By: Lynn Desjardins, CBC News - Canada
The Canadian government has pledged $3.1million for a project to help end the recruitment of child soldiers in South Sudan. The money will be used by the Romeo Dallaire Child Soldiers Initiative.
Efforts made through the security sector
The organization was founded by Lieutenant-General (Ret’d) Romeo Dallaire in 2007. His first experience with this issue occurred when he was force commander of the United Nations Assistance Mission for Rwanda during the 1994 genocide. The initiative’s goal is “to progressively eradicate the use and recruitment of child soldiers through a security sector approach.”
The initiative seeks to equip security forces with training and tools to prevent the recruitment and use of child soldiers worldwide.
Canada renews leadership commitment
In making the funding announcement, the government noted today is the International Day Against the Use of Child Soldiers and said it “reaffirms its commitment to stand as a leader and work with the United Nations and others in the international community to end the recruitment and use of child soldiers.”
A news release noted the government has “taken strong actions to demonstrate this commitment” by developing a Child Soldier Doctrine to ensure Canadian armed forces are prepared to face and prevent the use of child soldiers, and it signed the Safe Schools Declaration which aims to protect schools, teachers and students during armed conflict.
Showing posts with label Child Soldiers. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Child Soldiers. Show all posts
Monday, February 12, 2018
Tuesday, February 7, 2017
Canadian Military to Become First to Issue Guidelines on Child Soldiers
The Canadian Press
The Canadian military is poised to become the first in the world to issue guidelines for dealing with child soldiers, which could be put to the test immediately in Africa.
The guidelines are intended to ensure Canadian troops are properly trained and emotionally prepared for situations involving child soldiers — including where they may have to shoot to kill.
“If a child has a gun pointed at you and they have the intent, they have the capability, and they have the means by which to conduct harm on you or your partners, you have to use force as necessary to neutralize that,” said Cmdr. Rory McLay, who is overseeing development of the guidelines.
“That is a tough reality, but we cannot afford to have our folks harmed because they hesitated.”
The guidelines are also intended to make sure Canadian soldiers deal appropriately with a child soldier who isn’t a threat.
“If you’re talking about detainees, for example, once it’s suspected or proven that the individual is a minor then they are immediately removed from the adult population,” said McLay. “The real push there is separation and rehabilitation. That’s what you want to do with child soldiers...to try to get these kids into a rehabilitated state and back to their families.”
The guidelines were ordered by defence chief Gen. Jonathan Vance last March after a meeting with retired senator Romeo Dallaire, who has championed the fight against using children in conflict.
While a variety of rules and policies on how to deal with child soldiers already exist, McLay said the new guidelines will be the first to gather everything into one place for Canadian military personnel.
Vance is expected to sign off on them in the coming days, after which they will be distributed to commanders across the Canadian Armed Forces to be included in training and other mission preparation.
“Training is one of the best ways to mentally prepare them to deal with the sights and sounds that they’re going to encounter,” McLay said.
“So if you can specifically guide the training to deal with a specific issue, you are better preparing your team to react appropriately and to be able to deal with their own actions during and down the road.”
Such direction is timely given the Liberal government is expected to greenlight the deployment of hundreds of Canadian soldiers to Mali in the coming weeks.
The UN and human rights groups say armed groups in Mali have intentionally recruited and are using child soldiers in a number of capacities.
The presence of child soldiers on the battlefield is a potential minefield for militaries like Canada, as the French learned the hard way last month when they came under fire for killing a 10-year-old boy.
While the French military says the boy was acting as a lookout for one armed group suspected of planting improvised-explosive devices, the killing has marred its counter-terrorism mission in Mali.
The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, which Canadian troops are fighting in Iraq, has also made extensive use of child soldiers.
While the British are developing similar guidelines, Shelly Whitman, executive director of the Romeo Dallaire Child Soldiers Initiative, said they aren’t as far along as the Canadian military.
Preparing Canadian soldiers for dealing with child soldiers in the field is critical for a number of reasons, Whitman said, which includes ensuring they are properly treated.
But it is also important to consider the impact of child soldiers on the battlefield when planning missions from a legal perspective and in terms of making sure Canadian soldiers don’t hesitate when threatened.
“A lot of soldiers would tell you they didn’t have any preparation for how to handle children in these contexts until they saw it in the battlefield,” she said.
“And that’s where the emotional part of your brain kicks in instead of the cognitive part of your brain. Which means you’ll make decisions based on emotion and not on what’s the best professional decision on that matter.”
The Canadian military is poised to become the first in the world to issue guidelines for dealing with child soldiers, which could be put to the test immediately in Africa.
The guidelines are intended to ensure Canadian troops are properly trained and emotionally prepared for situations involving child soldiers — including where they may have to shoot to kill.
“If a child has a gun pointed at you and they have the intent, they have the capability, and they have the means by which to conduct harm on you or your partners, you have to use force as necessary to neutralize that,” said Cmdr. Rory McLay, who is overseeing development of the guidelines.
“That is a tough reality, but we cannot afford to have our folks harmed because they hesitated.”
The guidelines are also intended to make sure Canadian soldiers deal appropriately with a child soldier who isn’t a threat.
“If you’re talking about detainees, for example, once it’s suspected or proven that the individual is a minor then they are immediately removed from the adult population,” said McLay. “The real push there is separation and rehabilitation. That’s what you want to do with child soldiers...to try to get these kids into a rehabilitated state and back to their families.”
