La Strada Documentation Center

Understanding and Addressing the Phenomenon of ‘Child Soldiers’: The Gap Between the Global Humanitarian Discourse and the Local Understandings and Experiences of Young People’s Military Recruitment

Document number
2430
Date
2009
Title
Understanding and Addressing the Phenomenon of ‘Child Soldiers’: The Gap Between the Global Humanitarian Discourse and the Local Understandings and Experiences of Young People’s Military Recruitment
Author/publisher
Refugee Studies Centre, University of Oxford
Availability
View/save PDF version of this document
Document type(s)
Research/Study/Analysis,
Keywords
Violence, Human rights violation, Crime against humanity, War crime, Armed conflict, Post-conflict situation, Terrorism,
Summary
To be clear, it is not my intention to argue that military participation of under 18-yearolds is a desirable and positive practice. Young people do indeed suffer in armed conflict around the world. Nevertheless, they may fight and experience military recruitment in ways that the contemporary discourse on child soldiers does not capture or anticipate. Indeed, the aim of this dissertation is to investigate how the well-intentioned global humanitarian discourse on child soldiers may be disregarding the complex local understandings and experiences of military recruitment. In doing so, I seek to present a compelling case for a wholesale re-conceptualisation of the phenomenon of ‘child soldiers’ so as to devise aid programmes that can better reflect and respond to local understandings, priorities, and needs.
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