Child Soldier Recruitment in Sub-Saharan Africa: Jurisprudential Advances, Causal Factors, And Persistent Challenges

Abstract

This study examines child soldier recruitment jurisprudence in sub-Saharan Africa, where state collapse and unrest enable minors' conscription. Using doctrinal methodology, it assesses causal factors and regional legal frameworks shaped by the International Criminal Court (ICC) and hybrid tribunal prosecutions. Key drivers include political instability, non-state armed groups, indoctrination, economic desperation, and societal collapse. Jurisprudential advances feature rulings by ICC, such as Lubanga and Ongwen and instruments (African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child (ACRWC), Malabo Protocol). Persistent challenges impede eradication: ambiguous "child"/"child soldier" definitions; debates on minors' accountability; male-centric approaches; Malabo Protocol non-ratification; lack of statutory reparations; and insufficient Disarmament, Demobilization, and Reintegration (DDR) programs. Harmonised legal reforms, gender-sensitive frameworks, ratifying pending instruments (e.g., Malabo Protocol), and strengthened institutions are essential. Recommendations include an Africa-specific minor definition (under 18), criminalising all recruitment, and prioritising reparative justice.

Keywords

• Sub-Saharan Africa
• Malabo Protocol
• International Criminal Court
• Child Soldiering
• Armed Conflicts

Sahra Altı Afrika'da Çocuk Asker Alımı: Hukuksal Gelişmeler, Nedensel Faktörler ve Kalıcı Zorluklar

Abstract

Bu çalışma, devlet çöküşü ve karışıklığın reşit olmayanların askere alınmasını mümkün kıldığı Sahraaltı Afrika'daki çocuk asker alma içtihadını incelemektedir. Doktrine dayalı bir metodoloji kullanılarak, nedensel faktörler ve Uluslararası Ceza Mahkemesi (UCM) ve karma mahkemeler yargılamaları tarafından şekillendirilen bölgesel yasal çerçeveler değerlendirilmektedir. Temel etkenler arasında siyasi istikrarsızlık, devlet dışı silahlı gruplar, endoktrinasyon, ekonomik çaresizlik ve toplumsal çöküş yer almaktadır. İçtihadi gelişmeler arasında kararlar (Lubanga, Ongwen) ve belgeler (Afrika Çocuk Hakları ve Esenliği Sözleşmesi (ACRWC) ve Malabo Protokolü) yer almaktadır. Durumun ortadan kalkmasını engelleyen süregelen zorluklar; muğlak “çocuk”/“çocuk asker” tanımları; reşit olmayanların hesap verebilirliğine ilişkin tartışmalar; erkek merkezli yaklaşımlar; Malabo Protokolünün onaylanmaması; yasal tazminatların eksikliği; ve yetersiz Silahsızlandırma, Terhis ve Topluma Kazandırma (DDR) programlarını içermektedir. Uyumlaştırılmış yasal reformlar, toplumsal cinsiyete duyarlı çerçeveler, bekleyen belgelerin (örneğin Malabo Protokolü) onaylanması ve güçlendirilmiş kurumlar elzemdir. Öneriler arasında Afrika'ya özgü bir reşit olmayan tanımı (18 yaş altı), tüm işe alımların suç sayılması ve onarıcı adalete öncelik verilmesi yer almaktadır.

Keywords

• Sahra Altı Afrika
• Malabo Protokolü
• Uluslararası Ceza Mahkemesi
• Çocuk Askerler
• Silahlı Çatışmalar

