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Abstract: This issue includes the following articles: AQAP’s Growing Security Threat to Saudi Arabia, by Caryle Murphy; Assessing AQI’s Resilience After April’s Leadership Decapitations, by Myriam Benraad; The Return of Moqtada al-Sadr and the Revival of the Mahdi Army, by Babak Rahimi; Indoctrinating Children: The Making of Pakistan’s Suicide Bombers, by Kalsoom Lakhani; The Third Way: A Paradigm for Influence in the Marketplace of Ideas, by Scott Helfstein; Still Fighting for Revolution: Greece’s New Generation of Terrorists, by George Kassimeris.
Abstract: There are an estimated 250,000 child soldiers - boys and girls under the age of 18- who are being compelled to serve in more than 15 conflicts worldwide. Child soldiers are forcibly recruited or abducted and are used as combatants, messengers, porters, cooks and to provide sexual services. International Law now recognizes child soldiers as victims of war crimes. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security, however, has opposed asylum to child soldiers on the grounds that their military service subjects them to the “persecutor bar.” This article argues that a per se bar of child soldiers from asylum contradicts the U.S.’s adherence to the international view that the use of child soldiers constitutes a violation of human rights, domestic laws declaring recruitment of child soldiers a crime, and active support of the eradication of the use of child soldiers. The article concludes by offering an approach to determining when a child soldier should be subjected to the persecutor bar that balances the seriousness of the child soldier’s actions against the circumstances under which s/he was recruited.
Abstract: In an effort to help practitioners develop and implement better disarmament, demobilization and reintegration programs (DDR) programs, this article identifies the problems and “best practices” of DDR programs put forward in the literature and contextualizes them within the on-going philosophical debate between the proponents of the universalism of children’s rights and the proponents of the cultural relativity of childhood and children’s rights. By contextualizing the practical within the philosophical, we can see how the current impasse of the philosophical debate and its framing of the practical issues leads to important gaps and blind spots in the research and evaluation of DDR programming.
Abstract: The Ugandan rebel Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) has abducted more than 697 adults and children in a largely unreported campaign in the Central African Republic and the neighboring Bas Uele district of northern Democratic Republic of Congo over the past 18 months, Human Rights Watch said today. Nearly one-third of those abducted have been children, many of whom are being forced to serve as soldiers or are being used for sex by the group's fighters.
During the abduction campaign, the LRA has brutally killed adults and children who tried to escape, walked too slowly, or were unable to bear the heavy loads they were forced to carry, Human Rights Watch found in its investigations in the region. The LRA has killed at least 255 adults and children, often by crushing their skulls with clubs. In dozens of cases, the LRA forced captive children to kill other children and adults.
Human Rights Watch called on the affected governments and their allies to strengthen their protection of civilians and to put greater emphasis on efforts to rescue the abducted children and others.
"The LRA continues its horrific campaign to replenish its ranks by brutally tearing children from their villages and forcing them to fight," said Anneke Van Woudenberg, senior Africa researcher at Human Rights Watch. "The evidence points to Joseph Kony, the LRA leader, as the author of this atrocious campaign."
A month-long Human Rights Watch research mission to the Central African Republic (CAR) and the Bas Uele district of northern Congo from July 12 to August 11, 2010, in which over 520 civilians were interviewed, including 90 former abductees, in individual and focus group interviews, found that the LRA's abduction campaign was similar in both countries and is having a devastating impact on affected communities.
Abstract: The Pakistan Conflict Monitor is an initiative of the Human Security Report Project at the School for International Studies at Simon Fraser University. The Monitor highlights new research and analysis on the conflict in Pakistan. In addition to the conflict itself, the Monitor focuses on a broad set of related issue-areas, including health, development, displacement, governance, gender, small arms, landmines, human rights and transitional justice. The Monitor provides summaries of academic articles and reports, and links to key documents, publications, organizations, and data. In addition to keeping up to date on the news via their web-browser, users of the Monitor can also sign up to receive the latest posts via email or RSS feeds. In producing these services, Human Security Report Project staff systematically monitor over 1,500 websites, as well as dozens of e-mailing lists and academic journals.
Abstract: The Afghanistan Conflict Monitor is an initiative of the Human Security Report Project at the School for International Studies at Simon Fraser University. The Monitor highlights new research and analysis on the conflict in Afghanistan. In addition to the conflict itself, the Monitor focuses on a broad set of related issue-areas, including health, development, displacement, governance, gender, small arms, landmines, human rights and transitional justice. The Monitor provides summaries of academic articles and reports, and links to key documents, publications, organizations, and data.