The guidelines were ordered by defence chief Gen. Jonathan Vance last March after a meeting with retired senator Romeo Dallaire, who has championed the fight against using children in conflict.
While a variety of rules and policies on how to deal with child soldiers already exist, McLay said the new guidelines will be the first to gather everything into one place for Canadian military personnel.
Vance is expected to sign off on them in the coming days, after which they will be distributed to commanders across the Canadian Armed Forces to be included in training and other mission preparation.
“Training is one of the best ways to mentally prepare them to deal with the sights and sounds that they’re going to encounter,” McLay said.
“So if you can specifically guide the training to deal with a specific issue, you are better preparing your team to react appropriately and to be able to deal with their own actions during and down the road.”
Such direction is timely given the Liberal government is expected to greenlight the deployment of hundreds of Canadian soldiers to Mali in the coming weeks.
The UN and human rights groups say armed groups in Mali have intentionally recruited and are using child soldiers in a number of capacities.
The presence of child soldiers on the battlefield is a potential minefield for militaries like Canada, as the French learned the hard way last month when they came under fire for killing a 10-year-old boy.
While the French military says the boy was acting as a lookout for one armed group suspected of planting improvised-explosive devices, the killing has marred its counter-terrorism mission in Mali.
The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, which Canadian troops are fighting in Iraq, has also made extensive use of child soldiers.
While the British are developing similar guidelines, Shelly Whitman, executive director of the Romeo Dallaire Child Soldiers Initiative, said they aren’t as far along as the Canadian military.
Preparing Canadian soldiers for dealing with child soldiers in the field is critical for a number of reasons, Whitman said, which includes ensuring they are properly treated.
But it is also important to consider the impact of child soldiers on the battlefield when planning missions from a legal perspective and in terms of making sure Canadian soldiers don’t hesitate when threatened.
“A lot of soldiers would tell you they didn’t have any preparation for how to handle children in these contexts until they saw it in the battlefield,” she said.
“And that’s where the emotional part of your brain kicks in instead of the cognitive part of your brain. Which means you’ll make decisions based on emotion and not on what’s the best professional decision on that matter.”
Monday, December 5, 2016
CAF to get Guidelines on Dealing with Child Soldiers
By: TONDA MACCHARLES, Toronto Star
OTTAWA—Canada’s top soldier is issuing the first-ever guidelines for Canadian military personnel on how to deal with child soldiers in advance of deployment to Africa, the Star has learned.
Gen. Jonathan Vance, the chief of defence staff, and senior military officials have consulted with the Roméo Dallaire Child Soldiers Initiative and others on how to best prepare troops for a soon-to-be decided UN “peace operations” mission.
In September, Vance issued a draft version of the new guidelines which was expected to be finalized this week.
Called the CAF Child Soldiers Doctrine, it is not country-specific but will provide overarching principles to military personnel, no matter what the mission or mandate. The Star reported last week that Mali has emerged as the likely destination for a large contingent of up to 600 Canadian Armed Forces personnel, but the federal cabinet has not yet given its nod.
According to information obtained by the Star, excerpts of the new guidelines say the “aim is to provide the interim guidance required to address and mitigate the broad challenges posed by the presence of child soldiers in areas where we may undertake missions.”
The United Nations in 2005 identified six categories of grave violations against children that include killing and maiming of children, the recruiting of children as soldiers, sexual violence against children, attacks against schools, denial of humanitarian access to children, and abduction of children.
The military’s guidelines will make clear that all Canadian Armed Forces personnel have a legal duty to report any such violations, and it recognizes that the issue of child soldiers “needs to be better addressed within Canadian Forces doctrine.”
“It is important to ensure our soldiers are prepared to respond to the presence of children and vulnerable populations while on operations. Implementation of such steps will greatly contribute to the operational effectiveness of the CF when reinforced during developmental and pre-deployment training,” it says.
“It will also help prepare troops for the tactical and psychological challenges found in modern theatres.”
The move was hailed by the Roméo Dallaire Child Soldiers Initiative, a global partnership based at Dalhousie University. Executive Director Shelly Whitman said “it means essentially that the military’s efforts, or the training, have to be guided by the doctrine; it’s like a bible of the military.”
“When you have a doctrine note come out and it says in it that we’re going to have to understand what this means operationally, strategically, tactically for how our forces address such issues, it’s a huge step forward,” Whitman said in an interview.
Canadian Armed Forces doctrine spells out everything from fundamental principles to details on how to execute operational tasks “to achieve a specific aim,” according to the military’s website.
More specific how-to operational guidelines such as when and how to engage with child fighters would be set out in the rules of engagement of a mission, which are usually classified information.
The guidelines have been a long time coming.
More than seven years ago, former army commander Andrew Leslie, now a Liberal MP, appointed now-retired colonel Jake Bell as the army’s liaison officer with the Dallaire Initiative “to essentially look at this issue to see the things that we could do to incorporate that knowledge into what we do,” Bell said in an interview with the Star.
During his military career, Bell was posted to Bosnia, Eritrea, Ethiopia, and in 2012-13 was chief of operations for the United Nations mission to the Democratic Republic of Congo. Now a consultant for the Dallaire Initiative, he recently travelled to Congo to work with the Congolese army on developing a training curriculum on child soldiers for its officers and non-commissioned troops.
He believes it’s important for the Canadian military and other armed forces to have realistic, practical and scenario-based guidance in dealing with children in a operational theatre, and says “where you can really make an impact is in the prevention of recruitment of child soldiers.”
The Dallaire Initiative consulted with Vance, the chief of defence staff, and Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan in March about the issue.
