CRIN Children and Armed Conflict 120

2 July 2008 - CRIN Children and Armed Conflict 120

 

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**NEWS IN BRIEF**

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UN SECURITY COUNCIL: Rape classified as a 'war tactic' [news]

[20 June 2008] - The UN Security Council has voted unanimously in favour of a resolution classifying rape as a weapon of war.

The document describes the deliberate use of rape as a tactic in war and a threat to international security.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said violence against women had reached "unspeakable proportions" in some societies recovering from conflict.

The UN is also setting up an inquiry to report next June on how widespread the practice is and how to tackle it.

Human-rights group hailed the resolution as historic.

'Silent war'

The BBC's Laura Trevelyan said China, Russia, Indonesia and Vietnam had all expressed reservations during the negotiations, asking whether rape was really a matter for the UN security council.

But the US-sponsored resolution was adopted unanimously by the 15-member council.

It described sexual violence as "a tactic of war to humiliate, dominate, instil fear in, disperse and/or forcibly relocate civilian members of a community or ethnic group".

The document said that the violence "can significantly exacerbate situations of armed conflict and may impede the restoration of international peace and security".

During the debate in the council, Mr Ban said: "Responding to this silent war against women and girls requires leadership at the national level."

"National authorities need to take the initiative to build comprehensive strategies while the UN needs to help build capacity and support national authorities and civil societies," he added.

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said the world now recognised that sexual violence profoundly affected not only the health and safety of women, but the economic and social stability of their nations.

Other speakers identified the former Yugoslavia, Sudan's Darfur region, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda and Liberia as regions where deliberate sexual violence had occurred on a mass scale.

Deterrent?

The former commander of the UN peacekeeping force in eastern Congo, Maj-Gen Patrick Cammaert, told the BBC he personally witnessed its impact.

"It's a very effective weapon, because the communities are totally destroyed," he said.

"You destroy communities. You punish the men, and you punish the women, doing it in front of the men."

In the Democratic Republic of Congo alone, some 40 women are raped every day, our correspondent says.

Sometimes women are even raped by peacekeepers who are supposed to be protecting them, she adds.

The question is whether those in conflict zones who use rape in war will be at all deterred by the new measures, she says.

[Source: BBC]

Further information

 

Visit: http://www.crin.org/resources/infoDetail.asp?ID=17581

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DISABILITY: Disabilities among refugees and conflict-affected populations [publication]

[NEW YORK/ GENEVA, 23 June 2008] - The Women's Commission for Refugee Women and Children has released Disabilities among Refugees and Conflict-Affected Populations, the first major report to address the critical needs of a virtually invisible population: refugees and people displaced within their own countries who suffer from physical, sensory or mental disabilities.

"Being uprooted from one's home is an enormous challenge in itself, but refugees with disabilities face even greater hardship and isolation and are all but forgotten by their communities and by the world," said Carolyn Makinson, Executive Director of the Women's Commission. "Our report confirms that their needs must be addressed at the very start of any emergency. It is critical that refugee camps are built with easy access to shelter, food and water and opportunities must be created for them to fully contribute to society."

The report is the culmination of a six-month project led by the Women's Commission and co-funded by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). It is based on fact-finding missions to Ecuador, Yemen, Jordan, Thailand and Nepal (as well as significant field input from Darfur and Kenya), interviews with United Nations agencies and local organisations on the ground, and focus group discussions with refugees and others uprooted from their homes. Colombian, Somali, Iraqi, Burmese, Bhutanese and Sudanese populations were studied in camps and urban environments, in both emergency and protracted situations, with a particular focus on women, children and adolescents.

"The Women's Commission sought to place refugees with disabilities higher on the international agenda and to provide tools and guidance for improving critical assistance," said António Guterres, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. "This research has accomplished just that."

Among the greatest challenges identified by the report were the identification of and accumulation of real data on the numbers of people with disabilities. This population is currently not counted in refugee registration drives or identified in data collection rounds. The World Health Organisation (WHO) estimates that there are 600 million people with disabilities worldwide—between seven and 10 per cent of the world's population. Based on this estimate, the Women's Commission believes that between 2.5 and 3.5 million of the world's 35 million displaced people also live with disabilities; however, among those who have fled conflict or natural disasters, the number may be even higher.

The report notes serious problems with the physical layout and infrastructure of the camps—few services are accessible to people with disabilities, including toilets, shelters and health facilities. In general, no special accommodations are made for getting food and other supplies that refugees with disabilities need on a daily basis. Many are housebound, rarely leaving their shelters. Not surprisingly, their voices go unheard in decision-making activities for their communities.

