Abstract

In this mini-dissertation I investigate ways in which the accountability of child soldiers, themselves the victims of internal wars, has been addressed for atrocities they committed or in which they have been complicit. In the context of transitional justice this raises opposite and even contradictory concerns: as victims of human rights violations child soldiers require protection, but as perpetrators of human rights violations the same child soldiers need to be held accountable for their actions. More specifically I look at the application of transitional justice mechanisms to this dilemma of child soldier accountability in Sierra Leone and Uganda. In Sierra Leone between 5,000 and 10,000 children were recruited for use in combat by both state and rebel forces.1 In Uganda an estimated 25,000 children were forcibly abducted by the Lordâs Resistance Army alone.2 As punitive judicial processes of the Special Court for Sierra Leone (SCSL) and the International Criminal Court (ICC) were put in place to try individuals with âthe greatest responsibility for serious violationsâ or those deemed guilty of âthe most serious crimes,â the Sierra Leone Truth and Reconciliation Commission (SLTRC) and traditional justice mechanisms in Uganda were elected to address the plight of child soldiers in light of their status as both victims and perpetrators. My primary research question therefore is, how and to what extent was child soldier accountability, along with recognition of the need of child soldiers to be protected as victims of human rights violations, addressed in the transitional justice applications of the SLTRC in Sierra Leone and traditional justice in Uganda? Recognizing the possibility that the needs of child soldiers for protections might preclude effectively holding them accountable for their actions my secondary research question is, how could a coherent and effective approach in principle be devised to address both of these concerns? In setting up my investigation I provide a rigorous overview of the development of the emerging international consensus against child soldiering that has come to conceive child soldiers primarily as victims. I note the achievements that have been made in regards to provisions for the protection of child soldiers but also the important issues these have raised with regard to holding them accountable. The implications of the requirement for the voluntary participation of child soldiers in truth-seeking and reconciliation mechanisms is discussed. My investigation into the application of transitional justice mechanisms for child soldiers thus takes the form of country case studies of both Sierra Leone and Uganda. As a literature-based endeavor, my project consists of primary and secondary accounts relevant to the pursuit of accountability for child soldiers through transitional justice mechanisms. I conclude that in effect accountability for child soldiers was not pursued in these cases, at least not in any systematic way. Given the voluntary nature of the respective applications of transitional justice in Sierra Leone and Uganda it proved not possible to ensure that children responsible for, or complicit in, serious human rights abuse would participate in these processes, much less assume responsibility for the crimes they committed. Furthermore I conclude that the new voluntary standard precludes holding child soldiers accountable and therefore actually serves to foster and sustain the prevailing culture of impunity in their regard