Keywords
law
Philippines
policies
child
soldier
war
Abstract
There is a great amount of international attention directed towards the recruitment and involvement of children in armed conflict. In response to this, Philippine legislators have passed laws to assist and protect these children. However, most of these are not reflective of the reality of children and may even further disadvantage them. This paper explores international and national policies directed towards children in armed conflict through the perspective of children’s rights. It aims to paint a more realistic and rights-oriented approach towards the understanding of children in armed conflict. The importance of this not only rests on the growing amount of international attention directed towards this issue, but more importantly, because doing so promotes efforts in fulfilling the fundamental rights of children.
References
Al Jazeera English Youtube Channel. 2018. “Philippines: ISIL-linked Maute Group Recruiting Children in Marawi.” Al Jazeera. Retrieved 10 April, 2019 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pbzEZvw2Tho).
Al Jazeera News 2017. “Hundreds of MILF Child Soldiers Released in the Philippines.” Al Jazeera News. Retrieved 10 April, 2019 (https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2017/03/hundreds-milf-child-soldiers-released-philippines-170311064133681.html).
Barrete, Reuben James. 2017. “Children as Combatants in the Philippines.” Rappler. Retrieved 10 April, 2019 (https://www.rappler.com/thought-leaders/174075-children-combatants-philippines).
Barrete, Reuben James & Luke Lischin. 2017. “Philippine Insurgents Making Soldiers of Children, Thanks to Widespread Alienation.” South China Morning Post. Retrieved April 2019 (https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2113175/philippine-insurgents-making-soldiers-children-thanks).
Bosch, Shannon. 2012. “Targeting and Prosecuting ‘Under-aged’ Child Soldiers in International Armed Conflicts, in Light of the International Humanitarian Law Prohibition Against Civilian Direct Participation in Hostilities.” The Comparative and International Law Journal of Southern Africa 45(3):324–364.
Cepeda, Mara. 2019. “House Approves Bill Requiring ROTC for Grades 11, 12.” Rappler. Retrieved 10 April, 2019 (https://www.rappler.com/nation/231111-house-3rdreading-mandatory-rotc-senior-high-school-students).
De Berry, Jo. 2001. “Child Soldiers and the Convention on the Rights of the Child.” The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 575: 2–105.
Denov, Myriam. 2008. “Girl Soldiers and Human Rights: Lessons from Angola, Mozambique, Sierra Leone, and Northern Uganda.” The International Journal of Human Rights 12(5): 813–836.
De Silva, Harendra., Chris Hobbs, and Helga Hanks. 2001. “Conscription of Children in Armed Conflict—A Form of Child Abuse.” Child Abuse Review 10: 125–134.
Dickson-Gomez, Julia. 2003. “Growing Up in Guerilla Camps: The Long-Term Impact of Being a Child Soldier in El Salvador’s Civil War.” Ethos 30(4): 327–356.
Druba, Volker. 2002. “The Problem of Child Soldiers.” International Review of Education 48(3-4): 271–277.
Fonbuena, Carmela. 2017. “I Met a Former Maute Soldier. He’s a Child.” Rappler. Retrieved 10 April 2019 (https://www.rappler.com/newsbreak/in-depth/172587-maute-child-soldiers-marawi).
Grover, Sonja. 2008. “‘Child Soldiers’ as ‘Non-Combatants’: The Inapplicability of the Refugee Convention Exclusion Clause.” International Journal of Human Rights 12(1): 63–66.
Harris, Malcolm. 2015. “When a Child Goes to War.” Aeon. Retrieved 10 April 2019 (https://aeon.co/essays/is-the-child-soldier-anything-more-than-a-tragic-victim).
Hart, Jason. 2006. “The Politics of ‘Child Soldiers’.” The Brown Journal of World Affairs 13(1): 217–226.
International Committee of the Red Cross. 2010. Protocols Additional to the Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949.
Matsuzawa, Mikas. 2017. “Marawi Crisis: What We Know—and Don’t Know—So Far.” Philstar. Retrieved 10 April 2019 (https://www.philstar.com/headlines/2017/05/29/1703153/marawi-crisis-what-we-knowand-dont-knowso-far).
The Republic of the Philippines 1974. Presidential Decree No. 603, The Child and Youth Welfare Code.
The Republic of the Philippines. 2018. Republic Act 11188 of 2018.
Tan, Lara. 2017. “PH Military Exercising Caution Vs. Maute Child Soldiers in Marawi.” CNN Philippines. Retrieved 10 April 2019 (https://cnnphilippines.com/news/2017/07/10/Marawi-Maute-child-soldiers.html).
UNICEF. 2019. “Law Protecting Child Soldiers a Victory for the Philippines.” UNICEF. Retrieved 10 April 2019 (https://www.unicef.org/philippines/press-releases/law-protecting-child-soldiers-victory-philippines-unicef).
