1 - International Legal Protection for the Recovery and Reintegration of War-Affected Children

Summary

INTRODUCTION

Throughout history, children have suffered disproportionately in armed conflicts. However, recent trends towards civil war and internal conflict rather than armed conflict between organised state armed forces seem to have put the civilian population in increasingly dire situations. In recent decades issues such as the flow of small arms, the proliferation of armed groups and the use of indiscriminate weapons have all led to increased vulnerability for children. Obviously, modern communications technology has also increased global awareness regarding issues affecting children in armed conflict.

In considering the needs for recovery and reintegration of war-affected children, there are distinct groups and needs that can be identified: the larger group of war-affected children in general, and those with specific protection concerns. When researching the impact of today's conflicts on children, a number of issues come up. The first very visible and tangible impact is that on infrastructure and services that provide for the basic necessities to ensure the right to life and development for children.This includes access to water, food, health and education. But children are also affected emotionally and sometimes psychologically, which needs to be considered not only in the immediate response to humanitarian crises but also in their long-term development. Specific protection issues that may have arisen due to the conflict include family separation, child recruitment, trafficking, abduction and gender-based violence, to mention but a few. Some of these are international crimes, where children are victims and also witnesses and perpetrators of crimes. It is in relation to these issues that transitional justice questions become particularly relevant, as does the extent to which current normative frameworks have been able to grapple with them.

The purpose of this chapter is to analyse the international legal framework applicable to recovery and reintegration for war-affected children, and to identify some of the gaps and current issues in this regard. I will be looking at a postconflict scenario, hence mostly considering situations where international humanitarian law has ceased to apply and as such the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) and its Optional Protocol on the Involvement of Children in Armed Conflict (OP-CAAC) are the key reference documents.