• Child Soldiers
    Thousands of children are serving as soldiers in armed conflicts around the world. These boys and girls, some as as young as 8-years-old, serve in government forces and armed opposition groups. They may fight on the front lines, participate in suicide missions, and act as spies, messengers, or lookouts. Girls may be forced into sexual slavery. Many are abducted or recruited by force, while others join out of desperation, believing that armed groups offer their best chance for survival. We are working to prevent the use of child soldiers and to hold accountable the people who send children to fight.
  • Lubanga in the courtroom at the International Criminal Court.
    © 2010 Reuters
    ICC: Landmark Verdict a Warning to Rights Abusers

    The International Criminal Court’s (ICC) guilty verdict against rebel leader Thomas Lubanga Dyilo for recruiting and using child soldiers in hostilities is a first step in bringing justice to the tens of thousands of children forced to fight in conflicts, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and elsewhere. The verdict highlights the need to urgently arrest Lubanga’s co-accused, Bosco Ntaganda, who is currently a general in the Congo army in Goma, eastern Congo, and continues to evade justice.

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Child Soldiers

  • Philippines: Manila again drops ball in Human Rights Council
    Apr 4, 2013
    Last June, the Philippine delegation to the United Nations Human Rights Council was an embarrassing no-show during an important vote on human rights abuses in Syria.
  • Sri Lanka: Probe into LTTE Crimes Should Start with Karuna
    Mar 28, 2013
    The Sri Lankan government should act on the call by a government deputy minister to investigate war crimes by examining his own role in serious abuses.
  • DR Congo: Bosco Ntaganda’s Trail of Atrocities Ends at the ICC
    Mar 22, 2013
    The Congolese rebel leader Bosco Ntaganda is on a plane to The Hague, where he will face justice at the International Criminal Court, almost seven years after the court issued its first arrest warrant against him.
  • US: Act to Protect Children in Conflict
    Feb 5, 2013
    The United States government should promptly carry out the recommendations of a United Nations committee of experts to improve protection of children abroad from armed conflict, Human Rights Watch said today. The UN Committee on the Rights of the Child released a report and recommendations to the US government on February 5, 2013.
  • DR Congo: War Crimes by M23, Congolese Army
    Feb 5, 2013
    M23 rebels and Congolese army soldiers raped scores of women and committed other war crimes during the rebels’ occupation of Goma in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo in late 2012. Ongoing talks among parties to the conflict, countries in the region, and the United Nations should ensure that any agreements include holding those responsible for war crimes to account and that rebel commanders with abusive records do not serve in the Congolese army.
  • Six things U.S. can do to help Somalia
    Jan 16, 2013
    When the new Somali president, Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, took office in September, the United States encouraged him to “usher in a new era of governance that is responsive, representative, and accountable.” This week, President Hassan Sheikh is in Washington to discuss how to get this done.
  • Mali: Islamists Should Free Child Soldiers
    Jan 15, 2013
    Islamist armed groups occupying northern Mali should immediately release all child soldiers within their ranks and end the military conscription and use of those under 18. With France carrying out aerial bombardment since January 11, 2013, to block the Islamists from advancing farther south, rebel groups should remove children immediately from training bases in or near Islamist military installations.
  • Ending the cycle of abuse in Congo
    Jan 2, 2013
    On Nov. 19, armed men from a rebel group called the M23 were looking for a prominent civil society leader in a village outside Goma, a provincial capital in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. He'd been in hiding for several weeks after receiving text messages threatening him for his public denunciations of M23 abuses. When the rebels didn't find him, they shot his colleague, killing him.
  • Syria: Opposition Using Children in Conflict
    Nov 29, 2012
    Armed opposition groups fighting in Syria are using children for combat and other military purposes, Human Rights Watch said today. Children as young as 14 have served in at least three opposition brigades, transporting weapons and supplies and acting as lookouts, Human Rights Watch found, and children as young as 16 have carried arms and taken combat roles against government forces. Opposition commanders should make public commitments to end this practice, and to prohibit the use of anyone under 18 for military purposes – even if they volunteer.
  • Learning Under the Gun
    Nov 20, 2012
    Like many of the Somali youth I interviewed in Kenya, “Xarid M.” had braved the streets of Somalia’s capital, Mogadishu, for as long as he could to go to school. But that all changed the day the Islamist insurgent group al-Shabaab brought the war to his classroom.Like many of the Somali youth I interviewed in Kenya, “Xarid M.” had braved the streets of Somalia’s capital, Mogadishu, for as long as he could to go to school. But that all changed the day the Islamist insurgent group al-Shabaab brought the war to his classroom.
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