[child-rights] Sierra Leone: Landmark convictions for use of child soldiers

(New York, June 20, 2007) -- The war crimes court for Sierra Leone has
handed down the first convictions by a UN-backed tribunal for the crime of
recruiting and using child soldiers. Human Rights Watch said that these
convictions are a ground-breaking step toward ending impunity for
commanders who exploit hundreds of thousands of children as soldiers in
conflicts worldwide.

In Freetown today, the Special Court for Sierra Leone handed down verdicts
against three accused men from the rebel Armed Forces Revolutionary
Council (AFRC), one of three warring factions during Sierra Leone’s
11-year brutal armed conflict, which ended in 2002. The judges found the
three accused -- Alex Tamba Brima, Brima Bazzy Kamara and Santigie Borbor
Kanu -- guilty of war crimes, crimes against humanity, and other serious
violations of international humanitarian law, including the recruitment
and use of child soldiers.

"This use of child soldiers is a particularly horrific crime. These
children should have been learning how to read, not how to shoot an
AK-47," said Jo Becker, children's rights advocate for Human Rights Watch.
"We hope that the Special Court's decision will protect children in other
parts of the world from suffering what so many Sierra Leonean children
were forced to endure."

Thousands of children were recruited and used by all sides during Sierra
Leone's conflict, including the Revolutionary United Front (RUF), the
AFRC, and the pro-government Civil Defense Forces (CDF). Children were
often forcibly recruited, given drugs and used to commit atrocities.
Thousands of girls were also recruited as soldiers and often subjected to
sexual exploitation.

The Special Court for Sierra Leone was established in 2002 to prosecute
those "who bear the greatest responsibility" for war crimes, crimes
against humanity and other serious violations of international
humanitarian law, along with several domestic offenses, committed since
1996. All nine defendants being prosecuted by the Special Court have been
charged with the recruitment and use of child soldiers. The trial phase is
complete for cases involving individuals associated with the CDF and AFRC.
For accused associated with the RUF, the defense began presentation of its
case this May. The Special Court began the trial of former Liberian
president Charles Taylor on June 4 in The Hague.

"Commanders in many conflicts deliberately prey upon children as
recruits," said Becker. "Now that child recruiters are being brought to
justice, their impunity is no longer so certain."

The Special Court’s Appeals Chamber also issued a significant ruling
in 2004 that the prohibition on the recruitment or use of children under
the age of 15 had crystallized as customary international law prior to
1996, and that individuals bore criminal responsibility for such acts.

The first individual being tried by the International Criminal Court
(ICC), the former militia leader Thomas Lubanga from the Democratic
Republic of Congo, has also been charged with the crimes of enlisting and
conscripting children as soldiers and using them to participate actively
in hostilities. In March 2006, Lubanga was transferred to the ICC in The
Hague.

Human Rights Watch Press release