CAPE TOWN PRINCIPLES AND BEST PRACTICE ON THE PREVENTION OF RECRUITMENT OF CHILDREN INTO THE ARMED FORCES AND DEMOBILIZATION AND SOCIAL REINTEGRATION OF CHILD SOLDIERS IN AFRICA
Adopted by the participants in the Symposium on the Prevention of Recruitment of Children into the Armed Forces and Demobilization and Social Reintegration of Child Soldiers in Africa, organized by UNICEF in cooperation with the NGO Sub-group of the NGO Working Group on the Convention on the Rights of the Child, Cape Town, 30 April 1997
DEFINITIONS
“Child soldier” in this document means any person under 18 years of age who is part of any kind of regular or irregular armed force or armed group in any capacity, including but not limited to cooks, porters, messengers, and those accompanying such groups, other than purely as family members. It includes girls recruited for sexual purposes and forced marriage. It does not, therefore, only refer to a child who is carrying or has carried arms.
“Recruitment” encompasses compulsory, forced and voluntary recruitment into any kind of regular or irregular armed force or armed group.
“Demobilization” means the formal and controlled discharge of child soldiers from the army or from an armed group.
The term “psycho-social” underlines the close relationship between the psychological and social effects of armed conflict, the one type of effect continually influencing the other. By “psychological effects” is meant those experiences which affect emotions, behaviour, thoughts, memory and learning ability and how a situation may be perceived and understood. By “social effects” is meant how the diverse experiences of war alter people’s relationships to each other, in that such experiences change people, but also through death, separation, estrangement and other losses. “Social” may be extended to include an economic dimension, many individuals and families becoming destitute through the material and economic devastation of war, thus losing their social status and place in their familiar social network.
PREVENTION OF CHILD RECRUITMENT
1. Establish 18 as the minimum age for any participation in hostilities and for all forms of recruitment into all armed forces and armed groups.
2. Governments should adopt and ratify an Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child raising the minimum ages from 15 to 18.
3. Governments should ratify and implement pertinent regional and international treaties and incorporate them into national law, namely:
a. The African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child which upon entry into force will establish 18 as the minimum age for recruitment and participation;
b. The two Additional Protocols to the 1949 Geneva Conventions and the Convention on the Rights of the Child, which currently establish 15 as the minimum age for recruitment and participation.
4. Governments should adopt national legislation on voluntary and compulsory recruitment with a minimum age of 18 years and should establish proper recruitment procedures and the means to enforce them. Those responsible for illegally recruiting children should be brought to justice. These recruitment procedures must include:
a. Requirement of proof of age;
b. Safeguards against violations;
c. Dissemination of the standards to the military, especially the recruiters;
d. Publicization of the standards and safeguards to the civilian population, especially children at risk of recruitment and their families and those organizations working with them;
e. Where the government establishes, condones or arms militias or other armed groups, including private security forces, it must also regulate recruitment into them.
5. A permanent International Criminal Court should be established whose jurisdiction would cover, inter alia, the illegal recruitment of children.
6. Written agreements between or with all parties to the conflict which include a commitment on the minimum age of recruitment should be concluded. The SPLM/Operation Lifeline Sudan Agreement on Ground Rules (July 1995) is a useful example.
7. Monitoring, documentation and advocacy are fundamental to eliminating child recruitment and to informing programmes to this end. Community efforts to prevent recruitment should be developed and supported.
a. Local human rights organisations, the media, former child soldiers, and teachers, health workers, church leaders and other community leaders can play an important advocacy role.
b. Establish a dialogue between government and communities in which children are regarded as adults before the age of 18 about the importance of the 18-year limit for recruitment.
c. Provide children with alternative models to the glorification of war, including in the media;
d. Government representatives, military personnel and former opposition leaders can be instrumental in advocating, negotiating and providing technical assistance to their counterparts in other countries in relation to the prevention of recruitment of child soldiers, as well as their demobilization and reintegration.