Abstract: Groups from the Lord’s Resistance Army continue to attack civilians throughout central
Africa. Attacks against civilians in a remote corner of Bas Uele district in northeastern
Democratic Republic of the Congo go largely unnoticed. Unlike most areas where the
LRA operates, attacks in northern Bas Uele are intended to empty the area—of strategic
importance to the LRA’s cross-border movement to the Central African Republic, or
CAR—of civilians. The lack of a meaningful military force to challenge the LRA has
turned the northern region of Bas Uele into a veritable haven for the brutal rebel group. The entire region of Bas Uele has been targeted by the LRA for the last 15 months.
Enough documented 51 separate attacks and 105 deaths caused by the LRA in Bas Uele
through April 2010. This brings the total number of people killed by the LRA in Congo
since December 2008 to nearly 2,500. LRA fighters have used Bas Uele as an important base and transit point to CAR where
the majority of LRA fighters and commanders have been based in recent months. LRA
violence in Bas Uele is intended to depopulate the area north of Ango and south of the
CAR border.
Abstract: Colombians are enduring an armed conflict that has lasted over 50 years, but only in the past 10
years has this civil war been examined through a lens of gender justice, and the work of
community-based women's rights organizations been made visible. In this report, six
organizations, local and international, document the various ways in which Colombia’s conflict
and the actions (or lack thereof) by state and other entities, erode women and girls’ rights.
This report is intended to supplement, or “shadow,” the report of the government of Colombia to
the Human Rights Committee (“the Committee”). This shadow report highlights five main areas of concern: forced displacement of women, child
recruitment by armed groups, violence against women, the persecution of women human rights
defenders, and violation of women's sexual and reproductive rights. This report specifically documents how Indigenous and Afro-Colombian communities face the
extermination of their culture and loss of their lands because of forced displacement; how
women who have been subjected to sexual violence see their rights violated by authorities who
block their access to lawful abortion services; how sexual violence is used as a weapon of war
and how it increases among displaced populations; how boys and girls are recruited to bear
arms, be in combat and face exploitation; and how women human rights defenders are
constantly threatened and attacked.
Abstract: Following a wave of violence that reached its’ peak June 10-14, 2010 in the southern city of Osh in the Kyrgyz Republic (commonly called Kyrgyzstan), Save the Children has launched an emergency response to address the needs among children and their families.
Due to the violence, approximately 375,000 people fled their homes, including approximately 75,000 that took refuge in neighboring Uzbekistan, and then subsequently returned to Kyrgyzstan – either to their places of origin, or remaining displaced within the country’s boundaries. Approximately 75,000 people remain internally displaced. The overall number of people directly affected by the crisis stands at 400,000.
The families that have been displaced or otherwise affected by the conflict face various challenges to cope with the existing environment. It was, therefore, essential that a detailed assessment be conducted in order to enable Save the Children and other humanitarian actors to plan an effective humanitarian response that addresses the actual needs of the affected communities.
Save the Children conducted an extensive multi-sectoral assessment in Osh oblast from July 8 to July 10, 2010 using Quantitative Research Methods with a sample size of 387 households.
Abstract: In 2009, the government of Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC),
with international backing, launched military offensives against the
FDLR (Forces démocratiques de libération du Rwanda) and other
militias in eastern DRC, with devastating humanitarian
consequences: an estimated 900,000 people displaced and over
1,400 documented civilian deaths attributed to militia and
government forces. In 2010 a new offensive, Amani Leo (‘peace
today’), continues efforts to disarm the militias, with some additional
safeguards for civilian safety linked to UN peacekeeping support for
the operations. However, while some areas have become safer as a
result, ongoing population displacement (over 164,000 January-
April 2010) and protection cluster monitoring of human rights
violations (up 246% January-February in South Kivu after the
launch of Amani Leo) are indications of continuing fallout for
civilians. A survey conducted by Oxfam and partners in North and
South Kivu in April 2010 enquired into the experiences of people in
areas affected by the military operations. It found that, for 60% of
respondents this year, things are worse than in 2009.
