In February ‘07 the government signed up to the Paris commitments that protect children from unlawful recruitment into either the armed force or armed groups. Also included were demobilizing and reintegrating child soldiers in a programme sponsored by France and UNICEF. The document was followed in September ‘07 by the arrival of United Nations Mission in the Central African Republic and Chad (MINURCAT) to help uphold those principles. However due to underfunding, extreme poverty, continued instability and to an extent a lack of political and military will, the programme failed. And through the request of the Chadian government, who wanted to take over the responsibility of civilians on its territory, MINURCAT left the region at the end of ‘10.

Amnesty International is fearful that this action could see further recruitment of child soldiers in conflicts in the east of the country. The organization also believes that the amnesty called for by President Idriss Deby Itno is dangerously dismissive of accountability for severe human rights crimes that have been committed by individuals in the recruitment and use of child soldiers. Indeed the United Front for Democratic Change’s (FUC) continued recruitment of children indicate an amnesty from prosecution, and is not beneficial in the prevention of further abuses of children’s rights.

The use of child soldiers had been fairly common both by armed groups and local commanders of the ANT. But with the arrival of as many as 260,000 people fleeing Darfur including 162,000 children to the region from ‘03 added to the vast number of internally displaced people (IDPs) in the region, refugee or displacement camps have become fertile recruiting grounds for armed groups due to their lack of protection, education, employment opportunities and the fact that many of the children would have lost families and loved ones in the fighting. This has resulted in the dramatic escalation in the number of child soldiers being recruited over the last six years.

All these conditions make children ideal recruitment to armed groups. And in many cases this is done voluntarily out of fear, and the desire for protection, hate and the possibility of earning money, not through any wage but through taking things from the enemy. Armed groups such as the FUC are reported to have more than 25% of its fighters made up of children, and its recruitment of children has continued despite signing a peace deal with the government in ‘06.

Unfortunately it is not just the armed groups that use child soldiers and exploit their fear for recruitment. A community elder describes how the ANT plays on this fear and instability for the purposes of army recruitment. ‘The government asked them (the young men under 18 in the IDP site) to join the ANT and protect our community. The recruiters even came here to this site. They said that they were going to take them for 45 days of military training and then ask them to return to protect us. Instead, they took them to Moussoro for nine months of military training and then sent them to Bahai, Fada and other locations.’ The official line of the ANT is that it will only accept recruits aged 18 or over, which it says has been the case since ‘78. One humanitarian worker in Abéché says it is still common to see children in military cars and pick-ups. It is widely accepted that some local commanders simply do not listen to the policy taken by the top and there isn’t the resources available to prevent it.

Tensions between the Chadian and Sudanese governments do not help matters. Both regimes have previously accused the other of supporting armed opposition groups in their respective territories. Most notably in the last few years since the breakout of conflict in Darfur, Chad has supported the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) the rebel Sudanese group who recruit child refugees from Darfur in eastern Chad. The Sudanese government has supported Janjawid militia, who create instability in the region attacking different ethnic groups, along with various other Chadian opposition armed groups. Tensions have recently eased and in January ‘10 the two governments agreed to not allow armed opposition groups to use their respective territories as bases and to put in place a joint force of 3,000 troops to patrol their common border. This has seen a drastic decrease in the numbers of JEM recruitment forces operating in east Chad refugee camps. But it remains to be seen how long lasting these friendlier relations will be, and how active and effective it will be in combating the recruitment of children by various armed groups.

On top of calling for an immediate end of the use of child soldiers by all Chadian and Sudanese armed groups as well the Chadian army. Amnesty international has also called on the international community to provide more support for the Chadian government in terms of increased access to secondary education, vocational education and improved employment opportunities for child soldiers as part of the reintegration programme.

Rights advocacy group amnesty international (AI) has decried the decision of the African Union not to cooperate with the international criminal court over the warrant of arrest issued for Sudan’s President Omar al-Bashir.

Erwin van der Borght, AI Africa director said:  ‘This decision by the African Union member states shows a disdain for those in Darfur who suffered gross human rights violation and makes a mockery of the AU as an international body. By supporting a wanted person accused of war crimes and crimes against humanity, it undermines the credibility of states who are party to the Rome Statute and the AU as a whole’.

AI says the resolution, adopted at the end of the 13^th African Union summit of heads of states and government assembly held in Libya would violate the obligations of African states parties to the Rome Statute to cooperate with the Court (article 86).

This includes the obligation to cooperate in the execution of arrest warrants. Africa played a leading – indeed, decisive – role in 1998 in the establishment of the ICC.  Thirty African states have ratified the Rome Statute of the international criminal court (Rome Statute) so far.
African states strongly supported the creation of the ICC as a court of last resort to ensure that African victims of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes receive justice and reparations whenever states were unable and unwilling to investigate and prosecute such crimes.

Three African states, the Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Uganda referred situations in their own countries to the ICC on the ground that they were not able to investigate and prosecute such crimes. A fourth country, Côte d’Ivoire, has recognized the ICC’s jurisdiction to investigate and prosecute crimes in its territory or by its citizens abroad.