Child Soldiers

Denov, Myriam; Vliet, Anaïs Cadieux Van

doi:10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190915629.013.15

Cited by 2 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 8 publications

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“…The subject of child detention in the context of conflict is an example of a policy issue fraught with complexities of a legal, moral, and political nature that has been interpreted by states in different ways. The militarization of children and their active participation in conflict continues to be a global phenomenon affecting hundreds of thousands of children (Denov & Cadieux Van Vliet, 2022). Between 2005 and 2020, more than 93,000 children were verified as recruited and used in armed conflicts across the world, although the actual number of cases is believed to be much higher (UNICEF, 2022).…”

Section: Part Iv: Critical Discussion Of Policy/practicementioning

confidence: 99%

How do we make up for lost time?: Tackling current questions and realities of children during and following armed conflict

Fennig,

Denov

2024

Research Handbook of Children and Armed Conflict

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as the armed conflict in Afghanistan escalated and the United States (US) withdrew its troops, seven-year-old Helia fled with her family and boarded a boat to Turkey and then to the Greek Islands with the hope of reaching Europe. Yet, instead of reaching the protection and safety they dreamed of, Helia and her family were met by Greek police officers who confiscated their documents, money, and cell phones, and ferried them out to sea on a rudderless raft. After drifting for hours in the dark, they were rescued by the Turkish Coast Guard and brought to shore (Gall, 2021).In February 2022, when eight-year-old Tymofiy's family home was destroyed, he fled with his mother, aunt, and grandmother, alongside 150 others, to a basement-turned-bomb-shelter in northeast Ukraine. While others have managed to flee to neighbouring countries, Tymofiy has been living in the bomb shelter for months and is the only child left in his village. Spending his days drawing hearts, green trees, and yellow suns, Tymofiy waits for the day the war will end (Boffey, 2022).On April 14, 2014, in Chibok, a city in northeastern Nigeria, the militant group Boko Haram arrived late at night in a blaze of gunfire. The gunmen raided a school dormitory where a total of 276 schoolgirls were kidnapped and loaded onto nearby trucks. Some girls managed to escape within hours of their abduction, mostly by jumping off the trucks and running into the bushes. In total, 219 girls were abducted. Naomi, who was freed in 2017, remembers how she and another classmate wrote secret diaries in notebooks they were given to write Islamic verses. She kept them hidden in a makeshift pouch tied to her leg. Naomi explained: "We decided that we should write down our stories … so that if one of us got to escape, we could let people know what happened to us" (Jones, 2021).These real-life stories -as well as countless others across the globe -illustrate the multiple ways in which armed conflicts are impacting the lives of children, youth, 1 and families around the world with profound effects. Recent decades have witnessed a significant increase in the number of armed confrontations, ranging from international warfare and mass violence played out between states, to intrastate conflict involving violent confrontations between non-state actors (rebels, guerillas, insurgents), to long-term unstable post-conflict situations. These armed conflicts are marked by various strategies -killings, disappearances, and psychological terror,

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Section: Part Iv: Critical Discussion Of Policy/practicementioning

confidence: 99%

How do we make up for lost time?: Tackling current questions and realities of children during and following armed conflict

Fennig,

Denov

2024

Research Handbook of Children and Armed Conflict

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“…Paradoxically, research has also revealed that children born in LRA captivity often speak fondly of their family life in the LRA, where they reported a sense of family unity, solidarity, belonging, and being cared for by both their mothers and fathers (Denov, 2019; Denov & Lakor, 2017). In the bush, fathers were said to be responsible for providing the basic necessities of life for their children and “wives,” notably through looting, which many children regarded as forms of care and affection (Denov & Cadieux Van Vliet, in press).…”

Section: The Lord’s Resistance Army In Contextmentioning

confidence: 99%

Children born of wartime rape on fatherhood: Grappling with violence, accountability, and forgiveness in postwar northern Uganda.

Denov

Vliet

2021

Peace and Conflict: Journal of Peace Psychology

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Children born of wartime rape face unique realities and needs, particularly as they relate to their birth origins, links with their perpetrator fathers, and challenges regarding identity and community belonging. As children with first-hand, embodied understanding of the legacies of war, their perspectives on postwar accountability and reconciliation are highly relevant. Yet the views of children born of wartime rape are rarely documented. To highlight their perspectives, qualitative interviews were conducted with 79 children born of wartime rape within the Ugandan Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA). Interviews revealed children’s love and loyalty to their fathers—who were high-ranking members of the LRA, as well as children’s struggles reconciling their fathers’ wartime actions, responsibility, and postwar accountability. Far from turning a blind eye to their fathers’ involvement in mass atrocities, children’s narratives centered on themes of violence, forgiveness, responsibility, and ambiguity. Participants’ views of their fathers and accountability mechanisms are linked to larger peacebuilding efforts, highlighting the importance of listening to this important but understudied group of children in postconflict reconciliation efforts.

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Child Soldiers

Cited by 2 publications

References 8 publications

How do we make up for lost time?: Tackling current questions and realities of children during and following armed conflict

How do we make up for lost time?: Tackling current questions and realities of children during and following armed conflict

Children born of wartime rape on fatherhood: Grappling with violence, accountability, and forgiveness in postwar northern Uganda.

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