Abstract: Since 2006, thousands of children in Turkey, some as young as 12, have been prosecuted
under anti-terrorism legislation solely for their alleged participation in demonstrations
focused on issues of concern to members of the Kurdish community. While Amnesty
International recognizes the obligation of the Turkish authorities to maintain order and to
prevent damage to property during the sometimes violent demonstrations, Amnesty
International is gravely concerned at the systematic violation of the rights of the child
committed during the arrest, detention and trial of these children. While arrests and
prosecutions continue, Amnesty International is also concerned that proposed amendments
to the Anti-Terrorism Law2 aimed at improving the situation for children prosecuted as a
result of their participation in demonstrations will not prevent further violations occurring.
Abstract: At the beginning of the 1990s, Afghans formed the largest refugee group in the world, reaching a peak of 6.6 million. Well over a million refugees returned to Afghanistan following the fall of the Najibullah regime in April 1992, but many left again during four years of internal armed conflict, followed by the Taliban takeover in 1996. It was only after the US-led intervention in late 2001 and the apparent demise of the Taliban that massive returns were resumed, with some 3.5 million Afghans repatriating between 2001 and 2005. The number of Afghans currently living outside their country is a matter of some debate. There are 1.7 million registered Afghans in Pakistan, one million registered Afghans in Iran, as well as very large numbers of unregistered Afghans in both countries. There are also known to be hundreds of thousands of Afghans with various legal statuses throughout the Gulf States, Europe, North America, South East Asia and Australia. This situation seems unlikely to change in the near future.
Abstract: Approximately two million children have fled their homes
during the current emergency in north-west Pakistan.
Starting in 2008 and continuing in mid-2010, fighting
between Pakistan’s armed forces and militant groups
has led to the internal displacement of more than 3.3
million people. The displacement has taken place amid
continuing insecurity that has prevented humanitarian
access to much of the affected region. While these two
million children and their families received assistance
from host communities, aid organisations, and internally
displaced people (IDPs) themselves, displaced children
nonetheless faced difficulties in accessing basic necessities
and education, and remained vulnerable to
exploitation and abuse. As many as two-thirds of these
children have returned to home areas, but they and their
families find themselves without basic services or substantial
assistance.
Abstract: Children bear the brunt of the ongoing
armed conflict in Afghanistan.
In 2009, at least 346 children were killed in aerial strikes
and search-and-raid operations by international special
forces as well as by assassinations and suicide bombings
by anti-government elements. In addition, landmines,
explosive remnants of war and other explosives have killed
or severely injured hundreds of children, particularly boys
who play outside, tend animals, or collect food, water or
wood. Armed groups have also damaged and destroyed
schools, targeting students (especially girls), teachers
and others who are seen as supportive of Afghanistan’s
education system.
Thousands of Afghan families have been forced to flee
their homes due to armed conflict and economic hardships.
More than half of the country’s internally displaced
– approximately 161,000 people – are children; an additional
1.5 million children are refugees in Pakistan and Iran.
Despite some progress in expanding basic health services
to a wide population, infant and maternal mortality is
alarmingly high. Afghanistan remains the worst place
in the world for a newborn child, according to child
protection agencies.
Abstract: For over ten years the impact of war on children has been a significant thematic focus for the Security Council.
There is now much greater awareness of the issue and some evidence that the inclusion of child protection
principles in Council decisions in specific cases is having some impact. However, the Council still encounters
some resistance from some governments. And the difficulty of applying effective pressure on non-state actors
who recruit child soldiers is a continuing challenge. This is our third Cross-Cutting Report on Children and Armed
Conflict. It builds on two previous reports released in 2008 and 2009 which developed a groundbreaking
methodology for reviewing, in a cross-cutting format, the effectiveness of Council thematic decisions on children
and armed conflict decisions in individual country-specific situations. Our 2010 report details key trends over the
past year and provides options for continued Council involvement.
Abstract: This paper studies the impact of Palestine-Israel conflict on child labour in
Palestine. The conflict has resulted in massive job loss of Palestinian workers in Israel. We
estimate the probability that a Palestinian child starts working when the household suffer
economic shock due to the intensity of conflict. The paper uses longitudinal employment
survey from the Palestinian Labour Force Survey (LFS) for the period 1999 to 2006 to
analyse the impact of household economic shocks on the employment transition of children
(10-16 years) in Palestine. The particular economic shock we consider in this paper is the job
loss of Palestinian workers in Israel. Taking advantage of the rotating panel structure of the
LFS, we compare households in which the head looses his job in Israel during 2 consecutive
quarters with households in which the head is continuously employed in Israel. Probit
regressions indicate that household head’s job loss in Israel significantly increases the
probability of child labour. The effect can be as large as 64% on the probability of working
for 16 years old boys. In contrast, household head’s job loss after a year does not have a
significant effect, suggesting that the result is not due to unobservable characteristics of
households that suffer the economic shock. The results suggest that economic shock for even
relatively well-off households can have adverse consequence for children and highlight the
importance of the Palestine-Israel conflict as an explanation of child labour dynamics in
Palestine.
