Legal Status And Protection Of Children In Armed Conflict: A Study Of Adult Criminal Responsibility Under International Law
- IJLLR Journal
- 1 hour ago
- 1 min read
Nur Nahar Amin, Symbiosis Law School Hyderabad (SLSH), Hyderabad, India
ABSTRACT
The paper will analyse the legal status and protection of the children caught in the armed conflict, with the focal point being the change in the liability of the children into the responsibility of adults. The first part examines the international law of child protection, such as International Humanitarian Law, International Human Rights Law and International Criminal Law, in relation to such instruments as the Geneva Conventions, Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), its Optional Protocol, and the Rome Statute, and the formulation of the normative standards, the Paris Principles and the United Nations Security Council Resolutions. In the second section, the paper examines the attribution of criminal responsibility where the increasing identification of children as victims and the liability of adults are discussed based on the doctrine of command responsibility and judicial practice when discussing such cases as Lubanga, Bemba, and Ongwen. The third section analyses the efficacy of international and domestic responses, and points out some practical issues, such as the lack of evidence, security of child witnesses, the shortcomings of domestic responses, and other gaps in rehabilitation interventions, such as DDR, and offers a comprehensive, victim-oriented framework that integrates accountability with protection and reintegration.
Keywords: Child soldiers, armed conflict, adult responsibility, recruitment of children, command responsibility.