Disabilities among Refugees and Conflict-Affected Populations also reveals a disparity between refugee camps and urban areas: in camps there is a greater awareness about the needs of the disabled and better services than in urban environments, where refugees with disabilities are unable to access services offered by the host government and virtually no one is providing special assistance to them. The Women's Commission also found greater discrimination and stigmatisation towards the mentally disabled population; assistance programmes, when available, tend to focus on those with physical and sensory disabilities.

Yet, key findings also include a few positive developments, in particular with regard to children in refugee camps. Many children with disabilities are attending primary schools, some of which have special education teachers.

For the parents of the disabled, some camps offer support groups as well as home visits for instruction in sign language, Braille and rehabilitative exercises.

To reinforce the report's findings and improve protection and services for refugees with disabilities, the Women's Commission created a resource kit to provide practical guidance for UNHCR and humanitarian agency field staff. Major recommendations include making refugee camps accessibleto people with disabilities and ensuring that they have full and equal access to the mainstream services that other refugees receive.

For more information, contact:
Women's Commission for Refugee Women and Children
122 East 42nd Street
12th Floor
New York NY 10168 - 1289
Tel: 00 1 212 551-3140
Email: [email protected]
Website: http://www.womenscommission.org

Further information

Visit: http://www.crin.org/resources/infodetail.asp?id=17730

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MONITORING: Preventive Strategies for Children and Armed Conflict [publication]

Prevention, a long-term goal, often loses out to crisis response in work on Children and Armed Conflict. This report focuses on preventive strategies for short and longer-term. It has two objectives: strengthen preventive aspects in the implementation of Security Council Resolution 1612 and increase attention to children threatened by armed conflict in other policy areas. It results from a research/consultation process, sponsored by the Canadian Forum on Children and Armed Conflict.

Further information

[Source: Canadian Forum on Children and Armed Conflict]

Visit: http://www.crin.org/resources/infoDetail.asp?ID=17427

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PLAN: State of the World's Girls 2008 - In the Shadow of War [publication]

One in five countries in the world have used girls as child soldiers, and 100,000 are currently fighting in conflicts around the world, a new report by Plan International shows.

‘Because I am a Girl: Special Focus- in the Shadow of War’ reveals why and how girls’ rights are being violated in countries at risk of, in the midst of, or emerging from armed conflict. It shows clearly what is lost when girls’ voices are ignored and their capacities and skills go un-recognised and under-developed.

“Plan is publishing the state of the world’s girls report series to bring global attention to the fact that progress towards meeting the Millennium development goals (MDG’s) – the goals set by the world’s governments in 2000 to halve world poverty by 2015 – is being hampered by a continued lack of investment in girls and young women,” said Marie Staunton, Plan UK Chief Executive.

Because I am a Girl 2008 looks at extensive research from across the world and recounts the personal experiences of girls before, during and after conflicts.

The world still knows far too little about the unique and particular roles that girls play in the build-up to, during, and after conflict. This report aims to provide a comprehensive picture of girls’ experiences.

The report begins with the premise that the condition and position of girls’ lives matters, and that the impact of conflict on girls is far reaching and goes beyond their experiences as either combatants or victims of violence. It shows how conflict affects girls differently from boys; how their rights are ignored, their responsibilities changed, and their lives altered forever by war. It describes how discrimination against girls is in place before the fighting begins and long after it is over. The report also examines the implications of conflict for girls’ health, girls’ education, gender roles and relationship dynamics.

Girls remain invisible during violent conflict, either ignored in humanitarian responses or treated simply as the victims of sexual and other types of violence. This lack of focus on girls increases their vulnerability and reduces their access to the very services they need during such insecure times.

President of Liberia, and Africa’s first elected woman leader, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, says: “This report sheds an important and critical light on the often overlooked plight of girls in post-conflict countries that are rife with hostility which threatens their survival and potential.

“Urgent intervention is required to give girls a chance to lead normal lives that include obtaining an education and access to health care.”

Many young women today have little alternative but to become combatants. Sometimes this is because they are abducted and forced to serve as ‘wives’. Sometimes, joining a fighting force can be a way of gaining a degree of protection and social status, and may even be the only means of survival.

According to UNAIDS: “Because of their social and economic vulnerability, young girls are more ex-posed to coercive sex, especially in conflict situations.”