Abstract: The Aide Memoire is intended to facilitate the Security Council’s consideration of issues relevant to the protection of civilians in armed conflict. To this end, it highlights primary objectives for Security Council action; offers, on the basis of the Security Council’s past practice, specific issues for consideration in meeting those objectives; and provides, in the addendum, a selection of agreed language from Security Council resolutions and presidential statements that refer to such concerns.
Bearing in mind that each peacekeeping mandate has to be elaborated on a case-by-case basis, the Aide Memoire is not intended as a blueprint for action. The relevance and practicality of the various measures described has to be considered and adapted to the specific conditions in each situation.
Most frequently civilians are caught in circumstances of dire need where a peacekeeping operation has not been established. Such situations may require the Council’s urgent attention. This Aide Memoire may, therefore, also provide guidance in circumstances where the Council may wish to consider action outside the scope of a peacekeeping operation.
Abstract: The first part of the report (section II) includes information on measures
undertaken by parties listed in the annexes to end all violations and abuses
committed against children in armed conflict that serve as indicators of progress
made in follow-up to the recommendations of the Security Council Working Group
on Children and Armed Conflict. The second part (section III) contains an update on
the implementation of the monitoring and reporting mechanism established by the
Council in its resolution 1612 (2005). The third part (section IV) of the report
focuses on information on grave violations committed against children, in particular
recruitment and use of children, killing and maiming of children, rape and other
sexual violence against children, abductions of children, attacks on schools and
hospitals, and the denial of humanitarian access to children by parties to armed
conflict in contravention to applicable international law. Where possible, this section identifies trends or patterns of violations and provides an assessment of the
progress or deterioration. In accordance with the request of the Security Council, and taking into account
the views expressed by the members of its Working Group on Children and Armed
Conflict, the fourth part of the report (section V) provides information on the
criteria and procedures used for listing and de-listing parties to armed conflict in the
annexes of my report. And the final part (section VI) contains a series of
recommendations.
Abstract: On May 21, Burundi begins a four-month election season, the country’s first elections
following the end of a nearly 16-year civil war in 2009. Five distinct elections—municipal
(communal), presidential, parliamentary, senatorial and local (collinaire) —are slated to take
place by September 7, with the ruling National Council for the Defense of Democracy-Forces
for the Defense of Democracy (Conseil National pour la Défense de la Démocratie-Forces
pour la Défense de la Démocratie, CNDD-FDD) seeking to maintain its hold on power.
Burundi’s recent history has been marred by political violence. This threatens to continue,
and even intensify, if the government, political, security and judicial officials—all of whom
have failed to respond effectively to violent incidents during the past year—do not take
urgent action to discourage such crimes and prosecute those who appear to have committed
them. The findings in this report provide insight into the nature of political violence in Burundi, the
official handling of such incidents, and the experience of victims caught up in the fighting.
They indicate deficiencies in the approach of the government, police, and judiciary in
preventing violent confrontations, in treating all political sides equally, and in punishing
those responsible for instigating and perpetrating political conflict.
Abstract: This paper seeks to contextualize forced migration brought about by the war as an exacerbating phenomenon for children of ethnic origin who has been deprived hitherto of basic social services, yet managed to live to tell the tale of their survival. The paper discusses the specific case of children of marginalized groups in Mindanao, aged 13-17, who have been caught in regional conflict or skirmishes.
Abstract: More than half of all children who are out of school
in the world today live in conflict-affected fragile
states (CAFS) – 39 million children out of a total
of 72 million children who are not in school. While
there has been an impressive reduction in the
overall number of children left out of school since
2006, progress has been much slower in CAFS. Most of the
barriers to education in CAFS are the same as
those in other low-income countries – poverty,
lack of schools and teachers, and discrimination.
Conflict exacerbates these barriers, affecting both
the supply of and the demand for education. In 2008 the number of
‘highly violent’ conflicts had risen to 39. Increasingly
in conflict situations, education is either targeted directly or caught in the crossfire. Schools are
bombed or occupied by armed groups. Curricula
are manipulated to serve particular interests. And
children, and those who work with them, are put
at risk through the blurring of boundaries between
military interventions and aid. Millions of children
are denied their right to education as their schools
are destroyed, or it is simply too dangerous to go
to school. Education can and must contribute to
peace and stability, and be protected from attack.
