Submitted by crinadmin on
Introduction The Philippine government's long-standing conflict with Muslim separatists on the southern island of Mindanao has flared up again recently. This confrontration and a second conflict with communist insurgents affecting the whole country have, in total, left 160,000 dead and displaced some two million people. Fighting resumed again after a decade-long peace process between the government and rebel Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) collapsed. Nineteen children were reportedly killed in conflict situations between July 2005 and November 2007, while 42 were maimed, figures for 2008 are not yet available. Over half of the killings and injuries in this period were perpetrated by Government security forces, a fifth were attributed to the Abu Sayyaf Group/Jemaah Islamiya rebels, and eight per cent to the communist insurgents, the New People’s Army (NPA). The Government paramilitary forces and rebel groups, including the NPA and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, recruited children during this period, according to the UN Secretary-General’s report. The Mindanao conflict started in the 1960s when the Muslim minority - the Moros - launched an armed struggle for their ancestral homeland in the south. There has also been a long Maoist insurgency, violence linked to militant Islamist groups, ethnic and clan confrontations and banditry, all exacerbated by poverty and under-investment. Investigation into recruitment of children as ‘freedom fighters’ Human rights investigators may be dispatched to Mindanao to evaluate reports of children being commissioned as so-called freedom fighters of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF). However, Chairman Leila de Lima, of the Commission on Human Rights (CHR), said that the CHR is "still looking for the best and independent way to communicate this concern to the MILF leadership." De Lima was speaking yesterday at a workshop on the implementation of the Optional Protocol to the United Nations Convention against Torture in the Philippines (OPCAT). Recent television footage and photographs have shown armed children as young as nine wearing MILF uniforms in MILF camps or strongholds. The children are alleged to be children of MILF members. Commenting on a possible investigation into the situation, de Lima said: "We have to do it in such a way and it is important for them (the MILF) to perceive the CHR as an independent body so that we can get their cooperation." Edi Kabalu, spokesperson for the MILF, had earlier justified the participation of children as self-preservation of MILF ranks, saying that it is acceptable in Moro culture. "What are we to do, we need to prepare the replacement of our soldiers who die," Kabalu said publicly two weeks ago. [Sources: AlertNet, Philippine Information Agency, Report of the UN Secretary General on Children and Armed Conflict in the Philippines] Laws protecting children in armed conflict in the Philippines The Philippine Government is a State party to CRC and to the Optional Protocol to the CRC on the Involvement of Children in Armed Conflict. The Philippines Republic Act 7610, adopted in 1992, in Article X, Sec. 22 (B) prohibits the voluntary or forcible recruitment of children under 18 to the armed forces, and other non-State armed opposition groups and their use as guides, couriers, and spies. The Act does not, however, specify penalties for those who violate the law. Article X, Sec. 25 of R.A. 7610 guarantees the rights of children arrested for reasons related to armed conflict to: ensure children’s detention facilities are separated from those of adults except where families are accommodated as family units; free legal assistance, immediate notification of parents or legal guardians concerning the arrest of the child; and release of the child within 24 hours to any social welfare agency, parents, or legal guardians as determined by the court. The law also provides for the care and humane treatment of rescued or surrendered child soldiers. The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) is the leading government agency in the rehabilitation/reintegration of child soldiers. Republic Act 9208. Section 4 (h) prohibits any person, natural or juridical–among others–to “recruit, transport or adopt a child to engage in armed activities in the Philippines or abroad.” The law stipulates a penalty of 20 years’ imprisonment and a fine of not less than lone million pesos or more than two million pesos for the recruitment, transportation, and adoption of children to engage in armed activities. No such case has yet been filed, however and, despite a range of legal safe-guards to protect children in armed conflict, they have yet to be adequately implemented. Summarised from an Alternative report submitted by the Southeast Asia Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers in April 2008. To read Concluding Observations of the Committee on the Rights of the Child on the Philippines OPAC report, go here: http://www.crin.org/resources/infoDetail.asp?ID=17510&flag=legal Further information