Whitman said military leaders learned many lessons from “challenging situations” in the past, including the war in Afghanistan, dealing with detainees and “also the chai boys, the tea boys.”
That’s a reference to allegations that Canadian soldiers turned a blind eye to abuse of boys by Afghan troops. An inquiry reported to Vance on the issue shortly after he took the top job in Canada’s military.
Earlier this year in response to that inquiry, Vance assured Canadians the military has changed how it trains soldiers for overseas deployments, with more focus on ethical issues, cultural differences and addressing human rights violations.
The Canadian Armed Forces do not identify a specific motivation for this new doctrine.
In an emailed response to the Star’s questions, a military spokesperson said the forces “continually revise and update doctrinal documents in order to ensure operational effectiveness and relevance. Providing our members with a better understanding of issues is therefore critical to mission success.”
“We are doing the responsible thing and recognizing that issues — such as the recruitment of child soldiers by illegal armed groups — can and do occur,” wrote Daniel Le Bouthillier, head of media relations.
“This is why we plan, prepare and ensure our members uphold our legal requirement to report any grave violations against children, as identified by the UN secretary general. The protection of the most vulnerable populations is of the utmost importance.”
He said the Canadian Armed Forces “takes its international obligations extremely seriously and will continue to help ensure our proud men and women have the tools required to carry out their mandates responsibly and with the ethos expected of them by Canadians.”
The concept of child soldiers is defined broadly by the United Nations.
The UN says “a child associated with an armed force or armed group refers to any person below 18 years of age who is, or who has been, recruited or used by an armed force or armed group in any capacity, including but not limited to children, boys and girls, used as fighters, cooks, porters, spies or for sexual purposes.”
Whitman said she hopes the military will now focus part of its pre-deployment training on the kinds of “moral dilemmas” soldiers will face, and how best to deal with them.
“Our hope is by doing that it means a) it more success overall in their mission and b) we protect children better and c) when our troops come back home we are reducing levels of PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder) and operational stress injury because we will have emotionally and practically prepared them for that and have it not be the first time that they thought about it—the first time they saw it on the battlefield.”
Whitman hopes to offer support and training for military trainers at the military’s Peace Support Training Centre in Kingston. It trains over 1,000 members of the CAF and other government personnel each year, prior to deployment on operations.
In each of the countries to which Canada has looked at deploying — South Sudan, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Central African Republic or Mali, children are recruited by military forces, whether to act as fighters, intelligence gatherers, sex slaves or domestic labour. In Mali, in particular they have been used by Islamist groups as suicide bombers, says Whitman.
OTTAWA—Canada’s top soldier is issuing the first-ever guidelines for Canadian military personnel on how to deal with child soldiers in advance of deployment to Africa, the Star has learned.
Gen. Jonathan Vance, the chief of defence staff, and senior military officials have consulted with the Roméo Dallaire Child Soldiers Initiative and others on how to best prepare troops for a soon-to-be decided UN “peace operations” mission.
In September, Vance issued a draft version of the new guidelines which was expected to be finalized this week.
Called the CAF Child Soldiers Doctrine, it is not country-specific but will provide overarching principles to military personnel, no matter what the mission or mandate. The Star reported last week that Mali has emerged as the likely destination for a large contingent of up to 600 Canadian Armed Forces personnel, but the federal cabinet has not yet given its nod.
According to information obtained by the Star, excerpts of the new guidelines say the “aim is to provide the interim guidance required to address and mitigate the broad challenges posed by the presence of child soldiers in areas where we may undertake missions.”
The United Nations in 2005 identified six categories of grave violations against children that include killing and maiming of children, the recruiting of children as soldiers, sexual violence against children, attacks against schools, denial of humanitarian access to children, and abduction of children.
The military’s guidelines will make clear that all Canadian Armed Forces personnel have a legal duty to report any such violations, and it recognizes that the issue of child soldiers “needs to be better addressed within Canadian Forces doctrine.”
“It is important to ensure our soldiers are prepared to respond to the presence of children and vulnerable populations while on operations. Implementation of such steps will greatly contribute to the operational effectiveness of the CF when reinforced during developmental and pre-deployment training,” it says.
“It will also help prepare troops for the tactical and psychological challenges found in modern theatres.”
The move was hailed by the Roméo Dallaire Child Soldiers Initiative, a global partnership based at Dalhousie University. Executive Director Shelly Whitman said “it means essentially that the military’s efforts, or the training, have to be guided by the doctrine; it’s like a bible of the military.”
“When you have a doctrine note come out and it says in it that we’re going to have to understand what this means operationally, strategically, tactically for how our forces address such issues, it’s a huge step forward,” Whitman said in an interview.
Canadian Armed Forces doctrine spells out everything from fundamental principles to details on how to execute operational tasks “to achieve a specific aim,” according to the military’s website.
More specific how-to operational guidelines such as when and how to engage with child fighters would be set out in the rules of engagement of a mission, which are usually classified information.
The guidelines have been a long time coming.
More than seven years ago, former army commander Andrew Leslie, now a Liberal MP, appointed now-retired colonel Jake Bell as the army’s liaison officer with the Dallaire Initiative “to essentially look at this issue to see the things that we could do to incorporate that knowledge into what we do,” Bell said in an interview with the Star.
During his military career, Bell was posted to Bosnia, Eritrea, Ethiopia, and in 2012-13 was chief of operations for the United Nations mission to the Democratic Republic of Congo. Now a consultant for the Dallaire Initiative, he recently travelled to Congo to work with the Congolese army on developing a training curriculum on child soldiers for its officers and non-commissioned troops.
