Children, Armed Violence and Transition: Challenges for International Law & Policy

"Many children end up as child soldiers because they are abducted, brutalized, and tortured. Others, however, also exercise a level of initiative in coming forward and either enlisting or, in some cases, affirmatively participating in armed groups and armed forces. Youth politicization, and actualizing politics though martial activities, is not implausible: some children join movements to try to build a better world. Many child soldiers are rescued by humanitarian interventions, but some exit militarized life entirely on their own. Only few child soldiers are involved in the serial commission of what would be acts of atrocity against civilian populations, often including other children. Many child soldiers are victims of brutal indignities. I believe that to effectively deter child soldiering, we need to recognize the diversity and the kaleidoscopic nature of militarization and how it affects children.