References

1. African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child CAB/LEG/24.9/49 (1990)
2. A B Abott, ‘Child Soldiers – The Use of Children as Instruments of War’ [2006] (23) Suffolk Transnational Law Review 514
3. A Dyregrov and Others, ‘Children Exposed to Warfare: A Longitudinal Study’ [2002] (15) Journal of Traumatic Stress 59-68
4. A H Ekori, The AU Debacle with the ICC; The Creation of the African Criminal Court’, Int'l Jour. of L. and Society [2021] (4)(2) 67-70
5. A Macdonald, ‘Sierra Leone’s Shoestring Special Court’ [2002] (84) (85) IRRC 121-129
6. A T Danso, ‘African Young Soldiers: The Co-option of Childhood’ (Monograph No 82 of Institute of Security Studies 2003) 12-14
7. Amnesty International, ‘Rape and Sexual Violence: Human Rights Law and Standard in International Criminal Court,’ Paper 2011 at 17–27
8. B Akinrinade, ‘International Humanitarian Law and the Conflict in Sierra-Leone’ [2001] (15) Notre Dame Journal of Law, Ethics and Public Police 391

9. B H William, The Law of Targeting (Oxford University Press, 2012) 51 – 55
10. B S Francoise, The Practical Guide to Humanitarian Law (3rd ed, Rowman & Littlefield 2013) 59 – 66
11. C Jalloh, ‘The Contribution of Special Court for Sierra Leone to the Development of International Law’ [2007] (165) African Journal of International and Comparative 165-170
12. C Droege, ‘The Interplay Between International Humanitarian Law and International Human Rights Law in Situations of Armed Conflict’ [2007] (40) (2) Israel Law Review 310 – 311
13. C E Kammel and J L Roby, ‘Institutionalized Child Abuse: The Use of Child Soldiers’ [2000] (50) (6) Internationalized Social Work 740-754
14. C Emily, Identifying the Enemy: Civilian Participation in Armed Conflict (Oxford University Press 2015) 21 – 23
15. C Shocken, ‘The Special Court for Sierra-Leone; Overview and Recommendations’ [2002] (2) Beckley Journal of International Law 432
16. Child Rights Act 2003, Act No 26 Laws of the Federation of Nigeria 2004 came into force on 31st day of July, 2003
17. Child Soldiers International, Annual Report (2017 – 2018) < www.childsoldiersinternational.org > accessed on 21 March 2025
18. Coalition To Stop the Use of Child Soldiers: Child Soldiers Global Report 2018,11-18, accessed on 30 March 2025 from
19. Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers, ‘Democratic Republic of Congo’ 2011 12, 15, accessed on 3 March 2025 from
20. D Bergner, Soldiers of Light (Penguin 2005) 183-186
21. D Cipriana, Child Rights and Minimum Age of Criminal Liability: A Global Perspective (Ashgate Publishers 2009) 230 – 232
22. D keen, ‘When War Itself is Privatized: The Twisted Logic That Makes Violence Worthwhile in Sierra Leone’ Time Literary Supplement, 29 Dec 1999 13-14
23. D Mckay and S. Mazurana, ‘Child Soldiers: What About the Girls?’ [2001] (57) (5) Bulletin of Atomic Scientists 30-35
24. Danwood M Chirwa, ‘The Merits and Demerits of the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child’ (2002) 10(2) International Journal of Children’s Rights 157
25. Draft Protocol on Amendments to the Protocol on the Statute of the African Court of Justice and Human Rights’, AU Doc No STC/Legal/Min. 7(1) Rev 1 (14 May 2014) [Malabo Protocol]
26. E Divertmann, The Reparation System of the ICC: Its Implementation, Possibilities and Limitations (Brill 2010) 1-6
27. E K Baines, ‘Complex Political Perpetrators: Reflection on Dominic Ongwen’ [2009] (47) Journal of Modern African Studies 163-170
28. F Mary-Jane, ‘Child Soldiers and International Law: Patchwork Gains and Conceptual Debates’ [2005] (7) Hum. Rights Rev., 27 – 34
