Child Soldiers

Notorious African Rebel Lands in International Court Hands

• March 22, 2013

Bosco Ntaganda, whom the United States calls “one of the most notorious and brutal rebels in the Democratic Republic of the Congo,” has arrived at the International Criminal Court in The Hague after being transported by court officials from Rwanda. Ntaganda is a Congolese warlord who has been operating with impunity in eastern Congo …

Africa, Child Soldiers, ICC

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Rape in War: It’s Not a Given Any Longer

Dulcie Leimbach

• January 9, 2013

One of Fatou Bensouda‘s missions as the new chief prosecutor for the International Criminal Court is to make rape during conflicts a thing of the past. Until 20 years ago, she said in a speech at the United Nations recently, sexual violence and other sexual attacks were “all but ignored and dismissed as regrettable …

Africa, Child Soldiers, Human Rights, ICC, International Justice, Women

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A Rerun of History in Eastern Congo Threatens Kinshasa Again

Barbara Crossette

• November 26, 2012

Less than two decades ago, this is what happened to a huge African country once known as Zaire: Rebels backed by Rwanda’s recently installed, ethnic Tutsi-led government moved out of their strongholds in the eastern flank of the country and advanced toward the Zairian national capital, Kinshasa, and overthrew the central government. To Rwandan …

Africa, Child Soldiers, ICC

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Sierra Leone’s Election, Proving the Nation’s Resilience

Dulcie Leimbach

• November 23, 2012

Sierra Leone re-elected Ernest Bai Koroma president against eight other candidates in a calm, orderly vote held on Nov. 17 with results announced Nov. 23, after ballots were counted. The election marks an important step for the country to continue its healing after suffering an 11-year civil war. Koroma, who garnered 58.7 percent of the vote, …

Africa, Child Soldiers, Peace and Security

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Congo Miners See Hope While Rebels Sow Unrest

Dulcie Leimbach

• October 17, 2012

Important progress in controlling the mining of tin, tantalum and tungsten in the troubled eastern region of Democratic Republic of Congo has been achieved, says a report from the Enough Project, a Washington nonprofit group focused on Africa. Yet renewed fighting that began in the spring between regional militias and Congolese national troops, who …

Africa, Child Soldiers, ICC, Peace and Security

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WORLDVIEWS

Can Making Amends to Victims of Atrocities Actually Help?

Nomvuyo Nolutshungu

• October 16, 2012

The conclusion of the International Criminal Court’s first trial this summer was duly noted in global media and political circles. Yet little attention was paid to the equally landmark move by the court mandating reparations for victims of the atrocities committed by the man who was sentenced for the war crimes case, Thomas Lubanga …

Child Soldiers, ICC, International Justice

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Protecting Children’s Rights in Troubled Landscapes

Dulcie Leimbach

• September 22, 2012

The Security Council has waded deeper into the tricky waters of protecting the rights of children in armed conflict despite protests of sovereignty from some countries, passing a resolution that clarifies the mandate for the UN special envoy on safeguarding children. The resolution, submitted by Canada and 30 other primarily Western countries, was adopted …

Child Soldiers, Security Council

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A Former Child Soldier Grows Up in Colombia

Amy Lieberman

• August 7, 2012

BOGOTÁ – Jesús Martínez has money on his mind: his monthly budget of $250, his $75 rent and the $7,500 he will soon receive from the government. Eighteen-year-old Martínez, which is not his real name, never touched a peso until he was 16 and fled the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or the …

Child Soldiers, Security Council

2 Comments

GOINGS-ON

Top New UN Assignments, and Syria Deputy Envoy Leaving

PassBlue

• July 18, 2012

Adama Dieng, the registrar of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, has been named the United Nations secretary-general’s special adviser on the prevention of genocide. Dieng, a Senegalese, replaces Francis Deng of Sudan, who has been in the post since 2007 as an under secretary-general and is a nonresident senior fellow at Brookings Institution …

Child Soldiers, GOINGS-ON

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UN WOMEN'S CONFERENCE 2012

Thomas Lubanga, Congolese Warlord, Sentenced to 14 Years

Dulcie Leimbach

• July 10, 2012

Thomas Lubanga, the 52-year-old Congolese militant convicted by the International Criminal Court in March for the war crimes of conscripting and enlisting child soldiers under age 15 and using them in hostilities, was sentenced today to 14 years’ imprisonment. The children were forced to fight a conflict in northeastern Congo from Sept. …

Africa, Child Soldiers, ICC

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UN Security Council to Study Child Soldier Use in Colombia

Amy Lieberman

• June 28, 2012

BOGOTÁ — Two longstanding Colombian armed groups are cited in the United Nations secretary-general’s annual “list of shame” released this month, enumerating parties who use children in armed conflict, among other related human-rights abuses. The country’s two major antigovernment guerrilla groups, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or Farc, and the National Liberation Army (Eln), …

Child Soldiers, Human Rights, Security Council

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Charles Taylor, 64, Receives 50-Year Sentence for War Crimes

Dulcie Leimbach

• May 30, 2012

Charles Taylor, the former Liberian president who was convicted of war crimes and crimes against humanity in April for acts committed during a civil war in the 1990s in the West African country of Sierra Leone, was sentenced today to 50 years’ imprisonment. Taylor, 64, was found guilty of all 11 counts against him, …

Africa, Child Soldiers, International Justice

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Defending the International Criminal Court From the Outside

Dulcie Leimbach

• April 30, 2012

The International Criminal Court‘s judgment against the warlord Thomas Lubanga for conscripting child soldiers in the Democratic Republic of Congo has confirmed that “a permanent international criminal court is on the job,” Stephen Rapp, ambassador at large for the US State Department, said at Columbia University Law School this month. The Lubanga guilty verdict …

Child Soldiers, ICC, International Justice

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BOOKS

Judging Charles Taylor

Irwin Arieff

• April 24, 2012

Charles Taylor, the former Liberian president, displayed a talent for troublemaking from a young age. Convicted on April 26 by a United Nations-backed tribunal for numerous counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity, Taylor appears to have kept up his bad behavior for most of his 64 years. As a boy in rural …

BOOKS, Child Soldiers

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The International Criminal Court’s Stance on Torture

Dulcie Leimbach

• March 30, 2012

People who deal professionally with victims of physical and psychological torture want to not only heal their patients but also stop torture dead in its tracks. So they were pleased to learn that like other individuals or groups, they could submit evidence they had gathered to the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague, …