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Community Book Connection 2009 - 2010 A Long Way Gone |
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Child Soldiers 
"Since the mid-1990s, the world has watched in horror as hundreds of thousands of children and young teenagers have participated in nearly 50 wars, mostly in Africa and Asia. Children as young as 5 or 6 have served in combat, and thousands of abducted young girls were forced into sexual slavery."(from Felton, 2008)
Child soldiers. by John Felton, (2008, July 1) in C Q Global Researcher. Excellent article on child soldiers from around the world (need to use library password for off campus access).
Reports and Studies
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Cross-Cutting Report No. 1 "Children and Armed Conflict" 15 April 2009 Security Council Report
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"Child Soldiers: Global Report 2008," Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers, May 2008. A nongovernmental organization offers its latest report on the use of child soldiers, including assessments of how well the United Nations and others are combating the problem.
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"Children in Conflict: Eradicating the Child Soldier Doctrine," The Carr Center for Human Rights Policy, Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, The center recommends international action to combat the use of child soldiers.
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"Getting It Done and Doing It Right - Global Study on the Implementation of the UN-led Monitoring and Reporting Mechanism (MRM)", Watchlist on Children and Armed Conflict, January 2008. A watchdog group critiques the U.N. Security Council's system of monitoring the impact of armed conflict on children, including child soldiers.
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"The Consequences of Child Soldiering" by Chris Blattmann, an Assistant Professor of Political Science and Economics at Yale.
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"Children and Armed Conflict. Next Steps Towards Ending Violations Against Children." January 2008. Watchlist on Children and Armed Conflict. The watchdog group recommends that the U.N. Security Council take tougher measures against those who continue to use child soldiers.
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"Soldiers of Misfortune: Abusive U.S. Military Recruitment and Failure to Protect Child Soldiers," American Civil Liberties Union, May 2008. A civil rights organization critiques U.S. policies toward the use of child soldiers, including voluntary recruitment of teenagers under 18 and detention of under-18-year-old alleged terrorists by the military.
U.N. Reports:
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Reports by the Office of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict
from the U.N. Security Council. "Children Affected by conflict" - The international standards and norms demonstrates the remarkable commitment of the international community to child protection in armed conflict. Includes groups in countries around the world that continue to use child soldiers.
Web sites:
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Africa Recovery (2001) The road from soldier back to child
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NOW with Bill Moyers (2003) Survivors: Portraits of Children and War
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UN web site – very student friendly on what is going on in African countries such as Sierra Leone; includes voices of children as well as clips.
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Children and Armed Conflict "CHILDREN AFFECTED BY CONFLICT" - UN site on children and armed conflict examines political responses to this issue; this site will provide a nice extension for fields of education and humanity.
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Forced to Flee: Uganda's Young "Night Commuters" International Rescue Committee; this links to the same issue of children soldiers in Uganda.
Other Books on Child Soldiers:
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Briggs, Jimmie, Innocents Lost: When Child Soldiers Go to War, Basic Books, 2005. A New York journalist provides first-hand reports about child soldiers in Afghanistan, Colombia, Sri Lanka and Uganda.
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Rosen, David M., Armies of the Young: Child Soldiers in War and Terrorism, Rutgers University Press, 2006. An American anthropologist examines legal and political issues surrounding the use of child soldiers.
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Singer, P. W., Children at War, University of California Press, 2006. A senior fellow at the Brookings Institution provides a comprehensive overview of the use of child soldiers.
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Wessells, Michael, Child Soldiers: From Violence to Protection, Harvard University Press, 2006. A professor of psychology at Randolph-Macon College examines issues involving child soldiers, drawing on his own three decades of experiences reintegrating former child soldiers into their former communities.