in armed conflicts. The second chapter focuses on defining fundamental terms such as child and armed conflict. Those terms are studied further in accordance with individual and different ways of interpretation of particular conventions. This chapter points out, that decisive criteria for the involvement of children in government's armed forces or non-state army and therefore for their protection is age. The difference...

[pt] O principal objetivo deste trabalho é discutir e problematizar o modo como a categoria ex-criança soldado vem sendo formada e projetada dentre os discursos do trauma e da resiliência que traduzem o seu prefixo temporal ex por meio certos esquecimentos (temporais e subjetivos) e superação. Desse modo, o ideal para a reintegração social bem-sucedida das ex-crianças soldado está inscrito na possibilidade de superação do passado militar e na projeção de um futuro estável. Além disso, penso ser a relação desta produção temporal entre passado militar traumático e futuro do sujeito resiliente para ex-criança soldado que revela as construções do entendimento de sua categoria no presente como em uma posição de espera. Espera no sentido tanto de aguardo (da criança que espera pertencer ao mundo adulto) quanto de esperança (da ex-criança soldado que espera ser resiliente). De outro lado, questionando a produção do tempo como linear, junto com a relação, essencialmente, opositora entre os discursos do trauma e da resiliência, pretendo refletir sobre as (des)continuidades temporais entre a categoria (ex-) criança soldado, o envolvimento militar e o (pós-) conflito, que marcam seus desenhos temporais difusos. Assim, o parêntese que guarda o prefixo ex traduz uma forma de abranger as múltiplas temporalidades que coexistem nas histórias e estórias das (ex-) crianças soldado e bagunçam com a noção moderna da infância e do conflito armado. A categoria (ex-) criança soldado e sua posição temporal confusa, portanto, incomoda certos binarismos, como: adulto e criança; guerra e paz; público e privado, etc. / [en] The central aim of this work is to discuss and problematize the way that the former child soldier category has been formed and projected into the trauma and resilience discourse, translating the temporal word former through certain forgetfulnesses (temporal and subjective) and overcoming. The ideal plan for the successful social reintegration of former child soldiers lies in the possibility of overcoming the military past and of projecting a stable future. Besides, I think that the relation of this temporal production between military and traumatic past and the future of the resilient subject reveals the constructions for understanding the former child soldier category in the present as in a waiting position. The waiting position, in this sense, refers to the Portuguese word espera, which means both wait (the child who waits to become an adult) and hope (the former child soldier who hopes to be resilient). On the other hand, I intend to think about the temporal (des)continuities among the (former) child soldiers, the military involvement and the (post-) conflict, which define the category s diffuse temporal drawing, by questioning the linear production of time and the mainly oppositional relation between the trauma and the resilience discourses. Thus, the parentheses in the word former translate a manner of embracing the multiples temporalities which coexist inside the (former) child soldiers stories and mess up the modern notion of childhood and armed conflict. On that account, the former child soldier category and its confused temporal position are able to disturb some binarisms, such as adult and child; war and peace; public and private, etc.

Zuzana Kučerová: Child Soldier in International Law Abstract This thesis deals with child soldiers from the perspective of the international law. It is predominantly concerned with two questions: protection of children from recruiting and their possible criminal responsibility for international crimes. After a short introductory chapter, which covers a brief history of child soldiers, the second part gives an overview of international legal instruments which aim at preventing the underaged from being recruited into armed groups, as well as from taking part in hostilities. Those instruments belong to three different branches of international law: humanitarian law, human rights law and international criminal law. The author concludes that international criminal law in particular is the best instrument to protect children from becoming child soldiers. The reason is that international criminal law applies directly to individuals, including non-state actors such as commanders of paramilitary forces. It is also in force at the times when there is no armed conflict as defined by international humanitarian law. The third part of the work focuses on criminal responsibility of children for international crimes. The major question in this field is whether we can prosecute children for those crimes at all. On the one...

