Session 6: Demobilisation, NGOs and Human Security

Session 6: Demobilisation, NGO’s and Human Security
Chair: Stefan Bucher

“..You’re old enough to kill, but too young to vote…..”
Graeme Goldsworthy
International Demining Group, The Netherlands

A leading UK Sunday newspaper reported in 2000 the continuing disquiet regarding the deployment of women soldiers in front line combat roles, the trials of which have been described as ‘Controversial findings.’ The article in question, citing the views of serving senior officers, variously describes this initiative as ‘ … [I]immensely destabilising … and possibly demoralising.’ Such emotive matters notwithstanding, the traditional role of women, certainly as far as many states recognise the concept, has been to support fighting men on foreign or home battlefields by undertaking domestic and in many cases industrial activities. However, the consensus appears to be that women are not necessarily as ideally suited for combat (if ideally is indeed the appropriate word to use) as men.
As noble or outdated, as such sentiments may be, the developed nations, certainly in the UK – agonise over the possible perils of females exposed to the brutalities of warfare, death, or the fate considered to be worse than that state of affairs. Yet, we seem to stand by impotently as the most vulnerable members of society – our children – are pressed, enticed, drugged, raped and seduced into taking up arms and effectively sacrificing their innocence in the name of this or that cause, based on decisions taken by adults. However, as the Christmas sales of GI Joe, Action Man, children’s clothes with battlefield camouflage patterns inspired by the 90’s female and gay catwalk ‘camouflage chic’, toy guns and rifles demonstrate, playing at soldiers seems to be a normal part of childhood, and certainly so for the young offspring of Western parents. But in less stable, insecure regions of the globe, play has become a military reality for many children, to the point of being an all-pervasive aspect of their lives, and one from which the only departure may be permanently disabling injuries, psychological trauma or a violent and premature death.
According to recent figures, as many as 300,000 children under 18 are serving in dozens of combat situations across the world, frequently in what may be euphemistically described as harrowing conditions. This Paper will put forward the proposition that using children to kill, to rape, steal, lay landmines, fight, suffer and die in any conflict is an affront to decency, moral codes of conduct, and flagrantly disregards the international legal instruments expressly designed to protect the vulnerable. Moreover, using children as purveyors of extreme violence in warfare causes problems out of all proportion to any perceived benefits that may be gained. Therefore, to bring an end to this particularly insidious abuse in warfare, it is postulated that the use of underage combatants be stigmatised in the way that certain weapon systems such as chemical weapons or landmines have attracted attempts at legislation to bring this about. But we must also face a reality, that is that AIDS the modern plague that may yet be with us for the next 130 years will decimate up to 60% of the population of sub-Saharan Africa, already having broken down the security regimes in many states – a manifestation is the number of AIDS infected children with no future no loved ones and no hope who have picked up weapons to fight and to rage against life itself and this challenges all our theory and practice of demobilisation, reintegration and peace building in such impacted countries.
To place this phenomenon into some kind of legal context, the paper will then initially examine the legal position of children and their status in a conflict scenario. In quoting legislative measures on the one hand, and then translating such findings into the realities of bringing an end to this type of practice on the other, presents us with certain obstacles regarding enforcement. Referring back to the current status of APMs, the Ottawa Conventions, whilst being a praiseworthy initiative in themselves, appear quite incapable of stopping, for example, the current round of mine laying in Angola. (Which is, of course, a signatory to the Ottawa Declaration.) Nonetheless, despite the seeming futility of this exercise in the light of these facts, it is still worthwhile examining possible measures in the earnest hope that a solution can be found. It is not the purpose of this Paper to dwell on this matter in depth, but an overview may shed some light on the complexities of legislation, which, citing the Ottawa treaty above, may illustrate, that more needs to be done in this area.
The paper will subsequently examine aspects of child soldiering, ostensibly to unearth the realities of underage combatants. It will also seek to support analysis with an investigation of the problems encountered in Sierra Leone, which has suffered from aggravated internal strife in recent years, and has witnessed a significant rupturing of social cohesion, to the point where large numbers of children find themselves relatively unprotected. Using this country as a case study will hopefully highlight the harrowing nature of child soldiery, and act in support of the aims of this text – to put forward a case for the eventual elimination of this type of practice.

Conflict in Sudan is the greatest humanitarian disaster of the world today. Although heaviest fighting takes place in Darfur in western Sudan, it was first launched in 1955 as a result of tradition of marginalizing the south in the state periphery. The war reignited in 1983 and has been ongoing since, shifting regionally and portraying grievances of numerous marginalized groups in the peripheral zones where the centralized authority has not fully established itself.
Collier-Hoeffler model that presents predatory economic opportunity as cause of conflict in failed states has gained acceptance in interpreting contemporary civil conflicts in Africa. It has been applied to Sudan as well in order to represent the opportunity for resource predation, greed, as the principal factor to the conflict onset. However, although Collier-Hoeffler model tends to perform well predicting civil war in some cases of collapsed states in Africa such as Angola and Sierra Leone, its ability to explain the outbreak and goals of violence in Sudan can be misleading due to its focus purely on economic self-gain.
The conflict in Sudan can be investigated through wider approach, attempting to draw on interdisciplinary knowledge. The role of grievances contributing to the conflict onset and the goals of violence in Sudan are evident, including factors such as ethnic marginalizing and social construction of identity resulting in non-greed imperatives. In addition, the recent geographical shift of the most severe violence from south Sudan to Darfur reinforces the center-periphery grievance argument over the description of insurgency as predominantly greed based.
Finally, the state in Sudan is powerful enough to impose its ideological and economic objectives violently in contrast to various collapsed states in Africa in which insurgencies have occurred. Similarly, the rebel motivation has been largely rooted in grievance due to the tradition of economic and social repression of the periphery. Economic imperatives have evolved important for parties to the conflict, but more so in financing the war effort after the hostilities began rather than contributing to conflict formation.

The Discourse of Human Security: Developing an International Responsibility to Protect
Christian Bundegaard
Programme for Strategic and International Security Studies (PSIS), Graduate Institute of International Studies, Geneva

In recent years, global public awareness of internal state violence – ranging from the violation of human rights and displacement to mass murder and genocide – has directed foreign policy discourse towards an international responsibility to protect. This moral approach is related to the idea of “human security”. While security traditionally concerned state security and military threats, proponents of human security emphasize an interest in the security of the individual and in the relations between human security and human development. Hence, in his Millennium Report Kofi Annan called for a definition of security that focuses on the protection of communities and individuals from internal violence rather than on the defence of a territory from outside attack. The question is how this protection is to be provided. Much debated “humanitarian interventions” may be the ultimate instrument, but violating state sovereignty legitimized by universalistic human rights notions is not at all without problems. It is concluded that the discourse of human security and the on-going implementation of a variety of human security activities, undertaken by governments and non-state actors, can be perceived as a constructive contribution to the establishment of an international responsibility to protect.

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