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A comparative analysis of the rights of the child with particular reference to child soldiers

The recruitment, enlistment and forceful conscription of children as soldiers is a cause for grave concern all over the world and most especially in Africa, where years of factional fighting, civil wars and cross border conflicts have raged, children and youth have been pulled into violence not only as victims, but also as perpetrators. The involvement of children in war posses a severe challenge to prevailing moral and legal norms of the conduct of modern warfare. A major problem and most controversial issue, among others, is on the age at which children should be eligible to become combatants. Children, who may be viewed as a valuable resource due to their often inherent malleability, wish to avenge family member(s) killed in war, sense of immunity to danger, and or feeling of power in participating in the violence. Can the use of children as soldiers be effectively regulated in Africa? All efforts to assist child soldiers in recovering from the devastating effects of wars often unwillingly helped promote the growing number of child soldiers. This is in part because wars are now more fought internally among rebel armies and factions vying for power with the government and thus enlist children into their various armies. The study comes to a conclusion that drastic steps need to be taken to ameliorate this unfortunate situation. This formed the basis of the recommendations offered in the thesis to assist the African continent.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:ufh/vital:11108
Date January 2008
CreatorsAnwo, Joel Olasunkanmi
PublisherUniversity of Fort Hare, Faculty of Law
Source SetsSouth African National ETD Portal
LanguageEnglish
Detected LanguageEnglish
TypeThesis, Doctoral, LLD
Format313 leaves; 30 cm, pdf
RightsUniversity of Fort Hare

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