Children in Armed Conflict

This handbook is designed for national authorities and provides guidance on the treatment of children recruited and exploited by terrorist and violent extremist groups, with emphasis on the role of the justice system. The main objectives of the handbook are to prevent the recruitment of children, identify effective justice responses to these children, and promote their rehabilitation and reintegration. The target audience is both law and policymakers who design policies of prevention and treatment as well as practitioners dealing directly with children in these contexts.

This protocol provides guidance for interviewing children who have expressed a desire to participate in truth-seeking and documentation efforts, outlining protection principles, inquiry strategies, and behavioral guidelines for interacting with children. Created with a child-centered approach, the protocol is intended to increase the effectiveness of the response to violations committed against children in armed conflict. Available in English, Arabic, French, and Spanish.

This Guide provides best practice measures for engaging girls formerly associated with armed groups in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, who are often under-represented in disarmament, demobilization, and reintegration programs. Based on workshops conducted with child protection officials, UN agencies, government agents, and NGOs, it proposes interventions to respond to girl soldiers' specific needs and experiences. This guide focuses on solutions which are inexpensive and community based, making them applicable in various contexts. Originally published in French, the first version can be accessed at: https://www.child-soldiers.org/shop/rsum-du-guide-pratique-pour-promouvoir-lacceptation-communautaire

The International Criminal Court Office of the Prosecutor recognizes that most crimes under the Statute affect children in various ways, and that at times they are specifically targeted. The Office engages with children in various contexts and circumstances, notably children who are witnesses and those whose parents or caregivers have agreed to testify before the Court. In these interactions, the Office will consider the best interests, rights and well-being of children who are directly impacted by its activities. The Office will strive to ensure that its activities do no harm to the children with whom it interacts. The Office will adopt a child-sensitive approach in all aspects of its work involving children. This policy guides applying this approach.

This report covers several approaches to supporting reconciliation in post-conflict contexts. Designed as an e-learning document, the report provides general information about a variety of approaches, pros and cons of said approaches, indications of what roles donors can play, and covers Islamic reconciliation modalities available.

This report, part of a joint research project by ICTJ and UNICEF on the intersections of education, transitional justice, and peacebuilding, explores how a transitional justice framework can help to identify educational deficits relating to the logic of past conflict and/or repression and inform the reconstruction of the education sector. Drawing on comparative experiences from around the world, it looks at how formal and informal education can help facilitate the work of transitional justice measures and vice versa. Page 35 begins practical recommendations for Transitional Justice practitioners, policymakers, civil society actors, education practitioners, policymakers, and donors. For more on the project, visit the project webpage: https://www.ictj.org/our-work/research/education-peacebuilding

This Framework is a practical resource that promotes accountability for serious violations of international law committed against children in armed conflict (CAC). It responds to the significant gap that exists in preventing and remedying these serious violations - and is designed to assist policymakers and practitioners working at all levels to bridge this gap. It provides individuals and organizations working in child protection, justice, peacebuilding, and related fields with a comprehensive definition and structure for understanding CAC accountability and practical guidance for developing well-informed, context-specific, and feasible options for advancing CAC accountability.

This resource is the Spanish version of the "Children in Armed Conflict Accountability Framework." El Marco de Rendición de Cuentas frente a los niños, las niñas y los jóvenes afectados por los conflictos armados es un recurso práctico que promueve mecanismos para abordar casos de violaciones graves derecho internacional cometidas contra los niños, las niñas y los jóvenes en situaciones de conflicto armado (rendición de cuentas sobre NNJ). Elaborado como respuesta al importante vacío existente en materia de prevención y reparación de este tipo de violaciones, este Marco aporta los siguientes elementos: 1. una definición completa y estructura para entender la cuestión de la rendición de cuentas sobre NNJ; 2. orientaciones metodológicas prácticas que pueden ser adaptadas y aplicadas en diferentes contextos con el objeto de aumentar las acciones de rendición de cuentas sobre NNJ.

