Over the last century, the face of warfare has significantly changed. Interstate wars are now relatively rate and conflicts have become more complex, often involving an internal and a regional/international dimensions. In this type of conflicts, the battlefield is not clearly delimitated and civilians are often caught up in the hostilities as victims or participants – a distinction that is sometimes hard to draw. Violence against the civilian population by both government and non-state forces is now the rule rather than the exception, with civilians often being deliberately targeted.
As consequence, the number of civilian causalities has considerably risen. In World War II, civilian victims made up 50% of those that died, mostly from bombing raids. However, fifty years later this percentage has almost duplicated. In her report on the Impact of Armed Conflict on Children, Graça Machel estimated that in 1996 civilians made up 90% of war casualties and the largest proportion of these victims were women and children (“Impact of Armed Conflict on Children: Report of the Expert of the Secretary General”, Graça Machel, submitted pursuant to General Assembly Resolution 48/157, UN Doc A/51/306, 26 August 1996).
Over the last decade it is estimated that two million children have been killed in conflict situations, over six million have been seriously injured or permanently disabled and over twenty million children have been displaced by war within and outside their countries (“The Impact of Armed Conflict on Children: A critical review of progress made and obstacles encountered in increasing protection for war-affected children”, Graça Machel, presented at the International Conference on War-Affected Children, September 2000, Winnipeg – Canada). In addition, millions of children have suffered sexual violence, grave psychological trauma, malnutrition, disease, and multiple consequences of being forced to flee their homes. Conflicts have further deprived children of their support system, exacerbating these problems.
In his most recent work, They Fight Like Soldiers, They Die Like Children (2010), current Canadian Senator and retired Lieutenant-General Roméo Dallaire ( author of Shake Hands with the Devil: The Failure of Humanity in Rwanda and most readily known for having acted as Force Commander of the United Nations Assistance Mission for Rwanda between 1993 and 1994) provides an intellectually daring and enlightening introduction to the child soldier phenomenon, as well as offering inspiring and concrete solutions to eradicate the making, training, and deployment of child soldiers. He enumerates the many reasons why children have become the weapons of choice in conflicts around the world, both by governments and criminal enterprises. The worldwide proliferation of light weapons is partly to blame, as is the sheer plenitude of available recruits: overpopulation has made children a virtually limitless, self-renewing resource; they are cheap to employ and easily replaced. As Dallaire writes, “Child soldiers are a commander's dream come true: the perfect low-technology, cheap and expendable weapon system that can perpetuate itself ad infinitum.”
Believing that not one of us should tolerate a child being used in this fashion, Dallaire has made it his mission to end the recruitment of child soldiers, founding the Child Soldier Initiative (CSI) and the public mobilization campaign to end child recruitment, known as Zero Force.
Provisional agenda
Facilitator
Mr. Carlos Lopes, Executive Director of the United Nations Institute for Training and Research
Panelists
Lt-Gen. the Honorable Roméo A. Dallaire(Ret’d), current Canadian Senator and former Force Commander of the United Nations Assistance Mission for Rwanda (UNAMIR)
Ms. Elisabeth Decrey Warner, President and Co-founder of Geneva Call
Dr. Simon Hug, Director of the Department of Political Science and International Relations at the University of Geneva (tbc).
The Round Table will take place on 12 October 2011 from 16.15 to 18.00 at the University of Geneva, Auditorium U-300, Uni-Dufour.
To register please visit the event page on the UNITAR website.
The event poster is also available for download.Over the last century, the face of warfare has significantly changed. Interstate wars are now relatively rate and conflicts have become more complex, often involving an internal and a regional/international dimensions. In this type of conflicts, the battlefield is not clearly delimitated and civilians are often caught up in the hostilities as victims or participants – a distinction that is sometimes hard to draw. Violence against the civilian population by both government and non-state forces is now the rule rather than the exception, with civilians often being deliberately targeted.
As consequence, the number of civilian causalities has considerably risen. In World War II, civilian victims made up 50% of those that died, mostly from bombing raids. However, fifty years later this percentage has almost duplicated. In her report on the Impact of Armed Conflict on Children, Graça Machel estimated that in 1996 civilians made up 90% of war casualties and the largest proportion of these victims were women and children (“Impact of Armed Conflict on Children: Report of the Expert of the Secretary General”, Graça Machel, submitted pursuant to General Assembly Resolution 48/157, UN Doc A/51/306, 26 August 1996).
Over the last decade it is estimated that two million children have been killed in conflict situations, over six million have been seriously injured or permanently disabled and over twenty million children have been displaced by war within and outside their countries (“The Impact of Armed Conflict on Children: A critical review of progress made and obstacles encountered in increasing protection for war-affected children”, Graça Machel, presented at the International Conference on War-Affected Children, September 2000, Winnipeg – Canada). In addition, millions of children have suffered sexual violence, grave psychological trauma, malnutrition, disease, and multiple consequences of being forced to flee their homes. Conflicts have further deprived children of their support system, exacerbating these problems.
In his most recent work, They Fight Like Soldiers, They Die Like Children (2010), current Canadian Senator and retired Lieutenant-General Roméo Dallaire ( author of Shake Hands with the Devil: The Failure of Humanity in Rwanda and most readily known for having acted as Force Commander of the United Nations Assistance Mission for Rwanda between 1993 and 1994) provides an intellectually daring and enlightening introduction to the child soldier phenomenon, as well as offering inspiring and concrete solutions to eradicate the making, training, and deployment of child soldiers. He enumerates the many reasons why children have become the weapons of choice in conflicts around the world, both by governments and criminal enterprises. The worldwide proliferation of light weapons is partly to blame, as is the sheer plenitude of available recruits: overpopulation has made children a virtually limitless, self-renewing resource; they are cheap to employ and easily replaced. As Dallaire writes, “Child soldiers are a commander's dream come true: the perfect low-technology, cheap and expendable weapon system that can perpetuate itself ad infinitum.”
Believing that not one of us should tolerate a child being used in this fashion, Dallaire has made it his mission to end the recruitment of child soldiers, founding the Child Soldier Initiative (CSI) and the public mobilization campaign to end child recruitment, known as Zero Force.
Provisional agenda
Facilitator
Mr. Carlos Lopes, Executive Director of the United Nations Institute for Training and Research
Panelists
Lt-Gen. the Honorable Roméo A. Dallaire(Ret’d), current Canadian Senator and former Force Commander of the United Nations Assistance Mission for Rwanda (UNAMIR)
Ms. Elisabeth Decrey Warner, President and Co-founder of Geneva Call
Dr. Simon Hug, Director of the Department of Political Science and International Relations at the University of Geneva (tbc).
The Round Table will take place on 12 October 2011 from 16.15 to 18.00 at the University of Geneva, Auditorium U-300, Uni-Dufour.
To register please visit the event page on the UNITAR website.
The event poster is also available for download.