Refugees and Recruitment: Understanding Violations Against Children in Armed Conflict With Novel Data

Abstract

What makes child recruitment into armed conflict more likely? Violations against children in armed conflict pose a significant challenge to conflict resolution, long-term peacebuilding efforts, and international stability, yet little data are available on a global scale to understand the scope and causes of child recruitment into conflict. This article makes two contributions towards closing this analytical gap. First, utilising annual reports of the United Nations Secretary-General on children and armed conflict, this article codes child recruitment and other grave violations against children for 28 countries from 2006 to 2015 producing a new data set. Second, using this data set, this article examines the broad role of displacement in shaping child recruitment into armed conflict. Ultimately, this article finds that displacement within a country is positively and statistically significantly correlated with violations against children in armed conflict to include child recruitment and introduces policy recommendations for engaging this finding.

Displacement, Gender-Based Development, and Grave Violations Against Children in Armed Conflict: The Case of Iraq

“…In addition to incorporating policy research and elite interviews in this project, I integrate quantitative analysis using data from the United Nations MRM. The infrastructure of the MRM process involves United Nations agencies and authorities embedded within countries experiencing grave violations against children (Atkinson, 2020). These authorities report appropriate sub-national level data on grave violations against children through the MRM network, and ultimately these data comprise the annual reports of the Secretary-General.…”

“…To understand how displaced women benefiting from development programs might mitigate the impact of conflict on children, we must understand the unique and deleterious dynamics affecting children in these environments. The United Nations MRM defines grave violations against children in armed conflict across specific categories of recruitment, abduction and detention, killing and maiming, sexual violence, and attacks on schools and hospitals (Atkinson, 2020). Country-level reporters collect and contribute data on sub-national instances of grave violations against children, categorized as "verified" or "unverified" depending on the source of the reporting.…”

“…From these submissions, the MRM process generates annual reports synthesizing available information on grave violations against children in conflict. The MRM admittedly faces limitations, from the difficulty in accessing and undercounting data from conflict zones to the administrative politics associated with tracking and reporting such information (Alfaro et al, 2012;Bramwell, 2021;McCormick, 2013;Atkinson, 2020). Further, political access often determines the MRM's presence and impact in certain locations and conflicts, thus limiting its effectiveness as an objective and comprehensive monitoring system (Watchlist, 2008).…”

“…Further, political access often determines the MRM's presence and impact in certain locations and conflicts, thus limiting its effectiveness as an objective and comprehensive monitoring system (Watchlist, 2008). Even so, the MRM offers a viable mechanism for grasping the general impact of conflict on children across countries (Atkinson, 2020).…”

“…I conduct fieldwork and elite interviews with policymakers and activists to explore how these policies may empower women to mitigate the deleterious impacts of conflict on children. Additionally, I employ data from the United Nations Monitoring and Reporting Mechanism (MRM) to trace grave violations against children in armed conflict (Atkinson, 2020). Ultimately, I utilize a case study of Iraq from 2014 to 2016 to explore the relationship between the gender-based development programs of the United Nations Development Programme's Iraq Crisis Response and Resilience Programme and cross-governorate levels of grave violations against children in armed conflict.…”