29. G Machel, Impact of Armed Conflict on Children, Report of Graca Machel: Selected Highlights (UN Dept of Public Information 1995) paras 38-39, 43
30. H Boshoff, Completing The Demobilization, Disarmament and Reintegration Process of Armed Groups in the Democratic Republic of Congo And The Link to Security Sector, Reform of FARDC: Mission Difficult! (Institute For Security Studies 2010) 3-12
31. Human Rights Watch, ‘Abducted and Abused: Renewed Conflict in Northern Uganda’ (HRW Report, July 2003) 42
32. Human Rights Watch, ‘Coercion and Intimidation of Child Soldiers to Participate in Violence’ (2008) https://www.hrw.org/news/2008/04/16/coercion-and-intimidation-child-soldiers-participate-violence accessed 31 May 2025, 15
33. Human Rights Watch, ‘Getting Away With Murder, Mutilation and Rape, A Human Rights Watch Report 10 3(3) June 1999 8 – 11
34. Humanium, ‘Child Soldiers’ 2020 1, accessed from < https://www.humanium.orgchildsoldiers> on 27 March 2025
35. I A Daudu and L S Schulika, ‘Armed Conflicts in Africa: Examining Sexual Violence as an Instrument of War’ [2019] (8) (1) Journal of African Union Studies 31–35
36. I Bear, A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier (Sarah Crichton Books 2007) 90-91
37. ICC, Trial Chamber, Prosecutor v Bosco Ntaganda ICC-01/04-02/06 18 July 2019 para 79
38. J A Romere, ‘The Special Court for Sierra Leone and the Juvenile Soldier Dilemma’ [2004] (2) North Western University Journal of International Human Rights 17
39. J D Humphreys, Child Soldiers: When Boys and Girls Are Used in War (Kids Care Press 2015) 48
40. J Falligant, ‘The Prosecution of Sudanese President Al-Barshir: Why a Security Council Referrals Would Harm the Legitimacy of ICC’ [2010] (27) (4) Wisconsin International Law Journal, 727-756
41. J Madubuike-Ekwe, ‘International Legal Standards Adopted to Stop the Participation of Children in Armed Conflicts’ [2005] (11) Annual Survey of International and Comparative Law, 28-36
42. K Bairstad, ‘Preventing Recruitment of Child Soldiers: The ICRC Approach’ [2008] (27) (4) Refugee Survey Quarterly, 146 – 149
43. K E A Kaoma, ‘Slave, Hero, Victim: The Child Soldier Narrative in Context’ (PHD Thesis, University of Toronto 2017) 67
44. K Faith, ‘Perpetrators and Victims: Prosecuting Children for the Commission of International Crimes’ African Journal of International and Comparative Law [2009] (14) (1) 141-142
45. K Hill and L Harvey, ‘Rehabilitation Programmes for African Child Soldiers’ [2003] (15) (3) Peace Review 279-285
46. K Peters, War and the Crisis of Youth in Sierra-Leone (Cambridge University 2011) 62-80
47. L Aghedo and O Osumah, ‘The Boko Haram Uprising: How Should Nigeria Respond?’ [2012] (33) (5) Third World Quarterly 853-859
48. M Denov, Child Soldiers, Sierra-Leone’s Revolutionary United Front (Cambridge University Press 2010) 100
49. M E Kurth, ‘The Lubanga Case of the ICC: A Critical Analysis of the Trial Chamber’s Finding on Issues of Active Use, Age and Gravity’ [2013] (5)(2) Goettingen Journal of International Law 431 – 453
50. M Frulli, ‘A Turning Point in International Efforts to Apprehend War Criminals: The UN Mandates Taylor’s Arrest in Liberia’ [2006] (4) (2) Journal of International Criminal Justice 351-361
51. M Happold, Child Soldiers in International Law (Manchester University Press 2005) 13-14
52. M Mandani, When Victims Become Killers: Colonialism, Nativism, and the Genocide in Rwanda (Princeton University Press 2001) 12-16
53. N Fritz and A Smith, ‘Current Apathy for Coming Anarchy: Building the Special Court for Sierra-Leone’ [1995] (25) Fordan International Law Journal 391, 394