Researchers at the Human Rights Center at the University of California, Berkeley, School of Law, conducted a four-country study in Kenya, Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Uganda to identify key accountability barriers and strategies for reporting, investigating, and prosecuting cases of sexual violence. The resulting 279 interviews identified key themes related to the reporting, investigation, and prosecution of cases of sexual violence for domestic accountability for sexual violence committed as an international crime. Recommendations for domestic actors from across health, legal, judicial, and community sectors are included to address survivors’ claims of sexual violence both during and after periods of armed conflict and other emergencies, with specific mention of children's particular needs within legal processes.

This resource lists 9 principles for youth participation in peacebuilding. Principles include promoting young people’s participation for successful peacebuilding, valuing young people’s diversity and experiences, being sensitive to gender dynamics, involving young people in all stages of peacebuilding and post-conflict programming.

This resource outlines what the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and its partners should do to protect children from sexual violence. Action areas include legal and policy framework; knowledge and data; coordination; human and financial capacity; advocacy and awareness; and prevention and response.

This resource lays out guidelines for implementing programs that protect education from attack. Included is a 10-step guideline for working in collaboration with local communities, examples for various case studies around the world, and strategies for staffing, working with local partners, and using child participation. The document uses Cote d’Ivoire as a case study of how communities worked with UN agencies and international NGOs and presents key findings.

This resource examines lessons learned and good practices from the field. Developed by MRM task-force co-chairs and child protection practitioners, this resource considers issues such as establishing and phasing out the MRM, monitoring and reporting grave violations, information management systems, accountability, engaging parties to the conflict, advocacy, regional cooperation, and child participation. This study is part of the MRM Tools website, which also includes the MRM Guidelines, Training Toolkit, and Global Good Practices Study.

During the Kampala Conference from 25-27 September 2013, guidelines were launched on recovery and reintegration programming for child and youth affected by armed conflict. The Kampala Recommendations were drafted in consultation with experts from transitional justice, human rights, education, child rights, and youth from Uganda and Colombia.

This resource examines including children and youth in outreach programming for transitional justice measures. It provides components and structural approaches to planning outreach programs and addresses issues such as security and protection, psychosocial support, and coordination with external actors. The appendix includes a sample image release form and UNICEF Principles for Ethical Reporting on Children.

This resource outlines an ethical approach to participatory assessment with refugee children and adolescents and provides guidelines on conducting participatory workshop. Part of UNHCR’s tool for participatory assessment in operations, it was developed to provide guidance on suitable ways to specifically engage with girls and boys. Included are several participatory workshop methods, a participation and protection checklist, and sample activities.

This short video is intended to share steps to establishing complaints and response mechanism (CRM). It features the Complaints and Response Mechanisms (CRM) Pilot in Dadaab refugee camp in Kenya in 2011. Complaints handling is part of the Humanitarian Accountability Partnership (HAP) Standard for accountability and quality management.

Intended to emphasize programs on sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) that include men and boys, this resource provides guidance on accessing survivors, providing protection, and delivering medical, legal, and social services. It contains key considerations for inclusive SGBV programming and a list of key resources.

This resource serves as a compliment to the 2008 UNHCR Guidelines for Determining the Best Interests of the Child. It provides an overview of the international and national legal frameworks and places determination of best interest within a child protection framework. It also explains the process for determining the best interests of the child and includes guidance on principles and procedures for communicating with and interviewing children.

Based on assessments of Colombia, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Liberia, and Nepal, this resource examines the ways in which transitional justice can engage children and consider their needs. It assesses the extent to which truth-seeking mechanisms, criminal justice, reparations, and institutional reform have raised awareness about the victimization of children.

This resource examines the accountability gap for violations committed against children in situations of armed conflict. It evaluates actions to attain accountability through efforts at the national level, UN Security Council, and international level. The report provides several policy options to address the accountability gap and features case studies in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Colombia.

This resource represents the thinking of the International Movement for the Red Cross on building bridges between practitioners from various contexts and areas of expertise. This resource identifies priorities for action and recommendations for better coordination across the Movement and focuses on themes such as reintegration, psychosocial approach, violence prevention in urban violence, and cross-cutting issues such as youth participation.

