As a part of the coalition supporting the ratification of the Protocol on the Rights of Women in Africa, Pambazuka News is profiling various aspects of the Protocol in weekly features included in the Women and Gender section of the newsletter. This week we will look at female soldiers, and the issues around the topic faced by the African continent. This is what the protocol states:
Article 11 – Protection of Women in Armed Conflicts
“States Parties shall take all necessary measures to ensure that no child, especially girls under 18 years of age, take a direct part in hostilities and that no child is recruited as a soldier.”
Further, many of the Protocol’s articles address women in conflict. The call for the integration of a gender perspective in decision-making, the enactment and enforcement of laws against physical and sexual violence, the right to peace as well as participation in the promotion and maintenance of peace – these are just a few of the provisions made for women that could be engaged in times of conflict.
While no specific policies exist with relation to women’s involvement in military operations, other policies surrounding child, and specifically girl soldiers, include the UN’s 2002 Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the Involvement of Children in Armed Conflict. It calls for the abolishment of the use of children under the age of 18 in conflict, while also raising the age of compulsory recruitment and direct participation in war to 18.
Women and children in Africa are being recruited or kidnapped by armies as porters, domestic laborers, captive wives and soldiers. If not explicitly taken by force, many of these children and women “voluntarily” join up because they can be assured shelter, clothing and food – resources they may not have access to in the conditions of civil war and conflict. Sierra Leone, Uganda, the DRC and many other nations are just some of the places where mostly non-governmental military groups are exploiting women and children in times of war. Most have experienced or witnessed physical violence, mutilation, sexual abuse, trafficking, forced displacement, destruction of homes, massacres and separation from families and communities. Many girls and women are raped, which in turn leads to pregnancy and high numbers of diseases, including HIV/AIDS. Further, the reliance on and socialisation of these young women to the military leaves many unable to think or act independently once they are released. Schooling and training needs are not met, and upon their release most have few options.
The challenges that face female soldiers upon reintegration are complex and difficult. The trauma of what they have experienced during war does not make it easy for women to return to the lives they once knew. Having transgressed normal or expected gender boundaries and traditional roles, it is often the case that these women are marginalized and ostracized once they return to their communities. If the women have been raped and have subsequently borne children, they are generally even less accepted. Finding it difficult to return to their expected ways of living, many women run the risk of losing their husbands and struggle to raise children, care for other relatives and earn a living. Many conceal their past, if this is possible, but then suffer alone.
Researched and written by Karoline Kemp, a Commonwealth of Learning Young Professional Intern with Fahamu.
Further Reading:
Reintegration of Female Soldiers - http://www.peacewomen.org/resources/DDR/AfricaBarth.html
Previous Articles:
Female Genital Mutilation - http://www.pambazuka.org/index.php?id=30050
Trafficking in Women and Children - http://www.pambazuka.org/index.php?id=29740
Female Refugees - http://www.pambazuka.org/index.php?id=29873