He believes it’s important for the Canadian military and other armed forces to have realistic, practical and scenario-based guidance in dealing with children in a operational theatre, and says “where you can really make an impact is in the prevention of recruitment of child soldiers.”
The Dallaire Initiative consulted with Vance, the chief of defence staff, and Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan in March about the issue.
Whitman said military leaders learned many lessons from “challenging situations” in the past, including the war in Afghanistan, dealing with detainees and “also the chai boys, the tea boys.”
That’s a reference to allegations that Canadian soldiers turned a blind eye to abuse of boys by Afghan troops. An inquiry reported to Vance on the issue shortly after he took the top job in Canada’s military.
Earlier this year in response to that inquiry, Vance assured Canadians the military has changed how it trains soldiers for overseas deployments, with more focus on ethical issues, cultural differences and addressing human rights violations.
The Canadian Armed Forces do not identify a specific motivation for this new doctrine.
In an emailed response to the Star’s questions, a military spokesperson said the forces “continually revise and update doctrinal documents in order to ensure operational effectiveness and relevance. Providing our members with a better understanding of issues is therefore critical to mission success.”
“We are doing the responsible thing and recognizing that issues — such as the recruitment of child soldiers by illegal armed groups — can and do occur,” wrote Daniel Le Bouthillier, head of media relations.
“This is why we plan, prepare and ensure our members uphold our legal requirement to report any grave violations against children, as identified by the UN secretary general. The protection of the most vulnerable populations is of the utmost importance.”
He said the Canadian Armed Forces “takes its international obligations extremely seriously and will continue to help ensure our proud men and women have the tools required to carry out their mandates responsibly and with the ethos expected of them by Canadians.”
The concept of child soldiers is defined broadly by the United Nations.
The UN says “a child associated with an armed force or armed group refers to any person below 18 years of age who is, or who has been, recruited or used by an armed force or armed group in any capacity, including but not limited to children, boys and girls, used as fighters, cooks, porters, spies or for sexual purposes.”
Whitman said she hopes the military will now focus part of its pre-deployment training on the kinds of “moral dilemmas” soldiers will face, and how best to deal with them.
“Our hope is by doing that it means a) it more success overall in their mission and b) we protect children better and c) when our troops come back home we are reducing levels of PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder) and operational stress injury because we will have emotionally and practically prepared them for that and have it not be the first time that they thought about it—the first time they saw it on the battlefield.”
Whitman hopes to offer support and training for military trainers at the military’s Peace Support Training Centre in Kingston. It trains over 1,000 members of the CAF and other government personnel each year, prior to deployment on operations.
In each of the countries to which Canada has looked at deploying — South Sudan, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Central African Republic or Mali, children are recruited by military forces, whether to act as fighters, intelligence gatherers, sex slaves or domestic labour. In Mali, in particular they have been used by Islamist groups as suicide bombers, says Whitman.
Wednesday, August 31, 2016
Dallaire: Put the Focus on Child Soldiers
This could be our new peacekeeping project, writes Roméo Dallaire.
The strategic and deliberate use of child soldiers continues to sustain conflict and sets countries on a course for years of violence, human rights abuses and ongoing threats of mass atrocity.
— Roméo Dallaire
Twenty-two years ago, I was the force commander of the UNAMIR peacekeeping mission before, during and after the Rwandan genocide. I witnessed first-hand, in one of humanity’s darkest hours, the horrific impacts of conflict and genocide. This experience has produced an unrelenting drive in me as a humanitarian to both prevent conflict and protect peace.
 |
| JUSTIN LYNCH/THE ASSOCIATED PRESS South Sudan’s government has recruited child soldiers for a renewed conflict, according to a United Nations document. |
With this experience as a backdrop, it was with immense pleasure that I recently returned from a five-country fact-finding mission to Africa with Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan and esteemed colleagues Justice Louise Arbour and Ambassador to the United Nations Marc-André Blanchard. Over a week, we reached out to the highest authorities in Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania and the Democratic Republic of the Congo to understand how Canada can re-engage in peace support operations in the region.
We undertook this trip, in the words of Minister Sajjan, to discover the ground truth about conflict. It is only through an intimate understanding of how and why conflict persists that we will be in a position to effectively contribute to its prevention.
The most obvious observation, without a doubt, was the brutal fact that war has radically changed. Therefore, our tactics and approach must change also.
Today, children are both the primary drivers and victims of conflicts around the globe and particularly in Africa. From Mali to the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Somalia, children continue to swell the ranks of both state and non-state armies. It is in this complex and ambiguous conflict environment that Canada will eventually re-engage in peace support operations.
The strategic and deliberate use of child soldiers continues to sustain conflict and sets countries on a course for years of violence, human rights abuses and ongoing threats of mass atrocity.
At the height of the Rwandan genocide, when I first faced the use of child soldiers, I had neither the knowledge nor tactics required to confront this threat adequately and preventively. Today, troop-contributing countries deployed in peace support operations remain undertrained to counter the most prevalent threat in most conflicts today: the extensive recruitment and use of child soldiers.
At every turn of our trip, Minister Sajjan deliberately sought out specific gaps that Canada could fill by collaborating with nations in building local capacity with the aim of contributing to conflict-prevention and peace-support operations.
