Armed conflicts constantly violate the rights of children. Among the many situations to which they are exposed, minors run the risk of being victims of trafficking, even in periods of transition, as revealed by a pioneering United Nations study: Child Trafficking and Armed Conflicts.
Trafficking in children during conflict takes many forms and has different exploitative purposes. There are six serious violations that girls and boys trapped in a war face: recruitment and use in combat or for support functions, murder and mutilation, rape and other forms of sexual violence such as sexual slavery or marriage. children, kidnapping, attacks on schools and hospitals and denial of access to humanitarian aid. Furthermore, all too often in armed conflicts, minors are punished, stigmatized or neglected, rather than being recognized as victims, with the right to protection, recovery and reintegration.
The document emphasizes that child trafficking is a strategy used by parties to armed conflicts to control and terrorize communities, as well as to support and sustain conflicts. The risk also exists in transition periods (between war and peace). This phenomenon can destabilize peacebuilding and destroy progress towards sustainable peace.
The contingencies of child trafficking are deeply related to gender. Girls are more frequently subjected to sexual exploitation and child marriage. Children are more likely to be recruited for use in hostilities. The document also warns that trafficking in men for sexual exploitation is under-reported and often invisible.
Likewise, it reveals the existence of a large gap in policies and practices on the protection of girls and boys in armed conflicts. Generally, little attention has been paid to this phenomenon and almost nothing has been done to prevent it. Nor have great efforts been made to ensure that the people involved in these crimes are held accountable before Justice. Which further contributes to the persistence of circles of impunity.
This lack of explicit protection of minors against trafficking is due to several reasons. Among them, it is worth noting the absence of an explicit and independent reference to this phenomenon in the mandates of international organizations, which prevents the monitoring of these situations and the preparation of independent reports on them. Likewise, fragmentation, isolation and gaps in the interpretation and application of international law (which lacks specific mechanisms to prosecute this crime) and humanitarian law contribute to this. Also added is the lack of an explicit definition of trafficking in minors and how it is applied in conflict situations.
The lack of guarantees in the early identification of minor victims of trafficking and their referral to receive assistance and protection also favors the non-punishment of this crime. Age verification procedures as part of the evaluation of children, the scarcity of records and birth certificates or the absence of identity documents contribute to these minors becoming invisible and being forgotten by States, international organizations or NGOs, denying them their access to protection and assistance.
The lack of means to investigate these crimes means that in most cases the perpetrators go unpunished. Furthermore, on many occasions minors are blamed as associates and collaborators of armed groups or criminal circles, especially those between 15 and 18 years of age, instead of treating them as what they truly are. : victims.
In countries in the Lake Chad basin, Libya, Sudan, South Sudan, Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Somalia, Northern Mozambique or in the Sahel, trafficking of minors is common due to the conflicts there.
For all this, it is necessary to take concrete measures to prevent the trafficking of minors in situations of conflict and in which they are seen as victims and not as accomplices. For this, early identification is essential. In addition to their access to help programs that allow them to overcome the traumas suffered and reintegrate into their communities.
However, this does not seem to be a problem that occupies the first lines of the agendas of the different countries and, until now, no serious political will has been detected to reverse the condition of these girls and boys, beyond the declarations of goodwill.
Above, a newly released child soldier during a child soldier liberation ceremony in Yambio, South Sudan, on February 7, 2018. Photo: Stefanie Glinski/Getty.