武裝衝突法已成為各交戰國(方)爭取國際支持之重要手段，軍隊執行作戰任務，必須遵守武裝衝突法及國際法的相關規範，始可確保作戰行動的合法性及正當性。陸戰法規是一系列戰爭法規則和慣例的重要歷史淵源，為武裝衝突法之主體。隨著以規範交戰規則為主的海牙法體系與規範人道保護規則為主的日內瓦法體系逐漸整合，陸戰法規除規範作戰使用武器的規則外，其他有關交戰者、敵對行為及軍事佔領等規則均納入1949年日內瓦公約及1977年的兩項附加議定書。 觀察國際社會對陸戰法規實踐的面向，除可從戰史例證中得到驗證外，尚可從童兵、地雷、武裝衝突遺留爆炸物處理及文化資產保護等議題，得以進一步瞭解陸戰法規實踐的全貌。要禁止利用童兵的行為，除了國家行為者應負履約義務外，對非國家行為者侵犯兒童權利行為的制止是當務之急，國際刑事法院應扮演更積極的角色。2003年波灣戰爭中，《禁雷公約》雖未能阻止伊拉克使用人員殺傷雷，但已顯示該公約對非締約國產生的隱性約束力，禁用人員殺傷雷的規範雖未完全實現，但已為多數國家認同，未來可能成為一項習慣國際法。《戰爭遺留爆炸物議定書》雖可為解決武裝衝突結束後平民所面臨的主要威脅提供一項法律制度，但因條約內容強制性不足，成效尚難顯現。目前對文化資深保護的重點在於免遭武裝衝突毀損為主要議題，因武裝衝突而流落異域之文化資產回復或返還，可能成為未來發展之主要議題。 / The Law of Armed Conflict has become one of the important means to win the international support for all belligerent. The army must comply with the Law of Armed Conflict in combat, in order to ensure the legitimacy of military operation. The law of war on land has its historical origins for regulations and customary of the Law of War, and also has codified as the main body of the Law of Armed Conflict. The Law of The Hague and the Law of Geneva have been gradually integrated. All these regulations of the law of war on land about combatant, hostilities and military occupation were included in the “Geneva Conventions of 1949” and two “Additional Protocols of 1977”, except the regulations of the use of the weapon. Observing the different aspects of the law of war on land in the international community from the cases above, furthermore, the issues of “Child Soldier”, “Landmine”, “Explosive Remnants of Armed Conflict” and “Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict”, can help to understand the full view of the practice of the law of war on land. For stopping the use of child soldiers, the obligation of convention should be executed by the state actors, the task of top priority should prevent the infringements of the right of child of the non-state actors, and the International Criminal Court should play a more positive role. In the “Gulf War 2003”, the rule, “Convention on Prohibition of Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of Anti-personnel Landmines and on Their Destruction”, although it has not prevent Iraq from the use of anti-personnel landmine, had showed the indistinct effect of the convention to the powers in the conflict that may not be parties to the convention. Although the rule of prohibition of use of anti-personnel mines has not completely realized, it had already been approved by most states, and may become one of the international customary in the future. The “Protocol on Explosive Remnants of War annexed to the “Protocol on Explosive Remnants of War (Protocol V to the 1980 Convention)” provided a legal protection for the civilian after the armed conflict. Its effect was still too difficult to manifest, because the force of provisions of the protocol were insufficient. The protection of cultural property in the event of armed conflict focuses on exempting from the damage of cultural property at present, but the issue like how to recover the cultural properties which were pillaged in armed conflicts, would become the main theme in the foreseeable future.

