Maritime Terrorism

Girls were required to perform tasks such as domestic work, sexual slavery, and combat activities.

Girls often carried out a variety of roles and tasks simultaneously.

Girls were often the last members to be released by rebel groups because they were considered to have high value and worth.

Girl child soldiers experienced extreme forms of violence ranging from verbal abuse to acts of cruelty, reflecting the patriarchal power relations and gendered oppression within armed groups.

Yes, there can be voluntary recruitment in the case of child soldiers. However, the international community generally views child soldiers as victims and believes they should be treated as such, rather than being held fully responsible for their actions.

The two models of justice in prosecuting child soldiers are the retributive justice model and the restorative justice model.

The retributive justice model holds that wrongdoers, including child soldiers, should be held accountable for their crimes through punishment. The severity of punishment should be proportional to the seriousness of the crime.

Some reasons for girls' involvement and initiation into armed conflict include seeking protection from violence or unwanted marriages, seeking empowerment and emancipation in societies with rigid gender roles, and being forcibly abducted into armed groups.

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.

1. Childhood is culturally constructed and varies across societies. 2. In many non-Western societies, a person may be regarded as an adult once certain ceremonies and rites of passage have been completed. 3. In some societies, a girl child is considered an adult after marriage, and a young man becomes an adult after the death of his father. 4. Many societies view children as competent 'young adults'. 5. Military participation is seen as part of becoming an adult, and under-18-year-olds are encouraged to take part in military activities. 6. There are implications for disarmament, demobilization, and reintegration (DDR) programs.

1. Forced recruitment 2. Family considerations - push and pull factors 3. Hopes of earning money 4. Power, glamour, and excitement 5. Disaffection with political, social, and economic systems that have failed them 6. Lack of educational opportunities 7. Ideology and political socialization exert a strong influence over youth's decision to join armed forces.

DDR programmes are characterized by gendered exclusion by privileging male combatants at the expense of women and girls in fighting forces. DDR is crucial to increasing security, public safety and protection in the aftermath of conflict, as well as promoting peace. DDR programming was planned specifically for male combatants; there was no official recognition of girls’ military status, girls often had no guns to hand in, and were regarded as too young to be considered as soldiers. Moreover, girls were said to be involved with ‘women’s work’ that did not qualify for demobilisation benefits. Given that girls’ salient roles within armed groups were not formally acknowledged or recognised, the vast majority of girls in fighting forces were excluded from DDR.

The defining characteristics of maritime terrorism include the use of violence or the threat of violence to pursue their acts, a need for funding to sustain their operations, and a land-based component to support these activities.

Maritime terrorist threats are characterized by legal and jurisdictional weaknesses, geographical necessity, inadequate security, secure base areas, maritime tradition, charismatic and effective leadership, state support, and the promise of rewards.

According to the UN Convention against Torture, torture is defined as any act by which severe physical or mental pain or suffering is intentionally inflicted on a person for purposes such as obtaining information or a confession, punishing them for an act, or intimidating or coercing them.

Under the UN Convention against Torture, South Africa has the duties to prevent torture and cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment, to abide by the peremptory norm that prohibits the use of torture under any circumstances, to protect foreign nationals from persecution, to criminalize torture in domestic law, to either prosecute or extradite individuals accused of torture, and to educate and train all personnel to prevent torture.

Ensuring that there is no safe haven for perpetrators of torture

They must be properly trained in preventing torture

To ensure that the victim of torture obtains redress under the legal system of that State Party

spiritual and religious rituals

creation of informal support structures and peer-support networks

it instills stability and normalcy in their lives

any act of boarding or attempting to board any ship with the intent to commit theft or any other crime, using force if necessary