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Child Soldiers and Transitional Justice Published online by Cambridge University Press: 12 December 2017
I asked: “What were your duties as a child soldier in the movement?”
He said: “I led some of the boys in the armed group who prepared tea and food, washed the cars, and carried our belongings.”
I asked him: “What happened if those boys did not do what you told them to?”
He replied: “You hit him with the Kalashnikov.”
I asked him: “Would the commander do the same to you if he found out?”
He replied: “Nobody asks and nobody would report on you. You hit him so hard that the others will not be impolite again.”
I asked him: “If somebody older than you, like a commander, ordered you to do something you do not like, what do you do?”
He replied: “If he is a senior commander, I will obey him; but if he is an ordinary person, I hold a Kalashnikov and he holds a Kalashnikov and the one who fires first will defeat the other.”
INTRODUCTION
The rule of law implies that there is a high predictability as to how known rules will be applied, as opposed to arbitrary action by government or non-state actors. The situations where child recruitment and use take place are inherently unstable, however, underscoring the considerable need to promote the overall elements of the rule of law in order to strengthen this aspect of transitional justice. This can present both challenges and opportunities, as there is scope to introduce new ways of looking at the issues.
One great challenge is to determine what law prevails in a situation where there could be several options. In this regard, both ex post facto legislation and differences in application of the law due to the nature of the conflict or the actor involved in carrying out the violation must be taken into consideration – recognizing that the law of a previous regime may have shortcomings or there may be no law in place on the issue of concern.
Chapter 2 considers the circumstances of the child's participation during a conflict and extends the focus to encompass the end result for the child, as well as the aim of prohibiting and redressing the act itself – regardless of the situation on the ground.
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