Sexual violence and rape has become not just a by-product of conflict but a deliberate tactic to destroy another’s culture and change its future population. Young women bear the brunt of this.

Figures in the report reveal:

  • 38 countries have used girl soldiers in armed conflict in the last two decades
  • 200 million girls live in countries that are at risk of, in the midst of or emerging from armed conflict
  • 90 per cent of victims of modern warfare are civilian with more and more women and children
  • An estimated 20 million girls are out of school in war zones

During conflict, women and girls who have been shouldered with the economic and social burdens of their communities have often taken on new roles as breadwinners, decision-makers and community leaders. Therefore, post-conflict reconstruction offers a unique opportunity to redefine gender relations and for promoting sustainable gender equality.

The fact that girls and young women are not consulted in post conflict situations has serious consequences for their rights. Girls are the ones who know the risks they face during times of instability and have ideas about how to protect themselves. Families, communities, agencies and governments should listen to them and act on what they say.

Graca Machel President of the Foundation for community Development chair of the GAVI Fund Board states in the preface to the report that “to discriminate against girls is not only morally indefensible, it is also economically, politically and socially unsupportable. Nowhere is this more crucial than in societies that are unstable or in countries that are emerging from conflict, where to ignore a substantial proportion of the population makes little sense.”

A lack of effective targeted interventions will mean that many nations, and the girls who live in them, will remain in a cycle of insecurity for decades, which will hinder progress towards meeting the MDGs.

Plan is now calling on the United Nations to implement a complaint mechanism for the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC). The UN CRC is the only international human rights treaty without a complaints mechanism. Girls whose rights have been violated within conflict could utilise such a complaint mechanism when domestic or regional remedies are unavailable or unworkable. Girls must be made aware of their right to seek justice and appropriate remedies be made available to all girls.

The report also calls governments to use the opportunity of post conflict renewal to overhaul legal structures and introduce legislation that promotes the rights of girls and young women. Legal systems can reinforce inequality and gender discrimination. Existing laws which protect girls and young women and promote their rights must be enforced. Policies that tackle the stigma that girls in particular face once violent conflict has subsided are needed.

Plan UK chief executive Marie Staunton says: “These recommendations are made in the hope that organisations and institutions at all levels will no longer ignore girls in their policy and planning.

“We believe that these changes will make a significant difference. It is our duty and responsibility, both as organisations and human beings, to build a better future for the millions of girls living with conflict and its aftermath.”

Read the Full Report:
http://www.plan-uk.org/becauseiamagirl/becausenews/2008launch/

For more information, contact:
Plan International - HQ
Chobham House, Christchurch Way, Woking, Surrey GU12 1JG, UK
Tel: +44 1483 755 155 / 733 285; Fax: +44 1483 756 505
Email: [email protected]
Website: http://www.plan-international.org/

Visit: http://www.crin.org/resources/infoDetail.asp?ID=17438

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USA: The rise of military schools [news]

[3 June 2008] - A little-known occurrence in public education in American cities is the rise of military schools. These schools generally operate as a partnership between the local school district and the US Department of Defense. They target poor, minority students between the ages of 10 and 18, especially African-Americans, and offer academic instruction and athletic activities within a framework of military discipline.

The Oakland Military Institute is one of the first such public schools in the country. It was proposed by former Oakland (CA) Mayor Jerry Brown in 1999. The school opened in 2001 with the help of $2 million from the US Department of Defense and $1.3 million from the California National Guard, a reserve force for the US Army. The Oakland Military Institute has 1200 students, 90 per cent of whom are African-American or Latino.

Urban military schools are attractive to city school districts because of the federal money they bring. They have the support of parents because their focus on discipline and organisation is a welcome antidote to the pathologies of the American inner city such as poverty, drugs, and violence. The Department of Defense views the schools as a pipeline for new recruits to the all-volunteer US armed forces.

Historically, the military has been regarded as a viable career choice in the African-American community. The US military offers a stable income, opportunities for education, health care, a chance to travel, the pride and prestige of service, and other options not readily available to inner city youth.

But Black enlistment in the US military is down 60 per cent since 2000 due to the war in Iraq, and public military schools in US cities are coming under increasing scrutiny.

Roots of involvement

The involvement of the US military in American public schools is not new. On the eve of the United States’ entry into World War I, the US Congress passed the National Defense Act of 1916. Under the Act, high schools were authorised the loan of federal military equipment and the assignment of active and retired military personnel as instructors. Students who received military instruction became part of the Junior Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (JROTC).

