This paper is published in Volume-8, Issue-1, 2022
Area
Political Science
Author
Dr. Gauri Narain Mathur
Org/Univ
Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi, Delhi, India
Pub. Date
08 February, 2022
Paper ID
V8I1-1383
Publisher
Keywords
Child Soldiers, Uganda, Armed Conflict, Reconciliation and Reintegration

Citationsacebook

IEEE
Dr. Gauri Narain Mathur. Traumas of armed conflict: a case study of child soldiers in Uganda, International Journal of Advance Research, Ideas and Innovations in Technology, www.IJARIIT.com.

APA
Dr. Gauri Narain Mathur (2022). Traumas of armed conflict: a case study of child soldiers in Uganda. International Journal of Advance Research, Ideas and Innovations in Technology, 8(1) www.IJARIIT.com.

MLA
Dr. Gauri Narain Mathur. "Traumas of armed conflict: a case study of child soldiers in Uganda." International Journal of Advance Research, Ideas and Innovations in Technology 8.1 (2022). www.IJARIIT.com.

Abstract

Children are the most endangered victims of intractable conflicts. Wherein almost 50 million children have been victim to forced displacement from their families and homes and are subjected to exploitation, forced labor as well as recruitment in the armed forces. The deployment of children as soldiers in armed conflict to commit acts of violence is a grave violation of Human Rights. Mostly these Children are recruited to wage battles and to carry out acts of violence. While the rest of them are engaged as cooks, messengers, porters, spies, and sexual slaves. It was in the year 2017 that the ‘List of Shame’ published by the UN Secretary-General include Afghanistan, Myanmar, Somalia, South Sudan, Syria, and Yemen whereby the state forces are involved in the recruitment of child soldiers. While in countries like the Democratic Republic of Congo and Myanmar nonstate actors such as Mai Mai Natura and Kachin Independence Army recruit children as soldiers respectively. According to the United Nations List of Shame, almost 43 state forces train and recruit Child Soldiers and almost 56 nonstate actors are involved in the recruitment of child soldiers. Over the span of the last five decades Uganda has undergone one of the deadliest civil wars in human history within the African continent. In this context what needs to be noted is the fact that Northern Uganda has witnessed civil war at the dawn of 1980 marked by the displacement of almost 4,00,000 people from their homes. With the establishment of Lord’s Republican Army by Joseph Kony in the year 1987 there was an unprecedented increase in the acts of violence marked by, a series of bombings taking place in Kampala. Most of the children fell prey to this civil unrest serving either as porters or fighters to Lord’s Republican Army and Allied Democratic forces. Thus, this paper seeks to examine the psychological impact and the reintegration process of Child Soldiers of Uganda.