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How can former child soldiers from Uganda, Eritrea, Ethiopia and elsewhere in Africa be engaged to improve anti-trafficking policies and programmes if they are not yet even recognised as survivors? [1]
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Date: 2023-03
Children who have been used by armed actors do not reintegrate easily. Depending on when they were used and how old they were at the time, they may return to civilian life still as children or as adults. Regardless, many of them will be viewed with suspicion, stigmatised, or outright rejected by their families, communities, governments, and even the international community.
This does not simply make the task of (re-)building inter-personal and communal relationships more difficult. It also makes it less likely that affected individuals will be able to access the support they need, or that programmes will be designed with them in mind. Based on the research I conducted, I found that across a variety of post-conflict settings in Africa, policies, programmes and legislation for reception and reintegration back into society – into formal education systems, labour markets, asylum programmes, etc. – are not well-tailored to help former child soldiers. And those with lived experience are unlikely to have been involved in their design or implementation.
This is a particularly surprising oversight, given that children are recognised as especially vulnerable to human trafficking and modern slavery, including sexual exploitation, domestic servitude, early marriage, and (re-)recruitment into armed groups. Yet in many post-conflict scenarios, anti-trafficking programming focuses almost entirely on adult women and their vulnerability to sexual exploitation. Engaging specifically with former child soldiers to mitigate the risks they face is, at best, a secondary priority.
Partnering with former child soldiers
Engaging with child soldiers as ‘survivors’ is one way to open up a path for involving them in policy and programme design. It’s also a potentially powerful way of changing the narrative around them in ways that can ease their reintegration.
As part of wider research into what enables effective survivor engagement, I spoke with one individual, Tulieza (a pseudonym), who is both high up in an inter-governmental organisation in Africa and a former child soldier. His personal experience and reflections are incredibly valuable, as they highlight the enormous challenges in developing meaningful engagement with former child soldiers.
Tulieza was taken from his village at the age of 15 and recruited into the war between Eritrea and Ethiopia in the 1990s. He tried to re-enter formal schooling once it was over, but found it difficult to find a place that would accept him. His association with the war, and the assumption that he was a killer, made people and institutions want to keep their distance from him.
“There is always suspicion that [ex-child soldiers] are not good people,” Tulieza said. “Once [organisations] find out that they are former child soldiers, they tend to discriminate on them and perceive them as criminals […] who must be kept away from society.”
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[1] Url:
https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/beyond-trafficking-and-slavery/why-arent-child-soldiers-treated-as-human-trafficking-survivors/
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