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Colombia is on the tragic list of countries where thousands of children fight and die in bloody conflicts. Yet all parties agree, at least on paper, that children should be shielded from war's horrors. The hardest task remains to make effective the laws that protect children and to stop the recruitment of children for war.
To achieve this end, all parties should implement fully the provisions of the Convention on the Rights of the Child and its Optional Protocol regarding child combatants. Additional steps are delineated below:
To the Guerrilla and Paramilitary Groups (FARC-EP, UC-ELN, AUC):
Immediately end all recruitment of children under the age of eighteen, demobilize children under age eighteen from all armed forces under their control, and deliver child combatants to the appropriate national agency or international humanitarian organization; Develop and enforce clear policies and reliable systems to prohibit the recruitment of children under eighteen and ensure that recruits are at least eighteen years of age; Ensure that such policies are widely communicated to members of the armed group and to civilians within the group's areas of influence; Remove from command positions those found to have continued to recruit or employ children under eighteen to serve in any capacity; Ensure that children under eighteen who are captured or have deserted from irregular forces are handed over promptly to the appropriate humanitarian organization; Seek international cooperation with relevant humanitarian agencies in order to verify recruitment practices; Provide information to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) or the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) on all child combatants who have been killed in combat or out of combat; Release immediately all children held hostage or for ransom, and issue firm instructions prohibiting all kidnappings, especially those of children; and take appropriate disciplinary action against commanders and other group members who kidnap children.
As short-term measures until all children have been demobilized:
Ensure that children leave without fear of reprisals for themselves or their families; Prohibit the forcible recruitment of children under any circumstances, and ensure that any commanders responsible for forcible recruitment are appropriately punished; Ensure that all combatants are instructed to abide by international humanitarian law, and specifically the protection of captured or incapacitated combatants and civilians, including children; Terminate immediately all executions of children for whatever offense, and deliver to the ICRC all children who are captured after trying to desert; Ensure that no children are deployed directly in hostilities, or are trained or take part in the use of explosives, including indiscriminate weapons such as landmines and gas cylinder bombs; Wherever possible, arrange for sick or wounded children to be taken to hospitals where they can receive appropriate medical care; Replace the practice of obligatory abortion and contraception for girl combatants, where it exists, with a voluntary system and make available contraceptives and sexual hygiene instruction to all combatants.
Establish clear rules prohibiting the recruitment or use of children under eighteen in any government programs involving civilian cooperation with the armed forces. Prompt and thorough investigations of cases in which children are used as informers, spies, or guides is essential in order to protect the lives of children caught up in Colombia's conflict. Military or police personnel responsible for using children in these ways should be held accountable; Include the demobilization of children from guerrilla and paramilitary forces and an end to their recruitment in the future as a priority item in any future negotiations with these forces; Ensure that all child combatants who turn themselves in to the authorities or are captured are returned to their families if it is in the child's best interest. Children should be protected, cared for appropriately, and provided with counseling and an education when family reunion is not in the child's best interest; Ensure that all officers and enlisted personnel are instructed to abide by international humanitarian law, and specifically the protection of captured or incapacitated combatants and civilians, including children; Continue and expand the Colombian Family Welfare Institute's program for the rehabilitation of former child combatants. Extend its geographical outreach so that children can be relocated as close to their home or place of origin as is in the best interests of the child; Ensure that all former child combatants, including those held in remote areas, receive adequate protection and treatment in accordance with Colombia's international commitments; Ensure that in all measures for their rehabilitation, the views of the children concerned are given due weight, in accordance with article 12 (1) of the Convention on the Rights of the Child; At all times, assure rights to defense and due process to children in any legal proceedings instituted against them for their actions while under arms; In sentencing child combatants convicted of serious abuses, judges should consider as mitigating factors the circumstances of the child's recruitment, possible coercion, and relative lack of maturity. In such cases, sentencing should promote the child's rehabilitation and reintegration, as provided in articles 39 and 40 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child and article 14(4) of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. Juvenile courts should also consider as powerful mitigating circumstances the harsh penalties, including death, faced by children who disobey orders, and threats against them and their families; In accordance with article 37(b) of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the arrest, detention, or imprisonment of a child must be used only as a measure of last resort and for the shortest appropriate period of time; Any legislation to lower the age of criminal responsibility from the present eighteen years should be consistent with the United Nations Standard Minimum Rules for the Administration of Juvenile Justice ("The Beijing Rules"), which provide that "the beginning of that age shall not be fixed at too low an age level, bearing in mind the facts of emotional, mental and intellectual maturity"; Urge the Colombian Congress to ratify the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the Involvement of Children in Armed Conflicts; In accordance with article 4(2) of the Optional Protocol, take all feasible measures to prevent recruitment and use by armed groups of children under the age of eighteen, including the adoption of legal measures necessary to prohibit and criminalize such practices; Ensure that those responsible for the recruitment of children are held accountable: by not granting immunity from prosecution to members of guerrilla or paramilitary forces responsible for serious violations of international humanitarian law, including the recruitment of children under the age of fifteen; by withdrawing its decision not to accept for a period of seven years the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court over war crimes;
In the Office of the Attorney General, carry out criminal investigations of those leaders of the FARC-EP, the UC-ELN, and the AUC responsible for recruiting children under fifteen into their forces.
Express concern, on visits to Colombia and in meeting with Colombian officials, both publicly and privately, about the recruitment of children and continuing military-paramilitary ties and press for effective measures to sever them; Urge the president of Colombia to make the demobilization of child combatants a top priority in future negotiations with guerrillas and paramilitaries; Provide funds for programs aimed at rehabilitating child combatants through the office of the Public Advocate and ICBF; Firmly express to the Colombian government U.S. opposition to any amnesty or pardon for those responsible for grave human rights violations or serious violations of international humanitarian law, such as the recruitment of children.
Express concern, on visits to Colombia and in meeting with Colombian officials, both publicly and privately, about the recruitment of children and continuing military-paramilitary ties and press for effective measures to sever them; Urge the president of Colombia to make the demobilization of child combatants a top priority in future negotiations with guerrillas and paramilitaries; Provide funds for programs aimed at rehabilitating child combatants through the office of the Public Advocate and ICBF; Firmly express to the Colombian government the European Union's opposition to any amnesty or pardon for those responsible for grave human rights violations or serious violations of international humanitarian law, such as the recruitment of children.
The Secretary General's Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict should:
The Representative in Colombia of the High Commissioner for Human Rights should:
Submit to the high commissioner a report on the recruitment and use of child combatants by the parties to the armed conflict in Colombia. The report should be made available to the secretary general to enable him to inform the Security Council about the current situation regarding child combatants in his progress report, which is due by October 31, 2003.
The United Nations Commission on Human Rights should:
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