UNICEF. 1997. Cape Town Principles and Best Practices.
UNICEF. 2007. The Paris Principles.
Remitio, R. 2017. “Nearly Half of Remaining Maute Fighters in Marawi are Children.” CNN Philippines. Retrieved April 2019 (http://nine.cnnphilippines.com/news/2017/08/27/maute-fighters-marawi-children.html).
Rosen, David M. 2005. Armies of the Young: Child Soldiers in War and Terrorism. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press.
Rosen, David M. 2007. “Child Soldiers, International Humanitarian Law, and the Globalization of Childhood.” American Anthropologist 109(2): 296–306.
Wessells, Michael G. 1998. “Children, Armed Conflict, and Peace.” Journal of Peace Research 35(5): 635–646.
License
Manuscript authors are responsible for obtaining copyright permissions for any copyrighted materials included within manuscripts. The authors must provide permission letters, when appropriate, to the Society Register Editors.
In addition, all published papers in Society Register are published under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 Unported License.
1.1 The Author hereby warrants that he/she is the owner of all the copyright and other intellectual property rights in the Work and that, within the scope of the present Agreement, the paper does not infringe the legal rights of another person. The owner of the copyright work also warrants that he/she is the sole and original creator thereof and that is not bound by any legal constraints in regard to the use or sale of the work.
1.2. The Publisher warrants that is the owner of the PRESSto platform for open access journals, hereinafter referred to as the PRESSto Platform.
2. The Author grants the Publisher non-exclusive and free of charge license to unlimited use worldwide over an unspecified period of time in the following areas of exploitation:
2.1. production of multiple copies of the Work produced according to the specific application of a given technology, including printing, reproduction of graphics through mechanical or electrical means (reprography) and digital technology;
2.2. marketing authorisation, loan or lease of the original or copies thereof;
2.3. public performance, public performance in the broadcast, video screening, media enhancements as well as broadcasting and rebroadcasting, made available to the public in such a way that members of the public may access the Work from a place and at a time individually chosen by them;
2.4. inclusion of the Work into a collective work (i.e. with a number of contributions);
2.5. inclusion of the Work in the electronic version to be offered on an electronic platform, or any other conceivable introduction of the Work in its electronic version to the Internet;
2.6. dissemination of electronic versions of the Work in its electronic version online, in a collective work or independently;
2.7. making the Work in the electronic version available to the public in such a way that members of the public may access the Work from a place and at a time individually chosen by them, in particular by making it accessible via the Internet, Intranet, Extranet;
2.8. making the Work available according to appropriate license pattern CC BY-NC 4.0 as well as another language version of this license or any later version published by Creative Commons.
3. The Author grants the Publisher permission to reproduce a single copy (print or download) and royalty-free use and disposal of rights to compilations of the Work and these compilations.
4. The Author grants the Publisher permission to send metadata files related to the Work, including to commercial and non-commercial journal-indexing databases.
5. The Author represents that, on the basis of the license granted in the present Agreement, the Publisher is entitled and obliged to:
5.1. allow third parties to obtain further licenses (sublicenses) to the Work and to other materials, including derivatives thereof or compilations made, based on or including the Work, whereas the provisions of such sub-licenses will be the same as with the Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0) Creative Commons sub-license or another language version of this license, or any later version of this license published by Creative Commons;
5.2. make the Work available to the public in such a way that members of the public may access the Work from a place and at a time individually chosen by them, without any technological constraints;
5.3. appropriately inform members of the public to whom the Work is to be made available about sublicenses in such a way as to ensure that all parties are properly informed (appropriate informing messages).
6. Because of the royalty-free provision of services of the Author (resulting from the scope of obligations stipulated in the present Agreement), the Author shall not be entitled to any author’s fee due and payable on the part of the Publisher (no fee or royalty is payable by the Publisher to the Author).
7.1. In the case of third party claims or actions for indemnity against the Publisher owing to any infractions related to any form of infringement of intellectual property rights protection, including copyright infringements, the Author is obliged to take all possible measures necessary to protect against these claims and, when as a result of legal action, the Publisher, or any third party licensed by the Publisher to use the Work, will have to abandon using the Work in its entirety or in part or, following a court ruling in a legal challenge, to pay damages to a third party, whatever the legal basis
7.2. The Author will immediately inform the Publisher about any damage claims related to intellectual property infringements, including the author’s proprietary rights pertaining to a copyrighted work, filed against the Author. of liability, the Author is obliged to redress the damage resulting from claims made by third party, including costs and expenditures incurred in the process.
7.3. To all matters not settled herein provisions of the Polish Civil Code and the Polish Copyright and Related Rights Act shall apply.