Child Soldiers: Victims and Aggressors - A Problematic for Public Safety in Haiti

Book

February 4, 2022

Port-au-Prince, Haiti

Lead Researcher

Essay (Legal Research/International Law)

My research

The International Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), International Law. My research is both written in English as in French.

Synopsis:-
Children have been used since the Stone Age to fight wild beasts and hunt for food for the survival of themselves and their clans. People in positions of power have realized quickly that they can be used as child soldiers to become either spies or assassins to kill their enemies. It was the case for the Spartan children who fought wars throughout 550 B.C. and the centuries that followed to make Sparta the most powerful military machine in ancient Greece. The recruitment of children continued in the early 14th century with Murad I, who – under the devshirmke system – drafted boys from the peoples of conquered Christian territories. Those boys become known as the “janissaries” or “bodyguards” and “household troops.” Suleiman, known as the “Muslim lawgiver,” continued the recruitment in the Ottoman Empire throughout the 16th century with his army of 30,000 child soldiers who were a true elite force, which was trained to be loyal only to the sultan. In fact, those child soldiers were called different names according to the countries they were recruited. For example, if they were not called Spartans or Janissaries, they were known as Mamluks (Egypt), Cadets of La Flèche (France), Lebensborn (Germany), Bassidji (Iran), Erasers (Uganda), Vagina Snatchers (Congo-RDC), Chimères or Kokorat (Haiti), etc. For the last twenty years, the number of children who are used in national and transnational armed conflicts have increased particularly in Africa, South America and the Middle East. However, while most of these children have been forced to join armed groups, some of them were volunteers or willingly accepted to become child soldiers who can be at any time remorseless, easy to be brainwashed and effective killers and torturers. While international laws have always protected children as victims, should these children continue to be protected despite they are also aggressors? If so, what about their victims who are kidnapped, raped, tortured, and killed? And, if those children should not be legally responsible for their crimes in international courts, is it wise for the international community to let those children be tried by their respective country, which for the most part, has a failing judicial system that cannot properly administer justice for juveniles or the judicial personnel lacks serious motivations. Thus, they are incapable to give justice to both victims and aggressors. In this context, the author travels through different centuries by stopping in multiples countries, such as Haiti, to analyze the international conventions in relation to the issue of child recruitment in countries with internal conflicts to update the confusion that exists on the criminal responsibility of child soldiers who are considered victims and aggressors.