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Former Liberian President Charles Taylor found guilty for aiding and abetting war crimes

“Today’s judgement against Charles Taylor is another groundbreaking achievement in prosecuting those who commit or are responsible for the most horrendous crimes against children,“ Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict said.

Yesterday, the Special Court for Sierra Leone found guilty former Liberian President Charles Taylor for aiding and abetting war crimes committed by the Revolutionary United Front during Sierra Leone’s 1991 – 2002 civil war.

While serving as President in Liberia, he backed the rebels of the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) in neighbouring Sierra Leone. He was found guilty of aiding and abetting them to kill tens of thousands during the war, notoriously use child soldiers, commit rape and sexual slavery as well as cruel treatment. 

Judge Richard Lussick of Samoa said more than 1,000 children had the letters "RUF" carved into their backs to prevent them escaping. Children were used to amputate limbs, guard diamond mines and hunt for food. Some were involved in fighting.

Taylor's conviction will be widely welcomed in Sierra Leone but the response in Liberia, where he was once seen as a freedom fighter and retains support, may be more critical. Read more.

The Special Court for Sierra Leone has been at the forefront of the fight against impunity for violations against children. It was the first international court to decide that the recruitment and use of children under fifteen constitutes a war crime under customary international law. The Court also took a clear decision not to prosecute child soldiers, but to bring to justice those who bear the greatest responsibility - political leaders and military commanders.   

Read CRIN's editorial on Children and International Justice.

Summary executions

Syrian security forces summarily executed over 100 – and possibly many more – civilians and wounded or captured opposition fighters during recent attacks on cities and towns, Human Rights Watch said in a report released earlier this month.

The report, “In Cold Blood: Summary Executions by Syrian Security Forces and Pro-Government Militias,” documents more than a dozen incidents involving at least 101 victims since late 2011, many of them in March 2012.

In the cases documented, at least 85 victims were Syrian residents who did not take part in the fighting, including women and children. The report describes in detail several cases of mass executions of civilians, including children.

The violence in Syria, which began in March 2011 as a protest movement similar to those across the Middle East and North Africa, has claimed over 9,000 lives, mostly civilians, and displaced tens of thousands.

Last weekend, the Security Council authorised the establishment of the United Nations Supervision Mission in Syria (UNSMIS) – made up of up to 300 unarmed military observers and deployed for an initial period of 90 days – to monitor the cessation of violence, and monitor and support the full implementation of a six-point peace plan, put forward by Mr. Kofi Annan, the Joint Special Envoy of the UN and the League of Arab States for Syria.

Ahead of UNSMIS’ deployment, an advance team of 30 unarmed military observers was dispatched to liaise with the parties and to begin reporting on the implementation of a full cessation of armed violence. The six-point proposal calls for an end to violence, access for humanitarian agencies to provide relief to those in need, the release of detainees, and the start of inclusive political dialogue that takes into account the aspirations of the Syrian people. Read more. 

Child recruitment

The use of child soldiers by the Chadian armed forces may have ended but children continue to risk being recruited and used for military purposes. 

A report published by Child Soldiers International, 'Better Than Cure: Preventing the recruitment and use of children in the Chadian national army (ANT)', highlights key difficulties in the organisation of Chad’s armed forces, the verification of the age of new recruits, the persistence of informal recruitment and lack of accountability for members of the armed forces. Download the report.

The Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict (SRSG)  has expressed concern about reports suggesting that Tuareg rebels and Islamist militias in northern Mali are recruiting and using children, abducting and raping women and girls as well as looting hospitals.

"Under no circumstances can the recruitment and use of children be tolerated. I wish to remind all forces of their responsibility to comply with their obligations under international law," SRSG Radhika Coomaraswamy said. Read the SRSG's statement.

In March, soldiers within the Malian national army seized power and announced the dissolution of the Government led by President Amadou Toumani Toure. In addition, renewed fighting in northern Mali, between Government forces and Tuareg rebels, has uprooted more than 200,000 people since January, with the majority seeking safety in neighbouring countries and some 93,000 believed to be internally displaced. Read more.

In Yemen, the number of children being recruited as soldiers has risen significantly during the recent wave of violence sweeping the country.

According to child rights organisations in Yemen, child recruitment is being practiced by all parties including Al-Qaeda, the regime’s forces, armed groups and tribes. Children have been placed on the front line as human shields. Read the full article.

Hostilities between Sudan and South Sudan

Recent clashes in the areas bordering Sudan and South Sudan are taking a heavy toll on children.

"Two 14-year old boys were killed and injured during aerial bombardments on a market in Rubkona, Unity State," the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict Radhika Coomaraswamy said. 

"Air raids in heavily populated areas killing and maiming children are grave breaches of international humanitarian law. I call on the Sudanese Armed Forces to immediately stop these indiscriminate attacks."

Tensions between the two countries intensified in the last few weeks after South Sudan occupied the Heglig oilfield in Sudan’s Southern Kordofan state on 10 April.  

"Sudan and South Sudan should both refrain from further confrontation in an effort to spare innocent civilians from further suffering." Full article.

No One to Trust - Children and Armed Conflict in Colombia

A new report by the Watchlist on Children and Armed Conflict shows that more than half of an estimated 3.9 – 5.3 million internally displaced people in Colombia are under 18, rendering them even more vulnerable to the threats that caused them to flee their homes in the first place.

Colombia’s civilians have been pulled into a decades-long civil war among the government’s forces, paramilitary groups and their successors, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), and the People’s Liberation Army (ELN).

During the conflict, girls and boys have been subjected to forced recruitment, rape and sexual violence, killing and maiming, and have been seriously affected by attacks against schools and the denial of humanitarian assistance, according to the 2011 UN Secretary-General’s report on children and armed conflict in Colombia.

Displacement in Pakistan

The United Nations refugee agency reported that more than 100,000 people have become displaced since January by Pakistani military operations against militant groups in the north-western part of the country that borders Afghanistan.

The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) estimates that 101,160 people, mostly women and children, have been uprooted by the fighting that began on 20 January in the Khyber Agency region of the country’s Federally Administered Tribal Area (FATA).

This is not the first time that a Pakistani military offensive has uprooted such large numbers of civilians. More than two million people were displaced by similar clashes between Government troops and militants in north-west Pakistan in 2009, leading to one of the largest displacement crises in the world. Read more.

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