STRATEGIC LITIGATION: Case law on children and armed conflict

Submitted by crinadmin on

Although the Convention on the Rights of the Child has been around for more than two decades, children's rights have in many places just begun to make their way into the courtroom. To encourage children and their advocates to think about bringing violations of children's rights - whether in relation to armed conflict or otherwise - to the justice system, we have assembled a collection of case law where courts have used international human rights instruments in their decision-making process.

While strategic litigation to advance children's rights is certainly not without its problems and limitations, there have been some notable successes where children involved in armed conflict have been concerned:

  • In the wake of the many atrocities in the Democratic Republic of Congo, including the operation of training camps for child soldiers, the International Court of Justice held the Ugandan government accountable for extensive violations of children's rights in 2005. (see Armed Activities on the Territory of the Congo, Democratic Republic of the Congo v. Uganda) 
  • Following the recruitment and shooting of a 15 year-old, in 2006 the Inter-American Court of Human Rights ordered Paraguay to modify its domestic legislation on the recruitment of minors into the armed forces in order to comply with international law prohibiting the recruitment and training of child solidiers (see Vargas-Areco v Paraguay).
  • In the continuing trial of Thomas Lubanga Dyilo for war crimes including the recruitment and deployment of child soldiers, the International Criminal Court ordered special provisions in 2008 to ensure that the voices of child witnesses and victims of Lubanga Dyilo's activities would be heard. (See Situation in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Prosecutor v. Lubanga Dyilo)

As this is an ongoing project, we hope to add new cases to our legal database on a regular basis. If you are aware of any cases that should be included, we would greatly appreciate your input. Our goal is to make this project as helpful to you and your work in children's rights as possible; please contact [email protected] with suggestions on ways that we could add to or improve the database.

Additional resources:

Please note that these reports are hosted by CRIN as a resource for Child Rights campaigners, researchers and other interested parties. Unless otherwise stated, they are not the work of CRIN and their inclusion in our database does not necessarily signify endorsement or agreement with their content by CRIN.