This resource provides guidance on creating a complaints and response mechanism (CRM) in a child-friendly manner. Using a pilot case study from Ifo Camp, Dabaab, North Eastern Kenya, this resource provides information on setting up a CRM, awareness raising, recording complaints, challenges, and lessons learned. The annex includes a stakeholder mapping tools used during their consultations with children.

Intended for African governments, this resource aims to provide guidance on implementing African Union (AU) and other regional and international treaty bodies. The guidelines include a set of overarching principles, general measures of implementation, an overview of child friendly justice, fair trial rights for children in conflict with the law and for child victims and witnesses, and alternative care proceedings. This resource also discusses traditional justice and provides minimum standards for traditional courts.

Comprising of five tools, this resource is intended for international NGOs, international organizations, government partners, or other organizations that require child protection measures. Tool 1 describes protection standards; tool 2 provides guidelines on how agencies can implement child protection measures; tools 3, 4, and 5 provide training exercises and materials to understand child protection, child protection in emergency contexts, as well as children’s participation. Page 53 of Tool 2 provides guidance on preventing harm to children during emergency or humanitarian crises

This resource is intended to inform the work of child protection advocates and organizations, legal experts and other professionals in their efforts to protect the rights of children involved in truth and reconciliation processes. It includes emerging good practices and recommended procedures for children’s participation in truth commissions. The annex also provides model checklists for taking statements from children and model memorandum-of-understanding (MOU) agreements between truth commissions and child protection agencies.

This resource considers children and youth in the post-conflict peacebuilding phase of restoring justice and security. It discusses national structures and mechanisms, such as hybrid courts, domestic prosecution, and truth commissions, and articulates their relevance to children and young people. This report also explores the role of civil society organizations in building accountability and good governance within the security sector.

This resource outlines the importance of psychosocial support for children in their participation in transitional justice mechanisms, such as international tribunals, hybrid tribunals, and truth commissions. It also provides an overview of policies and procedures which protect the rights of child participants in truth, justice, and reconciliation efforts.

Intended for Save the Children staff at headquarters and field offices who work on children’s participation, this resource provides practice standards, a toolkit of activities, and guiding questions for planning participation activities. This resource also provides guides to including children in advocacy and campaigning, fundraising, media and communications, recruitment, governance, and emergencies.

This resource highlights government commitments regarding the participation of children and adolescents in combating sexual abuse and exploitation. It includes children’s recommendations to end abuse and exploitation and provides recommendations for strengthening child and youth participation in child protection.

This two-page fact sheet describes transitional justice; where it came from and how it is used as a response to systematic or widespread violations of human rights. The aims of transitional justice will vary depending on the context but these features are constant: the recognition of the dignity of individuals; the redress and acknowledgment of violations; and the aim to prevent them happening again. Transitional justice is often approached in the following forms: criminal prosecutions, truth seeking/fact finding, reparations, reforms. More information is also available on the International Center for Transitional Justice website: https://www.ictj.org/about/transitional-justice

This resource is a collection of training materials to help ensure effective child protection programming and protection systems. Primarily intended for facilitators and trainers, programmers who work on child rights or child protection, and members of child protection clusters, this resource pack includes a user guide, training manual, and facilitator’s toolkit. Foundation modules include topics such as participation and inclusion, advocacy, community mobilization, and psychosocial support. Also included are seven critical issue modules, with module 7 on children associated with armed forces or armed groups.

This resource examines principles for mainstreaming children and youth participation. It provides guidance on engaging children and youth through a variety of programs, such as radio programs, training, mentoring, and theatre. This resource also provides examples of indicators, evaluation tools, and a case study on Sierra Leone.

This resource outlines World’s Visions minimum basic expectations for upholding child participation. These guidelines may apply to activities such as focus group discussions and research, sponsorship activities, children’s clubs, children’s engagement in community activities, and child representatives participating in national or international decision-making events.