As a nation, Canada is well-positioned to engage in the realities that face peace support operations — particularly in meeting the need for capacity-building with regard to children used as weapons of war. Canada, through the Roméo Dallaire Child Soldiers Initiative, is already engaged in countries such as Uganda by building a capacity to counteract the recruitment and use of child soldiers in peace-support operations throughout the region.
This focus on the recruitment and use of child soldiers should be underpinned by an upfront children’s-rights approach in peace-support operations. When children and their rights are elevated as part of a larger strategy and methodology to peace-support operations, points of collaboration can be found and efforts amplified. It is not only through children that many conflicts are now unfortunately fought, but it is where the promise of lasting peace resides.
Canada’s return to the field, praised and impatiently awaited by all countries we visited, is caveated with a clear request to bring innovative thinking, tools and longterm commitments to instilling new skills and knowledge that will support the efforts of all toward peace and preventing conflict.
Over the coming months and years, under the direction of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Canada will continue to re-engage with the United Nations and the African Union on their respective peace support operations. Collaborative and concerted efforts — specifically protecting children through enhancing the role of military, peacekeepers and police to prevent the recruitment and use of child soldiers — should be a priority in the prevention of conflict.
Canada is indeed wellpositioned to engage in the realities that face peace support operations, particularly in meeting the need for capacity-building with regard to children used as weapons of war.
We undertook this trip, in the words of Minister Sajjan, to discover the ground truth about conflict. It is only through an intimate understanding of how and why conflict persists that we will be in a position to effectively contribute to its prevention.
The most obvious observation, without a doubt, was the brutal fact that war has radically changed. Therefore, our tactics and approach must change also.
Today, children are both the primary drivers and victims of conflicts around the globe and particularly in Africa. From Mali to the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Somalia, children continue to swell the ranks of both state and non-state armies. It is in this complex and ambiguous conflict environment that Canada will eventually re-engage in peace support operations.
The strategic and deliberate use of child soldiers continues to sustain conflict and sets countries on a course for years of violence, human rights abuses and ongoing threats of mass atrocity.
At the height of the Rwandan genocide, when I first faced the use of child soldiers, I had neither the knowledge nor tactics required to confront this threat adequately and preventively. Today, troop-contributing countries deployed in peace support operations remain undertrained to counter the most prevalent threat in most conflicts today: the extensive recruitment and use of child soldiers.
At every turn of our trip, Minister Sajjan deliberately sought out specific gaps that Canada could fill by collaborating with nations in building local capacity with the aim of contributing to conflict-prevention and peace-support operations.
As a nation, Canada is well-positioned to engage in the realities that face peace support operations — particularly in meeting the need for capacity-building with regard to children used as weapons of war. Canada, through the Roméo Dallaire Child Soldiers Initiative, is already engaged in countries such as Uganda by building a capacity to counteract the recruitment and use of child soldiers in peace-support operations throughout the region.
This focus on the recruitment and use of child soldiers should be underpinned by an upfront children’s-rights approach in peace-support operations. When children and their rights are elevated as part of a larger strategy and methodology to peace-support operations, points of collaboration can be found and efforts amplified. It is not only through children that many conflicts are now unfortunately fought, but it is where the promise of lasting peace resides.
Canada’s return to the field, praised and impatiently awaited by all countries we visited, is caveated with a clear request to bring innovative thinking, tools and longterm commitments to instilling new skills and knowledge that will support the efforts of all toward peace and preventing conflict.
Over the coming months and years, under the direction of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Canada will continue to re-engage with the United Nations and the African Union on their respective peace support operations. Collaborative and concerted efforts — specifically protecting children through enhancing the role of military, peacekeepers and police to prevent the recruitment and use of child soldiers — should be a priority in the prevention of conflict.
Canada is indeed wellpositioned to engage in the realities that face peace support operations, particularly in meeting the need for capacity-building with regard to children used as weapons of war.
Monday, July 4, 2016
Preventing the Use of Children as Soldiers: A critical new operational capacity for the CAF
By: Dr. Shelly Whitman and Darin Reeves, CDA Institute
CDA Institute guest contributors Shelly Whitman and Darin Reeves, the Executive Director and Director of Training at the Romeo Dallaire Child Soldiers Initiative, respectively, comment on how the CAF can be better positioned to address child soldiers as part of a conflict mitigation strategy. This is based on their submission to the Halifax Defence Policy Review round-table.
The Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) should build upon its recent, proven experiences within the broad spectrum of operations conducted at home and around the world, bridging uniformed military and civilian defence workers, civilian aid agencies and the governments of Canada and Canadian partners, with a re-conceptualization of the human security frontier.
Working together with other Canadian diplomatic, humanitarian, and developmental assistance efforts, the CAF should as part of its “whole-of-government” approach be empowered to make the protection of children and youth a priority, as was seen when Canada hosted the first international conference on war-affected children in 2000. This approach recognizes Canada as a middle power to whom all states, from the least developed to the most powerful, can rely upon as “honest brokers”; emphasizes Canada as a champion for the promotion of human rights; and permits us to reclaim a special place in the world of human security.
Realistic, contemporary threats to Canadian security have emerged both from domestic and international sources. A common theme shared among these threats has, unfortunately, been the exploitation of children and youth by those with ill-intent, whether taking advantage of porous borders and ethnic strife, failing political institutions, economic disparity or extremism. The recruitment and use of these children, whether as child soldiers or as part of a criminal enterprise, has exploited children not in spite of their age – but because of it. In addition, the recruitment and use of children is an early warning indicator for mass atrocities that has yet to be fully recognized by the international community. This recognition by Canada presents a very unique opportunity to promote tangible action that can contribute significantly to overall conflict mitigation.
