Children's Rights and Armed Conflict

Political assassination is defined as the deliberate, premeditated murder of a prominent figure for political reasons.

Some causes of assassinations include restrictions on political competition and strong polarization and fragmentation, lack of consensual political ethos and homogenous populations, politically deprived groups resulting in decline in legitimacy of political leadership, domestic violence during election periods, and territorial fragmentation of a country.

Potential targets of assassinations include heads of state, lower-ranking political figures, legislators, vice heads of states, and opposition leaders.

The right of children to express their views freely in all matters affecting them.

As victims of criminal policies for which adults are responsible.

A model that holds wrongdoers accountable for their crimes through punishment, with severity of punishment proportional to the seriousness of the crime.

A model that attempts to make restitution and is harmonious with many African societies' norms of justice.

The two types of genocidal mass death are outcome of mass-death inducing acts and policies lacking intent & knowledge and direct genocidal acts.

The three types of pragmatic genocide are developmental, retributive, and hegemonic.

The factors that contribute to genocide include ethnicity, nationality, religion; economic dependency, underdevelopment, destitution; limited physical resources; usurpation of political power, marginalisation; and quelling of insurgencies or threat of coup d’etat.

The strategies that offenders of genocide use to conceal their actions include denying genocide has taken place, belittling the scope of the crime if genocide has taken place, presenting genocide as justified, banalizing genocide by stigmatizing it as a dispute between ethnic or religious groups or as a usual part of war, and justifying the former victims' attempts of revenge when both sides commit the act.

Military rape and enforced pregnancy can be viewed as a crime of biological warfare because it aims to attack the reproductive system of members of the enemy population, causing social chaos and producing children who are a constant reminder of their traumatic origins.

Rape and enforced pregnancy can destroy the morale of a people, especially if inflicted on the youth, who represent its hope for the future.

Mass rape and enforced pregnancy can contribute to undermining the will to fight, as it targets civilian women and children, motivating men to cease fighting in order to protect their families and communities.

The use of sperm as a weapon fits the concept of biological warfare as it attacks a biological system (reproductive system) in members of the enemy population, producing social chaos and psychological toxicity.

Girls' responsibilities included cooking, washing dishes, fetching water and firewood, laundering, and taking care of younger children.

Girls were at extremely high risk for sexually transmitted diseases including HIV/AIDS, as well as an array of reproductive health problems. Many girls were reportedly forced to 'marry' individual males within the fighting forces, essentially becoming the (sexual) 'property' of specific males.

Combat activities were a significant part of the duties of many girls associated with fighting forces. They were forced to participate in combat only in situations where there was a lack of military power on the side of the fighting forces.

Women and girls experience armed conflict differently than men and boys. Females usually being the most insecure, disadvantaged and marginalized. For girls in fighting forces, the chronic quest for safety and security, regardless of the nature of their roles, is particularly challenging due to the vulnerability exacerbated by their gender, age and physical disadvantage.

An action that directly or indirectly leads to the death of an intentionally targeted individual who is active in the political sphere, in order to promote or prevent specific policies, values, practices or norms pertaining to the collective, intensify prospects of a state’s fragmentation and undermine its democratic nature.

Decline in the democratic nature of a polity, increase in domestic violence, instability and economic prosperity (rise of a more open economic power).

Genocide means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group: killing members of a group, causing serious bodily harm or mental harm to members of a group, deliberately inflicting on the group’s conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part thereof, imposing measures intended to prevent births within group, forcibly transferring children of a group to another group.

Ethnic cleansing is a purposeful policy designed by one ethnic or religious group to remove, by violent and terror-inspiring means, the civilian population of another ethnic or religious group from certain geographic areas. It is related to genocide as it involves the deliberate infliction of harm and destruction on a targeted group based on their ethnicity or religion.

A child soldier is defined as any person under the age who is part of any kind of regular or irregular armed force or armed group in any capacity, including but not limited to cooks, porters, messengers, and those accompanying such groups, other than purely as family members.

Some complexities associated with defining the concept of a child soldier include: 1. Childhood being culturally constructed and varying across societies. 2. Different societies regarding adulthood based on ceremonies and rites of passage. 3. Girl child becoming an adult with marriage and young man after the death of his father. 4. Many societies regarding children as competent 'young adults'. 5. Military participation being seen as part of becoming an adult in some societies. 6. Implications for disarmament, demobilization, and reintegration (DDR) programs.

Some reasons why children become involved in armed conflict include: 1. Forced recruitment. 2. Family considerations such as push and pull factors. 3. Hopes of earning money. 4. Power, glamour, and excitement. 5. Disaffection with political, social, and economic systems. 6. Lack of educational opportunities. 7. Ideology and political socialization exerting a strong influence.

The notion of 'voluntary' recruitment of child soldiers refers to the possibility that children may join armed groups on a voluntary basis due to new social, economic, and political systems created by war. However, children may lack cognitive skills to make a choice and can be manipulated or compelled to join. The question of whether children can be held responsible for their actions is complex, as they may play an active and critical role in armed forces, but their underlying concerns, grievances, needs, and aspirations should be considered.