Social reintegration is achieved through strengthening existing community-based mechanisms. Street Child focuses on four key areas to ensure a holistic and sustainable approach to reintegrating CAAFAGs into their communities. Case management of these vulnerable CAAFAGs has been identified as a significant gap in the region’s current response, which is where organisations like Street Child can help. The ongoing crisis in North-east Nigeria has resulted in the loss of lives, livelihoods, and resources, as well as the ongoing recruitment of children into armed groups. Street Child are a member of the Reintegration Technical Working Group Chaired by UNICEF and as part of Street Child’s purpose, we have been working with CAAFAGs in countries such as Nigeria since 2018 to help these children reintegrate safely into their communities. Street Child’s mission is to ensure all children are safe, in school, and learning. For those who are able to find their villages and families, they’re often rejected by their communities and are unable to integrate, leaving them isolated.Ī spotlight on Street Child’s CAAFAG work These children face ongoing stigmatization and discrimination, especially when accessing basic services, including education. Most find their villages destroyed or families killed due to conflict, leaving many orphaned and alone without a support system. When and if CAAFAGs return home from the armed groups they continue to face adversity. Young girls face not only the same brutal treatment as young boys but are often victims of sexual abuse and forced marriage, leaving many with HIV, AIDs, and unwanted pregnancies. So too, one third of child soldiers are girls. This is because not all CAAFAGs are recruited as fighters, or ‘soldiers.’ Many are recruited as cooks, messengers, or spies. Street Child and other international organisations use the term ‘Children Associated with Armed Forces and Groups’ (CAAFAGs) instead. However, this stereotype is unrepresentative. The term ‘Child Soldiers’ is commonly associated with an image of young boys with guns. Street Child stands with the Red Hand Day as even one child enlisted is one too many. However, armed groups continue to engage and use children as young as 9 years old as recruits, and there are an estimated 250,000 children who are currently enlisted by armed groups today. This protocol has been accepted by 150 governments around the world. Red Hand Day began 20 years ago when an optional protocol outlawing the enforced recruitment of children under the age of 18 in armed conflicts came into place at the UN. Rights groups and campaigners around the world use this day, now known as Red Hand Day, to highlight the ongoing recruitment of children into armed forces and groups – in an effort to stop the abuse. One urgent demand is to halt arms exports to crisis regions.Each year, 12th February marks the International Day against the Use of Child Soldiers. We draw attention to the issue with campaigns like the annual ‘Red Hand Day’, so that it’s not forgotten and politicians are persuaded to act.
The German Alliance on Child Soldiers, consisting of ten non-governmental organizations, pools all available information and brings it into the public domain. We are also involved in reintegrating former guerrillas in Myanmar and Colombia. We have concrete projects aimed at preventing recruitments, for example in refugee camps in northern Iraq. How does terre des hommes campaign worldwide against the exploitation of children as soldiers? In other countries, it’s difficult to insist that an age limit be adhered to if even Germany doesn’t do so.
We therefore consider it problematic that there are 17-year-old soldiers in the Bundeswehr (German Armed Forces), even if they are not sent to war zones. Germany has also signed up to these principles. The Paris Principles define a child soldier as being below the age of 18. Up to what age is a person classified as a child soldier?
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