This reality is no longer confined to failed and failing states abroad, but has reached back and affected Canadian households and Canadian interests. Assessing and addressing the effect of this recruitment and use of children as soldiers and members of criminal enterprises on Canadian defence policy is a complex issue, one that engages the whole of the Department of National Defence (DND) and the CAF across their spectrum of responsibilities – defence of Canada and continental North America, the advancement of national interests, and support to peace and security operations internationally and law enforcement agencies domestically.
However, this issue is also broader than DND and the CAF, engaging Canadian law enforcement, border services, and other concerned federal and provincial agencies. By recognizing the unique challenges posed by children and youth recruited and used as soldiers and in criminal enterprise, training to address these challenges, and working cooperatively with concerned agencies and partners, the CAF will be uniquely poised to confront this issue at its earliest stages abroad, support and build capacity at home, and take a lead humanitarian role in the protection of children and human rights around the world.
It is also critical that we begin to see how better to utilize Canadian Police expertise both for international missions as well as to resolve domestic threats that have international linkages and consequences. Deployment of Canadian police personnel to peacekeeping operations has steadily declined to an all-time low. Yet the contributions that can be made by Canadian police officers to help build capacity in conflict zones, to train, mentor and lead by example in both Francophone and Anglophone contexts has not been truly understood. Corruption in many police forces around the world, combined with the very nature of police operations that requires more contact with civilian populations, means there is a critical juncture to impact change by well trained and vetted Canadian police personnel.
The recruitment and use of children as soldiers internationally has been shown to share many commonalities with the recruitment and use of children in criminal enterprise. In being prepared to support Canadian law enforcement and civilian authorities, the CAF must be ready to face this phenomena. This readiness, honed around the world and across the spectrum of conflict from the earliest days of peacekeeping through to the subsequent period of peacemaking and full combat operations within an environment of “whole-of-government” engagement, will enable the CAF to take on a multitude of roles in support of contemporary operations, including:
As trainers and capacity builders to other forces in a prophylactic approach to regional and domestic violence and instability by instructing in the effective, lawful and humanitarian establishment of security conditions and the protection of civilians through a child-centric approach;
By focusing on the demonstrated link between the recruitment of child soldiers and subsequent outbreak of the worst forms of violence, Canadian intelligence, empowered and knowledgeable in the phenomena of child soldiers, will be well suited to foresee conditions leading to regional instability. By seeing the early warning signs of impending violence, conflicts that historically have employed the worst forms of humanitarian abuse can be prevented or contained, leading to earlier resolution of conflict and reduced humanitarian need.
It should also be noted that resource or personnel constraints need not be a hindrance to advancing this new niche for theCAF. It is entirely possible that experienced CAF veterans, who are looking to stay engaged in meaningful work, can be a resource to compliment the training and capacity building role of CAF in this realm. As an example, based on the work of our own organization, the Roméo Dallaire Child Soldiers Initiative (“the Dallaire Initiative”) is partnering with Wounded Warriors Canada to train CAF veterans in a skills transition program that is specifically designed to assist the Dallaire Initiative’s training and doctrinal outreach around the world. This could be equally extended to retired Canadian police personnel.
In working within the contemporary world of UN peace operations, operations in support of Canadian interests at home and abroad, and other missions to counter threats to international peace and security, CAF personnel are increasingly being exposed to the very worst forms of violence and abuse of the most vulnerable members of any society – children. Studies have demonstrated a significant link between exposure to children in armed conflict by soldiers and subsequent rates of associated operational stress injuries. By educating and training CAF personnel in recognizing and constructively addressing the phenomena of child soldiers, they are better prepared to face this psychologically and emotionally corrosive reality. To quote our founder, LGen Roméo Dallaire (ret’d), “The abuse of youth as instruments of war is a reality that can’t be resolved on the day you face them in the field.”
The Canadian government has now very publically stated its desire to reengage at the United Nations. It is important that Canada has a clear strategy for what this reengagement may look like. Given the CAF roles outlined above combined with civilian expertise in Canada, we have an opportunity to align ourselves with key priorities of the United Nations while also claiming our niche in the world. The UN Secretary-General’s commitment to a “Rights Upfront” approach can be augmented with a “Child Rights Upfront” approach that is championed by Canada.
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Dr. Shelly Whitman is the Executive Director of the Romeo Dallaire Child Soldiers Initiative based at Dalhousie University. Darin Reeves is the Director of Training for the Romeo Dallaire Child Soldiers Initiative based at Dalhousie University. (Image courtesy of National Defence and the CAF.)
CDA Institute guest contributors Shelly Whitman and Darin Reeves, the Executive Director and Director of Training at the Romeo Dallaire Child Soldiers Initiative, respectively, comment on how the CAF can be better positioned to address child soldiers as part of a conflict mitigation strategy. This is based on their submission to the Halifax Defence Policy Review round-table.
The Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) should build upon its recent, proven experiences within the broad spectrum of operations conducted at home and around the world, bridging uniformed military and civilian defence workers, civilian aid agencies and the governments of Canada and Canadian partners, with a re-conceptualization of the human security frontier.
Working together with other Canadian diplomatic, humanitarian, and developmental assistance efforts, the CAF should as part of its “whole-of-government” approach be empowered to make the protection of children and youth a priority, as was seen when Canada hosted the first international conference on war-affected children in 2000. This approach recognizes Canada as a middle power to whom all states, from the least developed to the most powerful, can rely upon as “honest brokers”; emphasizes Canada as a champion for the promotion of human rights; and permits us to reclaim a special place in the world of human security.