Abstract: The human, social and economic costs of armed violence are extensive and far reaching: direct and
indirect violence claims more than 740,000 lives each year. A growing body of evidence indicates that
armed violence may hinder progress towards certain Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and
development in general. The forthcoming MDG review process (starting on 20-22 September 2010) is an
opportunity to revisit the relationship between armed violence prevention and reduction and achieving
MDGs. In order to support this process, the United Nations (UN) Secretary-General has recommended that
clear goals, targets and indicators be created to measure and monitor armed violence.
This paper sets out a framework of goals, targets and indicators to track armed violence, and to support
prevention and reduction activities. The framework is based on extensive consultations with UN agencies
and specialists in various disciplines. The three overall goals are to (1) reduce the number of people
physically harmed from armed violence; (2) reduce the number of people and groups affected by armed
violence, and (3) strengthen institutional responses to prevent and reduce armed violence. The paper also
introduces eight specific targets that flow from these goals, and proposes specific indicators to measure
progress towards achieving them. Taken together, the framework offers a means of comparing and
measuring patterns and trends in armed violence to 2015 and beyond.
Abstract: The development of state education in Afghanistan represents a good point of departure for understanding the successes and failures of nation‐building in Afghanistan. Throughout the last 90 years of Afghan history, controversy over state education has taken two main (and interlinked) dimensions. The first is the dichotomy between the predominantly secular education offered by the Afghan state from the 1920s onwards (the state schools or maktabs) and the predominantly privately imparted religious education that had dominated unchallenged until then (the religious schools or madrasas). The second is the conflict between community views on education, centred around local needs, and the desire of various governments to use education for nation building or simply to indoctrinate the young generations. While the political significance of these controversies is obvious, the development of a state educational sector with the characteristics that it acquired after its large scale roll‐out in the 1960s also had a number of indirect implications for state and society. Schools became the main presence of the state beyond the administrative district centres, embodying the direct influence of the state in the villages.
Abstract: The present report, prepared in accordance with the provisions of Security
Council resolution 1612 (2005), covers the period from January to December 2009.
The report examines trends in violations of children’s rights and provides
information on progress on the grave violations against children in Nepal. It
provides an update and follow-up to the recommendations in the previous report of
the Secretary-General (S/2008/259) and the conclusions on children and armed
conflict in Nepal of the Working Group on Children and Armed Conflict
(S/AC.51/2008/12). The data on specific incidents of violations against children included in the
present report have been compiled from information documented by the Nepal
country Task Force on the monitoring and reporting mechanism established pursuant
to resolution 1612 (2005). The information provided includes violations perpetrated
by parties to the conflict in Nepal, including youth wings and front organizations
affiliated with the parties, as well as armed groups operating in the Tarai (southern
plains of Nepal) and eastern hill regions. This report does not provide an exhaustive account of violations committed
against children, as the security situation makes it difficult for victims and their
families to report such violations and restricts the ability of the Task Force to
routinely verify them, especially in the Tarai and the eastern hills.
Abstract: Conflict related displacement affects millions of families throughout the world. Very little is known about the determinants of health outcomes in the period immediately after a cease-fire is agreed, in which currently displaced people living in camps consider returning to their place of origin. In this paper, we study the effects of war and displacement on the health of children, using morbidity data collected as part of a large household survey from post-war northern Uganda in 2007. We combine this dataset with geo-coded conflict event data at the individual level to overcome the challenges of selection bias and endogeneity arising from households choosing their location in part based on their health status. This methodological concern is confirmed in our analysis. We then estimate the determinants of child morbidity (proxied by various health indicators) in an instrumental variables multivariate model, where conflict intensity at place of birth of the head of household is used as an instrument. We find that while children in IDP camps and in returnee locations exhibit the same mean morbidity rates, IDP camp residency almost doubles morbidity while poor access to safe drinking water in return locations counteracts the positive health effects of camp decongestion. Our results point to the importance of overcrowding and poor cooking technologies in IDP camps for worsening morbidity in children and the need to provide better sanitation and drinking water access in return locations to further improve the health status of conflict-affected children. Better data and analysis in early post-war periods can help to balance public health interventions, thereby strengthening the peace process.
