Mapping Report > Section II. Inventory of Specific Acts of Violence > CHAPTER II. Acts of violence committed against children
The acts of violence described in Section I of this report were suffered by a very large number of children, for many reasons and in many different ways. When crimes under international law are committed against civilians, children are always affected given that they represent almost half of the population.1191 Further, they are the exclusive victims of some crimes, such as the recruitment and use of child soldiers in the hostilities and are sometimes forced to commit crimes themselves. In areas of conflict, they are often even more vulnerable because the violence wipes out their first line of defence: their parents. Even when they are not the direct victims, witnessing their parents being raped or killed, their property looted and their homes burned is deeply traumatising for them. Having to repeatedly move home makes them more vulnerable to malnutrition and disease. Their young age and their virginity make them the target of abject beliefs and superstitions, particularly the belief that sex with children can cure some illnesses or make the rapist invincible. Lastly, war generally deprives them of their right to education and thus has a lasting and negative impact on their future.1192
In 1996, Graça Machel’s study on the impact of armed conflict on children1193 showed how armed conflicts are devastating for them, injuring them physically and destroying their spirit. The horrors of war continue to affect children long after the fighting has ended, particularly because of the precarious existence of refugees and internally displaced persons (IDPs), the presence of anti-personnel mines, the destruction of infrastructure and the spread of HIV/AIDS.
Throughout the DRC as a whole, from 1993 to 2003, children were not spared the successive waves of violence that spread across the country. Quite the contrary, they were the primary victims.
Conclusion
All parties to the conflict in the DRC recruited and used CAAFAG. Between 1993 and 2003, these and other children were subjected to indescribable violence, including murder, rape, torture, cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment, forced displacements and the destruction of their villages, and were deprived of all their rights. This situation continues to this day.
At the time of writing this report, the recruitment and use of CAAFAG is still continuing. In May 2009, the Group of Experts on the DRC denounced the repeated recruitments of children, particularly forced, being conducted by the CNDP, Mayi-Mayi groups, PARECO, the FDLR and the FARDC.1321 During her visit to the DRC in April 2009, the Special Representative of the Secretary-General on children and armed conflict, Radhika Coomaraswamy, regretted the continuing impunity with regard to serious violations committed against children.1322 At the same time, parties to the conflict in the DRC were cited in the Report of the Secretary-General on children and armed conflict for the seventh year running. Representatives of 62 parents’ associations in Goma and Congolese organisations from eastern DRC took this opportunity to express their concern at the tragedy of the children in this conflict zone, particularly in terms of the sexual violence perpetrated against them, the attacks on schools and the fact that almost a generation of Congolese children had now missed out on an education.1323
Children in the DRC have suffered far too much and, if this situation is allowed to continue, there is a risk that a new generation will be created that has known nothing but violence, and violence as a means of conflict resolution, thus compromising the country’s chances of achieving lasting peace.
See also:
1191 According to the National Institute of Statistics (INS) of the DRC’s Ministry of Planning (figures from December 2006), young people under the age of 18 account for 48.5% of the population.
1192 According to the World Bank, in 2003 the DRC was one of the five countries in the world with the greatest number of children not enrolled in school. Figure quoted in: Watch List, The Impact of Armed Conflict on Children in the DRC, 2003. See also Report of the Committee on the Rights of the Child, Concluding Observations: DRC (CRC/C/COD/CO/2).
1193 Report on the impact of armed conflict on children (A/51/306), 1996.
1321 Interim Report of the Group of Experts on the DRC (S/2009/253).
1322 ”DRC: Children to be Released from Armed Forces and Groups in the East”, New York, Kinshasa, 21 April 2009, available from: http://www.un.org/children/conflict/english/drc-april-2009.html
1323 Letter from parents in Eastern DRC to the Security Council, available from: www.hrw.org/en/news/2009/04/22.
