Media Release on 18 August 2005
The Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka is deeply concerned to note the dramatic increase in child recruitment by the LTTE reported from our offices in the North and East. Despite the recent Security Council Resolution on Children and Armed Conflict adopted on 26 July 2005 , and the decline in numbers of underage recruits post-tsunami, recent reports indicate that the LTTE is again recruiting significant numbers of children. At the annual session held in Geneva of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights in April of this year, the Chairperson noted that recruitment numbers had gone down. We now regret to inform the public that there has been a disturbing increase in the numbers of underage recruits.
Under International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights Law to which Sri Lanka is a party and Customary International Law the recruitment of children into armed conflict is prohibited. It is first and foremost recognised to be a violation of child rights, human rights and human dignity. Under international law, eighteen is set as the minimum age for all participation in hostilities, and any recruitment or use of children under the age of fifteen is considered a war crime. This standard is outlined in Article 38 of the 1989 Convention on the Rights of the Child, the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the Involvement of Children in Armed Conflicts, the Geneva Conventions and their Optional Protocols, and the 1999 Convention concerning the Prohibition and Immediate Action for the Elimination of the Worst Forms of Child Labour, which prohibits the forced recruitment of children under the age of eighteen for use in armed conflict as one of the worst forms of child labour.
The international commitment to ending underage recruitment was again reinforced in July 2005 with the adoption of Security Council Resolution 1612 (2005) of 26 July 2005 on children and armed conflict. The Resolution strongly condemns the recruitment and use of child soldiers by parties to armed conflict. The Resolution also recalls the responsibilities of States to end impunity and stresses the primary role of national governments in providing effective protection and relief to all children affected by armed conflict. The Resolution requests that the Secretary-General immediately implement a monitoring and reporting mechanism on the issue. The Security Council unanimously adopted the Resolution and established a Working Group to which the Mechanism will report. The Council underlined that such a mechanism, initially proposed by the Secretary-General in his report on children and armed conflict of 9 February, will collect and provide timely, objective, accurate and reliable information of the recruitment and use of child soldiers in violation of applicable international law. Additionally, it will provide information on other violations and abuses committed against children affected by armed conflict, and must operate with the participation of, and in cooperation with, national government and relevant United Nations and civil society actors. The Resolution reaffirms five previous resolutions on this subject. The previous Special Representative to the Secretary General, Mr Olara Otunno has issued a press statement declaring this to be a new era of application in combating the use of children in armed conflict.
As well as the international framework outlined above that is in place to protect the rights of the child, there have been national developments in Sri Lanka that have contributed to the protection of children and the formal commitment to ending underage recruitment. In June 2003, the GoSL and the LTTE both signed an Action Plan for Children Affected by War. The Action Plan included a commitment by the LTTE to end child recruitment, whether voluntary or through coercion.
Despite this and other promises made by the LTTE to end underage recruitment and to release those children already recruited, the Human Rights Commission is deeply concerned that documented evidence of underage recruitment has continued, and is on the rise. Reports from Regional Offices of the Commission, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), and NGOs in the North and East, point to an increase in recruitment in the last few months.
In 2005, the Human Rights Commission has received 141 reports of child recruitment at its Regional Offices of Jaffna, Vavuniya, Trincomalee, Batticaloa, and Kalmunai. Of those reports, there were at least 25 children aged 15 and under (the youngest reported to be 11 years of age).
UNICEF, as of 31 July 2005 has documented 5,081 cases of underage recruitment, (including re-recruitment following the defection of Colonel Karuna in 2004 and the release of 2,437 recruits) since the signing of the cease-fire agreement. The LTTE formally released 1,480 children to UNICEF during this time. Of the cases registered by UNICEF, 1,209 are outstanding as of July 2005. Recent reports from the East show a dramatic increase in child recruitment particularly during the temple festivals. UNICEF reports that in July, there were nearly double the numbers of reports of underage recruitment than in the month of June. There were 59 cases reported in June, whereas the numbers increased to 111 reports in July. Batticaloa in particular has seen a substantial increase in the number of reported cases, of both recruitment and re-recruitment, with 63 cases reported as compared with the18 reported cases in June.
It is not possible to know the full extent of the problem of underage recruitment. Not all parents are aware of existing reporting mechanisms and in some known cases the parents have not officially reported to the Human Rights Commission or to UNICEF due to fear of reprisal. The figures available do not therefore provide an accurate estimation of the extent of recruitment. Although the numbers are uncertain, it is clear that child recruitment is a fundamental violation of human rights and international law, and it is therefore unacceptable to have any cases at all.
In addition, the Human Rights Commission is extremely concerned to note the lack of protection for LTTE runaways who surrender to the security forces.. Children who have been released or have run away are in a vulnerable position and in need of protection. HRC has received reports that children are regularly harassed and when taken into custody, are sometimes subjected to repeated questioning and videotaping. The Human Rights Commission is also gravely concerned by the failure to determine the identity of those responsible for the events at the Bindunuwewa Rehabilitation Centre that left 27 dead and 14 injured, some seriously on 25 October 2000 . The Supreme Court of Sri Lanka decision on 27 May 2005 acquitted the four accused convicted by the Trial-at-Bar of the High Court on charges of the murder of 27 inmates and attempted murder of 14 others. The majority of the victims were children and former LTTE cadre. The police and judiciary must take all necessary steps in identifying the perpetrators of this atrocity, and bring them to justice. The Human Rights Commission has requested two leading lawyers to study the evidence in the case and to recommend a course of action.
In accordance with the Convention on the Rights of the Child, these children should be seen as “victims” and “survivors” of the conflict and must be protected and supported for return and reintegration into society. The Government of Sri Lanka must, in accordance with provisions of the relevant international conventions, take all necessary measures to provide protection and humane treatment to all children affected by armed conflict, including released child soldiers, runaways, and children who have surrendered to the police or armed forces.
The Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka, recognising the commitment of both the International Community and National actors to the comprehensive protection of children in armed conflict, calls for immediate action from all parties to end the recruitment of children to armed groups, and to effectively address the impact of armed conflict on children. To this end it is imperative that priority is given to ceasing recruitment, the return of children to their families, and to the protection and humane treatment of underage LTTE cadres who have run away or have surrendered to government forces.
In light of the serious and continuing nature of reports of underage recruitment, the Human Rights Commission will be writing to the Foreign Secretary to invite former UNICEF Deputy Executive Director Karin Sham Poo of Norway, the current acting Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Children and Armed Conflict, to conduct a visit to Sri Lanka in order to report on the progress of the Plan of Action and to submit her findings to the United Nations Security Council and all relevant parties.
End.
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