A companion to UN ECOSOC’s Guidelines on Justice in Matters involving Child Victims and Witnesses of Crimes, this resource is intended to assist the design or review of laws and practices regarding child victims and witnesses of crimes. These model laws can assist States in adapting their legislation to meet the provisions contained in the guidelines or other international instruments such as the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC).

The resource examines Mercy Corps’ best practices and lessons learned on its youth programming, including general program design and implementation. It also considers specific program areas such as economic engagement, political participation, youth-to-community connections, and youth-to-youth connections.

This resource is intended to provide guidance for children’s activities in pre-crisis, crisis, and post-crisis contexts, with particular attention to achieving justice for children at the national level. This resource includes nine guiding principles and a framework for a justice approach to child protection and child participation.

Intended for those who work with Christian Children’s Fund programs, this resource aims to strengthen child and youth involvement. It discusses preparing a child friendly enabling environment and consulting, planning and implementing programs with children and young people. The appendices provide tools and activities to engage children and youth.

Chapter 11 of this resource examines protection of persons with specific needs in a camp setting, including boys and girls, youth, women, and persons with disabilities. Each chapter includes a checklist for a camp management agency and a list of tools. This resource also considers camp issues such as participation and community involvement, protection, gender-based violence, education, and livelihoods.

This resource builds on the practices of domestic child protection systems and details UNHCR’s formal procedure for the ‘best interests determination’ (BID) of a child. This process is designed to facilitate adequate child participation without discrimination. This resource includes guidance on setting up a BID procedure, collecting information, balancing competing rights, and informing the child and follow-up measures.

This resource provides an overview of the legal standards and responsibilities to protect women and girls. It discusses issues such as displacement, prevention, reintegration, participation in peacebuilding processes, and the administration of justice during displacement for formal, traditional, and transitional mechanisms. Chapter 6 provides an overview of the international and regional legal framework. This resource is intended for UNHRC staff, both at headquarters and in the field, and protection partners.

This resource considers commitments and obligations for children’s civil rights and civic engagement in East Asia and the Pacific. It aims to strengthen children’s civil rights and provides guidance on capacities, structures, and resources needed to strengthen children’s civil rights. The annex includes a checklist to assess children’s citizenship and civil rights at the national level. This resource is intended for decision-makers at the national level and service providers to realize civil rights for children.

Arguing that formal education systems play a role in peace building, this resource provides key findings and recommendations as to how children and formal education systems should be involved in peace building. It considers fieldwork from Guatemala, Nepal, and Liberia.

Written for staff and managers of relief agencies and children’s agencies active in emergency response, this resource provides a guide for programming with children’s participation in emergencies. This resource considers: providing information for children; involving children in assessments, planning and decision making; feedback and complaint mechanisms for children; and children’s and young people’s associations in emergencies.

In addition to the Operations Manual on Children’s Participation in Consultations, this resource was developed to facilitate children’s participation in studies and meetings. This resource sets minimum standards for children’s participation in international meetings and includes criteria and procedures for each standard. These standards are intended for organizing commitments of different organizations and agencies which send children to participation in meetings.

In addition to the Minimum Standards for Consulting with Children, this resource was developed to facilitate children’s participation in studies and meetings. This operations manual includes planning and preparatory materials, selection, registration forms, briefing materials, child protection, and terms of reference for roles such as organizing committees and child protection teams.

This resource is intended to assist field practitioners responding to humanitarian emergencies in meeting standards for integrating gender issues. It offers checklists for monitoring gender equality programming and focuses on major cross-cutting issues such as camp coordination and management, education, food issues, health, livelihoods, non-food items, registration, shelter, and WASH (water, sanitation and hygiene).

This resource compiles materials on child and youth participation, including children’s participation in emergencies, conflict situations and peace building. Part four focuses on children’s involvement in political decision making, such as their role in policy analysis in National Plans of Action, Committee on the Rights of the Child, and other organizations and conferences.

This resource aims to provide guidance to program managers and researchers on collecting information from and about young people on their health and social welfare conditions, as well as those who have experienced trafficking, abuse, or displacement. It considers basic ethical principles regarding children’s participation. The annex includes a sample survey and consent form.

