Child Soldiers as Agents of War and Peace: A Restorative Transitional Justice Approach to Accountability for Crimes Under International Law

ISBN-13: 9789462652002 / Angielski / Twarda / 2017 / 421 str.

Leonie Steinl

Spis treści

An Introduction to Child Soldiering, its Images, and Realities.- Child Soldiers and Non-Prosecutorial Transitional Justice.- Child Soldiers and Prosecutorial Transitional Justice.- Child Soldiers and Restorative Transitional Justice.- Summary and Conclusions.- Index

Blurb

This book deals with child soldiers’ involvement in crimes under international law.

Child soldiers are often victims of grave human rights abuses, and yet, in some cases,

they also participate actively in inflicting violence upon others. Nonetheless, the

international discourse on child soldiers often tends to ignore the latter dimension

of children’s involvement in armed conflict and instead focuses exclusively on their

role as victims.

While it might seem as though the discourse is therefore beneficial for child soldiers

as it protects them from blame and responsibility, it is important to realize that the

so-called passive victim narrative entails various adverse consequences, which can

hinder the successful reintegration of child soldiers into their families, communities

and societies. This book aims to address this dilemma. First, the available options

for dealing with child soldiers’ participation in crimes under international law, such

as transitional justice and criminal justice, and their shortcomings are analyzed in

depth. Subsequently a new approach is developed towards achieving accountability

in a child-adequate way, which is called restorative transitional justice.

This book is in the first place aimed at researchers with an interest in child soldiers,

children and armed conflict, as well as international criminal law, transitional justice,

juvenile justice, restorative justice, children’s rights, and international human rights

law. Secondly, professionals working on issues of transitional justice, juvenile justice,

international criminal law, children’s rights, and the reintegration of child soldiers

will also find the subject matter of great relevance to their practice.

Dr. Leonie Steinl, LL.M. (Columbia) is a Researcher and Lecturer at the Faculty of Law

of the Humboldt-Universität in Berlin.