In a Landmark Move, Darfur Rebels Agree to Protect Children

In what could be a vital step toward improving the welfare of children in Darfur, a Sudanese rebel group has signed a deal with the United Nations — agreeing to leave children out of its warfare.

Will this move actually stop the use of child soldiers in Darfur? Though there's certainly cause for skepticism, there's also no doubt that it's an extraordinary step in the right direction.

This ground-breaking agreement is the culmination of two years of negotiations between UNICEF — the UN's agency on children — and the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM), one of the two rebel groups that began fighting the Sudanese government in 2003.  As part of the deal, JEM agrees to “actively support UNICEF work on the protection and well-being of children affected by the conflict in Darfur.” The group has committed to stopping the recruitment and use of child soldiers, to hand over any children under 18 currently associated with the group to UNICEF and allow UNICEF unimpeded access to all JEM bases to verify compliance with the agreement. The group also agrees to put an end to the killing and maiming of children and to stop sexual violence against them.

In Darfur, child soldiers are often recruited or abducted from refugee camps or their homes, or lured to rebel groups with the promise of food and water. Without positive alternatives such as school, children become dependent on the armed forces. They are made to commit serious crimes, taught to kill, rape and plunder and — as a method of mind control — are often forced by rebel leaders to hurt their own family members or other child soldiers.

Though JEM claims that it has been trying to protect children all these years, an estimated 6,000 children (some as young as 11 years old) have been involved in Darfur's fighting since the conflict's onset, and JEM has often been singled out as the main offender. Yet leaders of the group who traveled to Geneva to sign the deal said that the movement has no child soldiers in its ranks, though they declared they'd sign the agreement as a measure of goodwill.

This is not the first time the UN has cut a deal with an armed group in Sudan. Around 2006, the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA), involved in the north-south conflict in southern Sudan, acknowledged its use of child soldiers and made commitments to end the recruitment and use of children. The national unity government made similar concessions around the same time, allowing UNICEF to monitor Sudan Armed Forces (SAF) camps and criminalizing the recruitment of child soldiers. Though the deals weren't able to eliminate the use of child soldiers in that particular conflict, they did raise the issue's international profile. It was a moment that demonstrated that in the midst of war, even the staunchest of opponents could agree on the rights of children.

That's why Radhika Coomaraswamy, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict, praises this agreement, calling it the first major toward a much larger goal. But as she adds, “For these commitments to have a real impact for children, they must be honoured, enhanced and fully implemented.” In the fight to make Darfur's conflict more humane, this is just a start.

Photo Credit: bixentro