Syria’s use of children as soldiers must be stopped

A decade ago, a US think-tank estimated that three quarters of global conflicts had child soldiers participating in them. At least 20 countries in the world, it said, were guilty of using children as soldiers. Shocking and deplorable as that is, what is more reprehensible is that 10 years on, the list of countries committing this atrocity is growing. Syria is the latest to join the disreputable lot.

The UN Special Envoy for Children and Armed Conflict, on a visit to Syria last December, reported that thousands of children have died in the violence, many as child soldiers. Though the UN has passed strong resolutions to support efforts by the Unicef, UNHCR, member states and other international bodies, who are fighting to turn back this bloodied tide by way of disarming, demobilising, rehabilitating and reintegrating children in conflict zones, the ground reality tells a different story. There seems to be no way to stop children from being sucked into the whorl of violence.

Experts have urged for ironclad laws to punish offending countries in the International Criminal Court and addressing political, social and economic factors in countries that use children as war fodder. While these may be effective, the need of the hour is to prevent children being recruited in the first place and this is where the attention and efforts by international bodies need to be focused. Mere noble sentiments and laws on paper have had their time.