Guns Are Not Toys: International Criminal Justice and The Protection of Children in Armed Conflict

Abstract

This paper examines the issue of child soldiers in the context of international law, with a particular emphasis on international criminal law. This paper canvasses the range of international humanitarian law, human rights law and international criminal law that has developed as a result of the increase in efforts to prohibit the recruitment and use of children in armed conflict. This paper then goes on to analyse the application of child soldier provisions in the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court with consideration of jurisprudence from the Special Court for Sierra Leone. The paper concludes by emphasising the need for the Rome Statute provisions to be given wide application, as consistent with the concerted international effort to eliminate the exploitation of children in armed conflict.