Que ce soit dans le domaine médiatique, social ou littéraire, la violence, la guerre et la précarité sont des termes qui refont surface dans les différents discours portant sur la situation générale du continent africain. Dans la littérature spécialement, ces expressions dominent les publications issues aussi bien de l’ère coloniale que postcoloniale. Par conséquent, ce travail de thèse a pour objectif principal d’analyser les différents discours axés sur la représentation de la violence postcoloniale dans des œuvres romanesques publiées par des auteurs africains issus de l’Afrique d’expression française. Toutefois, en laissant en marge la figure du dictateur, cette thèse aborde la thématique des enfants, notamment celui des enfants-soldats. Elle analyse les dispositifs narratifs au moyen desquels les auteurs mettent en place un enfant ou un adolescent comme figure principale dans un contexte d’une écriture de violence extrême. C’est dans cette mesure que notre corpus est composé de deux publications d’Ahmadou Kourouma et une d’Emmanuel Dongala soulevant cette thématique de différentes manières. Publiées dans les années 2000 et à travers la mise en exergue du phénomène d’utilisation des enfants à des fins militaires, ces œuvres ont posé les bases d’une nouvelle structure narrative dans l’histoire de la littérature africaine d’expression française. Cette thèse démontre que l’introduction de la voix d’un enfant dans ces textes offre une vue particulière émanant de la classe inférieure de la société sur les violences postcoloniales. En outre cette thèse établit un lien de causalité entre la violence postcoloniale et la violence coloniale. / Violence, war, poverty and precariousness are typical terms, which are repeatedly present in different discourses about the African continent, be it in the media or in the social sphere. In literature, these expressions also dominate the publications of both the colonial and the post-colonial era. Therefore, this work has the main objective of analysing the portrayal of postcolonial violence in selected works published by African French-speaking authors, but without taking into account the figure of the dictator. It emphasizes the issue of children, most especially child soldiers. Moreover it analyses the narrative methods used by the authors, by means of which a child or teenager becomes the main figure in the context of extreme violence. Two novel publications of Ahmadou Kourouma and one of Emmanuel Dongala form the basis of this dissertation. These are works of two authors who, starting in the year 2000, created new structures in the history of French African literature by their intensive writing about the military use of children. It turned out that in their novels, the voice of a child offers a particular view from the lower class of society on postcolonial violence. In addition, the dissertation establishes a causal relationship between postcolonial and colonial violence.

A Child in an Armed Conflict in the Light of Article 38 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child The thesis aims to transparently elaborate the topic of protection of children in armed conflicts pursuant to the Article 38 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child as well as identification of the main problems associated with the topic and efforts to suggest their solutions. The thesis also focuses on monitoring and enforcement mechanism of individual international instruments. The body of the thesis is divided into four parts, each of several chapters. The first part of the thesis deals with the development of protection of children in armed conflicts until the adoption of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, and relevant international law documents on the protection of children in armed conflicts. The first part also includes a chapter with the identification of the main problems associated with the protection of children. Second part of the thesis concentrates on the analysis of various instruments of international law regarding the protection of children, that is, of course, the Convention on the Rights of the Child and its Optional Protocols, and following documents regarding protection of children based on this Convention, i.e. The Convention of the International Labour Organization...