Over the years, the JROTC program has evolved from overtly military training to citizenship education stressing character building, leadership skills, civic responsibility, and personal health – all within a military structure of discipline and order. The involvement of the military in public education was an option for school districts, not a requirement. That changed seven years ago.

The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, a pillar of the Bush Administration, requires public schools to provide access to military recruiters. Schools must also turn over personal student information to the military for recruitment purposes.

The result has been an unprecedented expansion of the Junior Reserve Officers’ Training Corps program. According to the US Army, JROTC is now in 1645 American public schools, mostly in cities. Current enrollment is 281,000 students, mostly poor and minority, with 4,000 professional instructors in classrooms.

Chicago public schools

Chicago is emblematic of the increasing role of the military in US public schools. Each branch of the US military – Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines – operates a public school in Chicago. In addition, there are nine military high schools run by the Chicago School District, as well as over 10,000 students enrolled in JROTC programmes.

The military schools and programs focus almost entirely on low-income African-American and Latino youth. Chicago Mayor Richard Daley has been a strong advocate of military schools. “This is about education and giving our young people bigger opportunities,” says Daley.

Other US mayors apparently agree. In recent years, public military academies have opened in cities throughout the country including Richmond (Virginia), Sarasota (Florida), Philadelphia, Atlanta, and New York City.

In some public schools, JROTC programs replace physical education classes and military personnel help coach athletic teams. Last year, the Department of Defense spent $2.6 billion on all recruitment activities, including public schools.

Supporters and critics

Chicago Mayor Daley, who has made military schools a hallmark of his administration, insists that "This is not a recruitment effort.” Students in Chicago seem to agree. They feel no pressure to enlist, according to a report by the Public Broadcasting System. US Army data state that only about five per cent of JROTC graduates nationwide enlist in the military.

Test scores and graduation rates appear to be rising at military schools, though both are below statewide averages in most cases. The level of violence is much less in military schools than in standard inner-city public schools. And, perhaps most revealing of their appeal, these schools receive far more applications for admission than there are openings available for new students.

Critics point to the military schools’ focus on vulnerable youth. Military schools are located almost exclusively in poor, minority neighborhoods, while schools that offer promising educational options such as university prep curricula and International Baccalaureate programmes are typically offered in whiter, wealthier neighborhoods.

Critics also note that successful participation in a democratic lifestyle requires curiosity, skepticism, diversity of opinion, and the courage to take an unpopular stand – in other words, the opposite of the obedience and mass conformity taught at military schools.

Irony for mayors and communities

Ironically, as the number of public military schools has expanded over the past decade, the number of African-American enlistees in the military has declined dramatically. Since the beginning of the Iraq War, the number of Black youth joining the US military has fallen 58 per cent, according to the Department of Defense.

The decline among African-American youth far exceeds the 10 per cent drop in enlistments by white youth and the seven per cent drop by Latinos. According to a 2007 poll by CBS News, 83 per cent of African-Americans consider the Iraq war to be a mistake.

A further and painful irony is that the drop in African-American enlistments comes at a time of rising high school dropout rates and rising unemployment among Black youth. The high school dropout rate for Blacks exceeds 50 per cent in many US urban public school systems. According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, 72 per cent of all Black male high school dropouts are unemployed as are 50 per cent of all Black males in their 20s, graduates and non-graduates.

If the military is no longer considered a viable career path, it will be difficult for many of these youth to make a positive contribution to their communities.

Mayors who support the militarisation of public schools must now deal with a growing anti-military sentiment among the population they most want to help.

Further information

Visit: http://www.crin.org/resources/infoDetail.asp?ID=17726&flag=news

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DARFUR: Child refugees being sold to militias [publication]

[6 June 2008] - Thousands of child refugees from Darfur, some as young as nine, are being abducted and sold to warring militias as child soldiers, a British human rights group has reported.

The organisation, Waging Peace, has filmed testimony in refugee camps in eastern Chad, describing how children, mostly boys between nine and 15, have been forcibly taken from their families by camp leaders, who are then trafficking them to militias.

The report singles out the Darfur rebel group fighting the Khartoum government, the Justice and Equality Movement, as the main offender. But it says a variety of groups, including the Chadian army and opposing rebels, are also involved.

"This recruitment is taking place every day, in full view of the CNAR [Chadian government body in charge of refugees] and Chadian armed forces, who turn a blind eye to what is going on, and despite the presence of EU troops," the report says.

