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DDR is meant to bridge the gap between child soldiering and civilian life. The challenges in the delivery of effective DDR programs serve as barriers to adequate support for child soldiers. Increasingly, research has also considered the gender-specific challenges and barriers that former girl soldiers face and the limited (if any) support they receive through DDR initiatives. DDR supports for girl soldiers who have become mothers are even less likely to meet their complex needs. As such, ‘girl soldiers as mothers’ and their children remain outside the dominant DDR discourse and subsequently do not get the attention, they need in DDR programming documents. While the discourse within DDR programs has progressed to include sexual violence and some gender-specific needs, these additions are insufficient for meeting the diverse needs of girl child soldiers and their children. The result is girl soldiers who become mothers and their children remain unprepared for returning to their communities or society, and their communities continue to be unprepared to receive them.

Thesis (M.P.A.)--Bowling Green State University, 2009. / Document formatted into pages; contains v, 86 p. Includes bibliographical references.

The persistent use of child soldiers in war continues to be a serious problem for many countries locked in conflicts around the world, yet surprisingly little attention has been given to those actors who are recruiting children in the greatest numbers: namely, non-state armed groups (NSAs). In recent years, several NSAs have entered into formal commitments with UNICEF to end their child recruitment practices; what is more interesting, they have done so during periods of active conflict. Why have these armed groups signed such agreements? Are there observable patterns among these NSAs that could better help us predict the likelihood of engaging with other groups in the future? This Masters thesis endeavours to look more closely at the nature of these specific actors employing children in war, and the dynamics surrounding negotiated agreements, in order to answer the question: why do non-state armed groups agree to end their child recruitment practices during periods of ongoing conflict?

Thesis (M.A.)--University of North Texas, August, 2008. / Title from title page display. Includes bibliographical references.

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Thesis (M.A. (Human Rights))--Mahidol University, 2008.

Since the late 1980s Disarmament, Demobilisation and Reintegration (DDR) programmes have been an integral part of post-conflict reconstruction. This was especially true of Sierra Leone's post-conflict reconstruction which has frequently been hailed a 'multilateral success story' by the international community. Nevertheless, within Western-authored DDR literature there is a widespread but little interrogated assertion that, in post-conflict contexts, resettling former child soldiers with their families is always the best option for social reintegration. Family members, it is argued, are most able to provide the psychosocial support that former child soldiers require in order to successfully make the transition to civilian life in the aftermath of war. Using an interdisciplinary and multi-method approach and drawing on empirical research undertaken in Sierra Leone, this thesis questions the universality of this assumption. The thesis analyses conceptual understandings of family and childhood in DDR policy and locally in Sierra Leone focusing on their implications for child soldier reintegration. It also examines the immediate and long-term effects of DDR's policy of family reintegration for child soldiers' social reintegration with a view to determining whether the current approach is indeed always 'in the best interests of the child'. Finally, the thesis examines the effect of local family dynamics on the wider post-conflict reconstruction effort and vice versa. The thesis findings suggest that whilst the policy of family reunification in child soldier DDR has a number of benefits, it may also lay the foundations for renewed conflict in the future by reifying certain contentious pre-war power structures.

Research studies that have already been conducted on the problem of child soldiers and child conscription have focused mostly on psychological trauma. Less attention has been paid to social, economic, and political processes in Africa. The goal of this thesis is to explore perceptions of professionals from various disciplines working in different organizations and government institutions (N = 207) concerning the causes, effects, and solutions to child conscription in Africa. / These professionals perceived that poverty, lack of educational resources, lack of community resources, economic hardships, dictates of international funders, corrupt governments, and unemployment were the major causes of child conscription into armed conflicts. With respect to the effects, the respondents perceived that physical and psychological issues, witnessing atrocities, and exposure to violence were the most important effects of participating in the armed conflicts. / In order to prevent or stop further recruitment of children into armed conflicts, the professionals working in the field thought that more educational programs should be initiated, community resources should be mobilized, prevention programs should be established, employment and training opportunities programs should also be provided, strong international laws drafted, advocacy and empowerment promoted, support for families provided, and awareness campaigns facilitated. / A striking result of this study is that professionals perceived counselling as a relatively unimportant solution to the problem of child conscription. Results are discussed in terms of the contrast between past research in the field, which has focused on individual-level effects and counselling solutions, and the societal-level effects, and solutions that professionals perceive are central to the problem.