54. N Quenivet, ‘Does and Should International Law Prohibit the Prosecution of Children for War Crimes’ [2017] (28) (2) EJIL 324
55. N Shahnazarian and U Ziermer, ‘Women Confronting Death: War Widows Experiences in the South Sudan’ [2018] (19) (2) Journal of International Women’s Studies, 30
56. O B Amao, ‘A Decade of Terror: Revisiting Nigeria’s Interminable Boko Haram Insurgency’ [2020] (33) Security Journal 357-36
57. Office of the Special Representative of the Secretary General for Children and Armed Conflicts,‘Child Recruitment and Use’ available at < http://www.childrenandarmedconflict.un.org/thegraveviolations/child-soldiers> accessed on 28 March 2025
58. Office of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict, Annual Report on Children and Armed Conflict (2023) UN Doc A/78/840, para 47
59. P K Tieku and T Kwasi, ‘The AU’s New Security Agenda: is Africa Closer to a Pax Pan African’ International Journal [2005] (60) (4) 937-938
60. P Urvin, ‘Ex-Combatants in Burundi, Why They Joined, Why They Left, How They Fared’ (Working Paper No 3, Worthington D C World Bank 2007) 11
61. Prosecutor v Bosco Ntaganda, Order for Reparations, ICC – 01/04-01/07-3728 24 March 2017
62. Prosecutor v Charles Gbankay Taylor, SCSL (Appeals Chambers) scsl-0301/A
63. Prosecutor v Fofana, Appeals Judgment Case No. SCSL-04-14-A Judgment May 28 2008
64. Prosecutor v Fofana, Trial Judgment, Case No. SCSL, 04-14. T Judgment Aug 2007
65. Prosecutor v German Katanga, decision on the confirmation of charges, ICC – 01/04-01/07 – 717, 30 September 2008 1-226
66. Prosecutor v Hinga Norman, Fofana and Kondewa, Case No SCSL – 04-14-T 53
67. Prosecutor v Johnny Paul Koroma, Special Court for Sierra Leone
68. Prosecutor v Katanga (Judgment pursuant to Article 74 of the Statute) ICC-01/04-01/07-3436, TC VIII (7 March 2014)
69. Prosecutor v Katanga (Order for Reparations pursuant to Article 75 of the Statute) ICC-01/04-01/07-3728, TC II (24 March 2017)
70. Prosecutor v Sam Hinga Norman, Decision on Preliminary Motion Based on Lack of Jurisdiction (Child Recruitment) Case No SCSL-2004-14-AR72(E) 1, 9 Special Court for Sierra Leone, 31 May 2004
71. Prosecutor v Sessay, Kallon Appeal Judgment Case No. SCSL-04-15-A Judgment 477-80 (Oct 26 2009)
72. Prosecutor v Sessay, Kallon Trial Judgment Case No. SCSL – 04 – 15-T Judgment 677-87 March 2 2009
73. Prosecutor v Thomas Lubanga Dyilo, ICC 601/04601/06, Trial Chamber I decision on confirmation in paragraph 247 and 628, of Charges, 2 Jan 2007
74. Prosecutor v Thomas Lubanga Dyilo, Reparation Order, ICC – 01/04-01/06-3129
75. R Authur, ‘Rethinking the Criminal Responsibility of Young People in England and Wales’[2012] (20) (1) European Journal of Crime, Criminal Law and Criminal Justice 13-29
76. R Brownman, ‘Lubanga, the DRC and the African Court: Lessons Learnt From the First International Criminal Court Case’ [2007] (7) African Human Rights Law Journal 412 at 417
77. R C Changani, ‘Nigerian Child and Primary Healthcare’, This Day Newspaper, Dec.16, 1999,12
78. R Grey, ‘Protecting Child Soldiers From Sexual Violence by Members of the Same Military Force. A Reconceptualization of International Humanitarian Law?’ International Crimes Database, ICD Brief 10 April, 2015
79. R Grey, ‘Sexual Violence Against Child Soldiers: The Limits and Potentials of International Criminal Law’ [2014] (16) (4) International Ferminist Journal of Politics 612-616
80. R Machure and M Denov, ‘I Didn’t Want To Die, So I Joined Them: Structuration and the Process of Becoming Boy Soldiers in Sierra-Leone’ [2006] (18) Terrorism and Political Violence, 119-127
