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| --globalsecurity.org |
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| --IRIN |
Sudan's Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) is the latest in a series of military groups to ban the conscription, recruitment, and use of child soldiers. On September 17, the rebel group issued an order banning the practice in accordance with international law. The order includes a demobilization of all child soldiers currently serving in the JEM military.
JEM's order is not an isolated incident. Governments, militias, and rebel groups have been issuing such orders in growing numbers. The government of Myanmar signed a similar agreement on June 27, and Somalia's Transitional Federal Government on July 3.
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Lubanga on trial in the Hague
--amsterdamnews |
These acts follow the March 14 conviction of Thomas Lubanga by the International Criminal Court (ICC). Congolese warlord and founder of the Union of Congolese Patriots (UPC), Lubanga was found guilty on charges of conscription, recruitment, and use of child soldiers as part of his rebel group in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The Lubanga trial, the ICC's first conviction in its 10 year existence, sent a strong message to military leaders who would use children as part of their military campaigns--a message that they would be held accountable for their actions.
JEM's latest announcement, as well as those in Somalia and Myanmar, are clear signs that the ICC message got through. Prosecution and justice for these crimes is no longer an abstract, symbolic, or distant affair. It is real and it has arrived. When the ICC was established, its supporters believed that by holding international criminals accountable, they could deter future atrocities. This certainly seems to be the case.
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