Realistic, contemporary threats to Canadian security have emerged both from domestic and international sources. A common theme shared among these threats has, unfortunately, been the exploitation of children and youth by those with ill-intent, whether taking advantage of porous borders and ethnic strife, failing political institutions, economic disparity or extremism. The recruitment and use of these children, whether as child soldiers or as part of a criminal enterprise, has exploited children not in spite of their age – but because of it. In addition, the recruitment and use of children is an early warning indicator for mass atrocities that has yet to be fully recognized by the international community. This recognition by Canada presents a very unique opportunity to promote tangible action that can contribute significantly to overall conflict mitigation.
This reality is no longer confined to failed and failing states abroad, but has reached back and affected Canadian households and Canadian interests. Assessing and addressing the effect of this recruitment and use of children as soldiers and members of criminal enterprises on Canadian defence policy is a complex issue, one that engages the whole of the Department of National Defence (DND) and the CAF across their spectrum of responsibilities – defence of Canada and continental North America, the advancement of national interests, and support to peace and security operations internationally and law enforcement agencies domestically.
However, this issue is also broader than DND and the CAF, engaging Canadian law enforcement, border services, and other concerned federal and provincial agencies. By recognizing the unique challenges posed by children and youth recruited and used as soldiers and in criminal enterprise, training to address these challenges, and working cooperatively with concerned agencies and partners, the CAF will be uniquely poised to confront this issue at its earliest stages abroad, support and build capacity at home, and take a lead humanitarian role in the protection of children and human rights around the world.
It is also critical that we begin to see how better to utilize Canadian Police expertise both for international missions as well as to resolve domestic threats that have international linkages and consequences. Deployment of Canadian police personnel to peacekeeping operations has steadily declined to an all-time low. Yet the contributions that can be made by Canadian police officers to help build capacity in conflict zones, to train, mentor and lead by example in both Francophone and Anglophone contexts has not been truly understood. Corruption in many police forces around the world, combined with the very nature of police operations that requires more contact with civilian populations, means there is a critical juncture to impact change by well trained and vetted Canadian police personnel.
The recruitment and use of children as soldiers internationally has been shown to share many commonalities with the recruitment and use of children in criminal enterprise. In being prepared to support Canadian law enforcement and civilian authorities, the CAF must be ready to face this phenomena. This readiness, honed around the world and across the spectrum of conflict from the earliest days of peacekeeping through to the subsequent period of peacemaking and full combat operations within an environment of “whole-of-government” engagement, will enable the CAF to take on a multitude of roles in support of contemporary operations, including:
As trainers and capacity builders to other forces in a prophylactic approach to regional and domestic violence and instability by instructing in the effective, lawful and humanitarian establishment of security conditions and the protection of civilians through a child-centric approach;
By focusing on the demonstrated link between the recruitment of child soldiers and subsequent outbreak of the worst forms of violence, Canadian intelligence, empowered and knowledgeable in the phenomena of child soldiers, will be well suited to foresee conditions leading to regional instability. By seeing the early warning signs of impending violence, conflicts that historically have employed the worst forms of humanitarian abuse can be prevented or contained, leading to earlier resolution of conflict and reduced humanitarian need.
It should also be noted that resource or personnel constraints need not be a hindrance to advancing this new niche for theCAF. It is entirely possible that experienced CAF veterans, who are looking to stay engaged in meaningful work, can be a resource to compliment the training and capacity building role of CAF in this realm. As an example, based on the work of our own organization, the Roméo Dallaire Child Soldiers Initiative (“the Dallaire Initiative”) is partnering with Wounded Warriors Canada to train CAF veterans in a skills transition program that is specifically designed to assist the Dallaire Initiative’s training and doctrinal outreach around the world. This could be equally extended to retired Canadian police personnel.
In working within the contemporary world of UN peace operations, operations in support of Canadian interests at home and abroad, and other missions to counter threats to international peace and security, CAF personnel are increasingly being exposed to the very worst forms of violence and abuse of the most vulnerable members of any society – children. Studies have demonstrated a significant link between exposure to children in armed conflict by soldiers and subsequent rates of associated operational stress injuries. By educating and training CAF personnel in recognizing and constructively addressing the phenomena of child soldiers, they are better prepared to face this psychologically and emotionally corrosive reality. To quote our founder, LGen Roméo Dallaire (ret’d), “The abuse of youth as instruments of war is a reality that can’t be resolved on the day you face them in the field.”
The Canadian government has now very publically stated its desire to reengage at the United Nations. It is important that Canada has a clear strategy for what this reengagement may look like. Given the CAF roles outlined above combined with civilian expertise in Canada, we have an opportunity to align ourselves with key priorities of the United Nations while also claiming our niche in the world. The UN Secretary-General’s commitment to a “Rights Upfront” approach can be augmented with a “Child Rights Upfront” approach that is championed by Canada.
----
Dr. Shelly Whitman is the Executive Director of the Romeo Dallaire Child Soldiers Initiative based at Dalhousie University. Darin Reeves is the Director of Training for the Romeo Dallaire Child Soldiers Initiative based at Dalhousie University. (Image courtesy of National Defence and the CAF.)
Wednesday, February 17, 2016
Dallaire: ISIS cannot be Defeated without strategy for Child Soldiers
Written by: Murray Brewster, The Canadian Press
OTTAWA — One of Canada's most famous former soldiers says the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant cannot be defeated without a strategy to deal with legions of child soldiers being indoctrinated into the violent, extremist cause.