Using case studies from Ivory Coast, Liberia, and Sierra Leone, this resource focuses on strategies to prevent children’s recruitment in armed forces and groups. Strategies to prevent recruitment include developing targeted messages, avoiding separation, providing alternative care, schooling and skills training, and improving livelihoods. Intended to inform initiatives by governments, the UN, and non-governmental organizations, this resource also provides an overview of what constitutes voluntary and forced recruitment.

This resource establishes good practices in order ensure full respect of the rights of child victims and witnesses of crimes. These guidelines can assist governments, organizations, and professionals in designing and implementing legislation, program and practices at the national, regional, and international levels. The document emphasizes that child victims and witnesses have the right to be treated with dignity and compassion, to be protected from discrimination, to be informed, to be heard and express views and concerns, to effective assistance, to privacy, to be protected from hardship during the justice process, to safety, to repatriation, and to special preventative measures.

Intended for development practitioners, this resource examines key issues related to youth participation in violence, discusses lessons learned in developing programs for at-risk youth, and presents a range of program options. Also included are illustrative monitoring and evaluation tools and relevant USAID mechanisms and partners.

This resource presents several case studies that highlight the role of adolescent participation in community development and peacebuilding during crisis. This document also summarizes the lessons learned in each context. Case studies include: Colombia, Indonesia, Occupied Palestinian Territory, Sierra Leone, Somalia, and Uganda.

This resource considers the benefits and challenges of child participation in situations of armed conflict. Protection benefits are categorized into areas such as personal empowerment, access to services, communal identity, and psychosocial well-being. This report also considers the benefits of child participation in areas of peacebuilding, such as inter-community exchange and addressing the causes of conflict. Fieldwork for this report was conducted in eastern Sri Lanka, the Occupied Palestinian Territories, and Nepal.

Intended for staff of Save the Children, this document provides guidelines for programs related to children associated with armed groups and armed forces. The resource contains an overview of key protection issues, international standards, and Save the Children’s program experience. It also considers prevention, monitoring and reporting of recruitment and re-recruitment, challenges facing girls, and children conceived or born to girls in armed groups and armed forces.

This resource contains ICRC documents related to children affected by armed conflict. Documents include: a summary table of international humanitarian law provisions applicable to children; an overview of child protection and humanitarian assistance activities for children; and a summary of the ICRC’s communication programs for young people and mine action programs.

This resource is intended for national youth organizations and representatives working with youth to determine ways to improve lives of young people. Area 1, page 27, discusses education and vocational training; area 10, page 65, discusses actions to ensure youth participation in decision-making; area 14, page 81, discusses youth and conflict prevention. This resource also provides guidance to conducting advocacy work on page 95.

This resource provides an example of a child-friendly version of a Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) Report. Sierra Leone’s TRC was the first truth commission to produce a child-friendly report to engage children and document children’s experiences during the civil war.

This resource introduces the international framework for children and justice, including international legal protection standards and judicial and non-judicial accountability mechanisms. It takes a particular look at protection of children in times of war and use of child soldiers, as well as protection of children as victims and witnesses. In particular, it outlines the role of the International Criminal Court (ICC), as well as its relation to national justice systems. Finally, it gives some concrete recommendations on the role of children in non-judicial mechanisms like truth commissions and traditional accountability mechanisms.

This resource considers ethical issues and challenges around involving children in M&E programs given children’s right to part to participate. It provides an overview of what participation means and issues such as accountability, protection of children’s best interests, informing children, informed consent, and equity and non-discrimination. It also includes a checklist of questions for research and monitoring and evaluation managers when including child participation in research.

This resource contains recommendations from a technical meeting on children for the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) of Sierra Leone held in 2001. The report outlines guiding principles for the truth and reconciliation commission, which include psycho-social support for children and child friendly environments. The resource concludes with participating children’s views and expectations of the TRC.

This free online self-learning tool is intended for practitioners working in an area related to child victims and witnesses of crime. Registration is required.