Dans la plupart des situations de guerre utilisant des enfants, tout au moins dans les configurations actuelles, c’est une partie du groupe-communauté lui-même qui porte la transgression. Il apparaît souvent dans ces guerres une dimension inavouable liée à la dynamique interne du groupe. Dans ces configurations il s’agit d’une organisation collective du massacre par une partie du groupe, sur la base de codes communs et partagés saisissable au travers de la théorie des catastrophes (Thom, 1961) comme des opérateurs de bifurcation. Comme si d’une part, la figure de l’intrus (Duez., 2003) qui peut se comprendre comme produit du travail de figuration, de mise en forme de l’objet perdait sa principale fonction structurante, et d’autre part, le sujet perdait toute possibilité de vivre intimement le groupe comme son espace psychique, comme la scène destinée à transférer immédiatement ses différents conflits et enjeux psychiques, re-convoquant les scénalités archaïques et invitant à définir de nouvelles formes à investir. Ceci vient complexifier tout travail de symbolisation. Dans ces contextes de transgressions, où l’enfant est au prise avec l’autre-semblable devenu nocif et porteur de la mort, l’émergence de la figure de l’enfant-soldat obéit à une dynamique dont la force (celle utilisée par le chef de guerre) n’est pas le seul paramètre. Cette figure est logée dans le groupe-combattant qui est une émanation méta-défensives du groupe-communauté. / In most current configurations of war front using children, we use to find a part of the community-group bearing itself the transgression. It often appears in these wars, a shameful dimension related to the internal dynamics of the group killing itself. By the fact, in these configurations, we have a collective massacre committed by part of Group, on the basis of common and shared social rules and anthropological codes. The catastrophe theory (Thom, 1961) is an opportunity to explain those phenomena using attractive and repulsive forces in individual an groupal catastrophic bifurcation. It seems, on one hand, the “alien intrusion” (Duez B. 2003) which can be considered as the result of the psychic figuration work out and shaping of the psychic object, loses its main structuring function. On the other hand, the individual lost any opportunity to intimately experience the group as a psychic area on which he can transfer his immediate psychic conflicts and issues. Then, archaic scenes take the rule and invite the individual to find new internal form to deal with for symbolisation process. In these transgressions contexts, where children have to deal with harmful adult bearer of death, the rising of Child Soldier phenomena obeys a dynamic in witch strength (used by lord of war) is the common but not the unique parameter to consider. Child Soldier emerge in the war group which is a meta-defensive organization of the community reacting to the state of war.

No description available.

D’après la Convention n° 182 de l’OIT, toutes les formes d’esclavage ou pratiques analogues, telles que la servitude pour dettes et le servage, la traite, le travail forcé, ainsi que le recrutement obligatoire des enfants dans les conflits armés figurent parmi les pires formes de travail des enfants. Ledit instrument regroupe l’ensemble de ces notions dans une seule et même catégorie pouvant donner lieu à une possible ambiguïté. Le but de ce travail est de faire toute la lumière sur les nuances qui distinguent chacune de ces notions en droit international, européen (en particulier, le droit du Conseil de l’Europe) et iranien. Cette thèse se compose de deux parties. La première partie traite de l’évolution du cadre juridique international, européen et iranien dans la lutte contre le travail des enfants dans son ensemble. La deuxième partie, quant à elle, se penche sur les formes particulièrement graves de travail des enfants, d’ordre économique, qui nécessitent de ce fait un régime juridique spécifique. / Child Labour and Child Exploitation in International, European and Iranian law (a Comparative Legal Study): According to the ILO’s Convention No. 182, all forms of slavery or similar practices, such as debt bondage and serfdom, trafficking, forced labour and compulsory recruitment of children for use in armed conflicts appear among the worst forms of child labour. The aforementioned Convention classifies all these concepts into a singlecategory which may give rise to a possible ambiguity. The aim of this thesis is to shed light on the nuances of each of these notions in international, European (in particular, Council of Europe) and Iranian law. This thesis consists of two parts. The first part deals with theevolution of the international, European and Iranian Legal framework in the fight against child labour in general. The second part particularly focuses on grave forms of child labour of economic nature which require a specific legal regime.

This thesis examines the experiences of girl child soldiers in Uganda in order to explore the gender gaps that exist in post-conflict programming and to engender meaningful policy solutions that target these gaps. This thesis uses a gender lens to analyze the challenges faced by Ugandan girls and to explore how entrenched gender norms feed into a singular narrative of conflict – dangerous boys and traumatized girls – that renders particular combatants – and their unique needs – invisible. Adopting a feminist methodology that prioritizes the importance of girls’ narratives and self-perceptions, the author argues that girl child soldiers must be meaningfully included in the design and implementation of programming aimed at serving their needs. A participatory action research methodology is presented as a promising way forward. It can help address specific gendered challenges in the post-conflict environment, while also recognizing and drawing upon the resiliency and strengths of the girl child soldiers themselves.