The EU force in Chad, Eufor, will be made up of more than 4,000 troops, half of them French, and is due to be fully deployed by next month. Waging Peace is calling on the force, led by an Irish lieutenant general, Patrick Nash, to protect the refugee camps from the militias and to help stop the trafficking.

Louise Roland-Gosselin, the head of Waging Peace, said: "The deployment of the EU force means there is supposed to be security in the camps, but it hasn't come true. People feel deceived."

Roland-Gosselin said it was impossible to know how many children were being abducted, but the UN estimated last year that between 7,000 and 10,000 child soldiers had been forcibly recruited in Chad, where more than 250,000 refugees from Darfur are in camps. She said the problem had worsened since then, despite attempts by UN agencies and aid groups to negotiate an end to trafficking.

One of the refugee leaders opposed to the practice told Waging Peace: "Now it's worse, it's not only aggressive but worse ... They are selling anybody, you know, the boys from nine to 15 in the camp they are just selling them."

He accused other senior men in the camp of being involved in the trade.

Another refugee leader told Waging Peace: "We are very concerned about the future of our children who have survived the killing in Darfur. We want them to study and have a future. We don't want them to join the fighters and become useless."

Serge Male, the head of the UN's refugee agency UNHCR in Chad, said: "For a good while we have been trying to call attention to child recruitment in the camps, both forced and voluntary. We definitely condemn this and we are dealing with the Chadian authorities, the UN agencies and all the parties who have something to do with this."

The report says that, in part because of their role in kidnapping, the Justice and Equality Movement rebels are losing support among the Darfuri refugees in the camp. Efforts to negotiate a peace deal between the rebel groups and the Khartoum government have faltered because the rebel side has splintered and the government has pursued an aerial bombing campaign against rebel strongholds.

For more information, contact:
Waging Peace
32 Queensway, W2 3RX London, UK
Tel: +44 (0)20 7243 0300
Email: [email protected]
Website: http://www.wagingpeace.info

Further information

Visit: http://www.crin.org/resources/infoDetail.asp?ID=17482

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OPT: Siege and Mental Health: Walls vs Bridges [event]

Location: Gaza, oPt
Date: 27 to 29 October 2008

"Siege and Mental Health: Walls vs. Bridges" will be the theme of the 5th international conference of the Gaza Community Mental Health Programme (GCMHP) organised with the World Health Organisation. The aim of the conference is to help academics, policy makers, and civil society groups understand the linkages between siege, violence, mental health, and human rights.

The Gaza Strip has witnessed extreme forms of violence and suffering as a result of Israeli occupation and military operations.

The goals of the conference are to:

  • alleviate the mental health impacts of siege;
  • raise awareness of the international community about the impacts of siege on mental health;
  • influence the political and legal environment within and outside Palestine;
  • highlight psychosocial suffering in the Gaza Strip;
  • provide the international community with a greater understanding of siege and its impact on the deterioration of the mental health and human rights of Palestinians;
  • build local capacities in psychosocial support;
  • enhance cooperation amongst international organisations in different regions of the world.

Call for papers

GCMHP is calling for papers on the following themes:

- Siege and mental health.
- Siege, culture, democracy, and civil society.
- impact of adversity on individual, family, and community.
- siege in international law and human rights.
- international experiences of siege.
- siege and public health.
- siege and development.
- impacts of living in adversity situations.
- history of sieges and their impact on mental health and behavior.
- women and children under military siege.
- any relevant theme will reconsidered.

Deadline: 15 July 2008

For more information, visit: http://www.gcmhp.net/

For more information, contact:
Conference Coordinator
Gaza Community Mental Health Programme
P.O. Box: 1049 Gaza City, oPt
Tel: +972-8-2825700/10, 2824073
Fax: +972-8-2824072
Email: [email protected]  
Website: http://www.gcmhp.net/

Visit: http://www.crin.org/resources/infoDetail.asp?ID=17624

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**NEWS IN BRIEF**

Refugees: More than 6 million Palestinian Refugees in the world  (23 June 2008, Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics) 
http://www.crin.org/resources/infoDetail.asp?ID=17609&flag=report

Burundi: FNL rebels 'still recruiting children' (10 June 2008)
http://www.crin.org/resources/infoDetail.asp?ID=17528&flag=news

Iraq: Children face sexual abuse, addiction and imprisonment (9 June 2008)
http://www.crin.org/resources/infoDetail.asp?ID=17502&flag=report

Kenya: Mount Elgon - Does anybody care? (June 2008)
http://www.crin.org/resources/infoDetail.asp?ID=17727&flag=report
 

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