81. R Monique, ‘Prosecution of Sierra-Leone’s Child Soldiers,’ [2002] (12) Journal of Public and International Affairs 145-146
82. S D Mueller, ‘Kenya and the International Criminal Court (ICC); Politics, the Election and the Law’[2014] (8) (1) Journal of Eastern African Studies, 25-42
83. S Dancy, ‘Imputed Criminal Liability and the Goals of International Justice’ [2007] (20) (2) Leiden Journal of International Law 377-404
84. S E Kabo, ‘Baby Factories; A New Phase of Human Trafficking and Human Rights Violation in Nigeria’[2014] (1) (4) Research Academy of Social Sciences 182-183
85. S Freeland, ‘Mere Children or Weapons of War – Child Soldiers and International Law’ [2008] (29) University of Laverne Law Review 19-23
86. S Hynd, ‘Trauma, Violence and Memoir in African Child Soldier Memoirs’ [2021] (45) Culture, Medicine and Psychiatry 74-67
87. S R Jennifer, ‘Child Soldiers: A Call to the International Community to Protect Children From War’ [2008] (24) Suffolk Transnational Law Review 686- 688
88. S Rugumanu and U Gbla, Studies in Reconstruction And Capacity Building in Post Conflict Countries in Africa: Some Lessons From Sierra Leone (The African Capacity Building Foundation, 2004) 2-16
89. S Tiefenbrun, ‘Child Soldiers, Slavery and the Trafficking of Children’ [2006] (31) Fordham International Law Journal 423
90. Sierra Leone, Witness to Truth: Report of the Sierra Leone Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC Report 2004) vol 3A, ch 3, para 89
91. Situation in Uganda, in the case of the Prosecutor V Dominic Ongwen, ICC – 02/04 – 01/IJ-T-259-ENG ET. WT 04-02-2021 1/42
92. T F Yerima, ‘African Commission of Human and Peoples Rights as an Institution for Conflict Resolution in Africa: Flying or Fledgeling’ [2012] (1) Journal of Contemporary Law 14 – 15
93. T F Yerima, ‘Comparative Evaluation of the Challenges of African Regional Human Rights Courts’ [2011] (4) (2) Journal of Politics and Law 120
94. T F Yerima, ‘Over Two Decades of African Commission on Human and Peoples Rights: Flying or Fledgeling’ [2012] (12) Global Journal of Human Social Science, Arts and Humanities 3. – 4
95. T F Yerima, ‘Proposed Criminal Jurisdiction of the African Court of Justice and Human Rights: Some Foreseeable Fundamental and Problematic Issues’ [2015] (7) Kogi State University Law Journal 89-90
96. T S Betancourt and Others, ‘Child Soldiers: Reintegration Pathways to Recovery and Reflection From the Field’ [2008] (29) (2) Journal of Developmental and Behavioural Paediatrics 138-141
97. The Prosecutor v Bosco Ntaganda Judgment with Public Annexes A.B, and C ICC – 01/04-02/06 – 2359 8 July 2019: 1 – 539
98. U J Nsongurua, ‘War is Not Child’s Play! International Law and the Prohibition of Children’s Involvement in Armed Conflicts’ [2006] (20) (1) Temple International & Comparative Law Journal 63-64
99. UN Security Council, Report of the Secretary-General on Children and Armed Conflict in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (26 April 2010) UN Doc S/2010/369, para 17
100. United Nations, Report of the Secretary-General on Children and Armed Conflict, UN Doc A/78/842–S/2024/384 (15 May 2024)
101. V Nmehielle, ‘Saddling’ the New African Regional Human Rights Court with International Criminal Jurisdiction: Innovative, obstructive, Expedient?’ African Journal of Legal Studies [2014] (7) 41-42
102. W M U,‘What is Reparative Justice? (Marquette University Press 2010) 1-4
103. Y Dinstein, The Conduct of Hostilities Under the Law of International Armed Conflict (2nd ed, Cambridge University Press 2010) 146 – 152