Retired lieutenant-general — and former Liberal senator — Romeo Dallaire recently introduced a program of recruiting veterans to help train local security forces in the world's hot spots in anti-radicalization techniques and recovery efforts.
His goal is to have at least 200 former soldiers trained and ready to give instruction anywhere in the world and to that end last week received $175,000 in seed money from Wounded Warriors Canada to get a cadre of veterans trained in a pilot program.
But separately, he says, some of the training regime may be adopted as doctrine by the Canadian Army and possibly even delivered on the ground to Kurdish fighters by special forces.
Unlike Africa, where child soldiers have long been an issue, Dallaire says ISIL represents a more insidious problem because of the ruthless tactics the group employs and the fact the children are more isolated from the rest of the world.
A series of reports, including one from the United Nations, say children have been hauling weapons, acting as human shields and even becoming suicide bombers. Videos posted online show them watching beheadings as a part of their training to become jihadis.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said late last year that between January and August 2015, 1,100 children under the age of sixteen were recruited by the Islamic State — something Dallaire says cannot be allowed to continue.
"There is no doubt in my military mind that the sustainment of that conflict is based on the early recruitment and massive use of young people," said Dallaire, who has been meeting senior members of the Trudeau government, and the country's top military commander to persuade them to get behind the effort.
The Liberal government's retooled anti-ISIL strategy last week did not touch on the issue of child soldiers, despite a commitment of hundreds of millions of dollars in humanitarian and development aid.
Dallaire met officials at the White House and elsewhere last week in Washington, where the perception of the issue is evolving.
"The Americans are concerned because they have now finally captured the fact that child soldiers — and the use of children — in these conflicts is far more than a humanitarian problem," he said. "It is far more than a social-economic problem. It is a threat, and that is starting to sink in."
Since leaving the Senate, Dallaire, who encountered child soldiers in his ill-fated 1994 Rwanda peacekeeping mission, has focused on the issue through The Romeo Dallaire Child Soldier Initiative. His group estimates that 250,000 children have forced to fight in armed conflicts around the world.
He said he hopes Veterans Affairs will see the wisdom of further supporting the training program for ex-soldiers, which he describes as training the trainers.
It will give veterans a renewed sense of purpose and put to use some of the skills they've learned over a lifetime in uniform, he added.
Some of the instruction ex-soldiers can give to local security forces involves getting into classrooms in at-risk countries and preventing radicalization in the first place.
Women, Dallaire says, have an important role to play in the programs because in Muslim countries they are often the only ones who can talk with the mothers of child soldiers. They even have a role in disarming the young people, because research shows boys respond more positively to a female influence.
OTTAWA — One of Canada's most famous former soldiers says the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant cannot be defeated without a strategy to deal with legions of child soldiers being indoctrinated into the violent, extremist cause.
Retired lieutenant-general — and former Liberal senator — Romeo Dallaire recently introduced a program of recruiting veterans to help train local security forces in the world's hot spots in anti-radicalization techniques and recovery efforts.
His goal is to have at least 200 former soldiers trained and ready to give instruction anywhere in the world and to that end last week received $175,000 in seed money from Wounded Warriors Canada to get a cadre of veterans trained in a pilot program.
But separately, he says, some of the training regime may be adopted as doctrine by the Canadian Army and possibly even delivered on the ground to Kurdish fighters by special forces.
Unlike Africa, where child soldiers have long been an issue, Dallaire says ISIL represents a more insidious problem because of the ruthless tactics the group employs and the fact the children are more isolated from the rest of the world.
A series of reports, including one from the United Nations, say children have been hauling weapons, acting as human shields and even becoming suicide bombers. Videos posted online show them watching beheadings as a part of their training to become jihadis.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said late last year that between January and August 2015, 1,100 children under the age of sixteen were recruited by the Islamic State — something Dallaire says cannot be allowed to continue.
"There is no doubt in my military mind that the sustainment of that conflict is based on the early recruitment and massive use of young people," said Dallaire, who has been meeting senior members of the Trudeau government, and the country's top military commander to persuade them to get behind the effort.
The Liberal government's retooled anti-ISIL strategy last week did not touch on the issue of child soldiers, despite a commitment of hundreds of millions of dollars in humanitarian and development aid.
Dallaire met officials at the White House and elsewhere last week in Washington, where the perception of the issue is evolving.
"The Americans are concerned because they have now finally captured the fact that child soldiers — and the use of children — in these conflicts is far more than a humanitarian problem," he said. "It is far more than a social-economic problem. It is a threat, and that is starting to sink in."
Since leaving the Senate, Dallaire, who encountered child soldiers in his ill-fated 1994 Rwanda peacekeeping mission, has focused on the issue through The Romeo Dallaire Child Soldier Initiative. His group estimates that 250,000 children have forced to fight in armed conflicts around the world.
He said he hopes Veterans Affairs will see the wisdom of further supporting the training program for ex-soldiers, which he describes as training the trainers.
It will give veterans a renewed sense of purpose and put to use some of the skills they've learned over a lifetime in uniform, he added.
Some of the instruction ex-soldiers can give to local security forces involves getting into classrooms in at-risk countries and preventing radicalization in the first place.
Women, Dallaire says, have an important role to play in the programs because in Muslim countries they are often the only ones who can talk with the mothers of child soldiers. They even have a role in disarming the young people, because research shows boys respond more positively to a female influence.
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