Sierra Leone: The Road to Childhood Ruination through Forced Recruitment of Child Soldiers and the World's Failure to Act
![handle is hein.journals/regjil2 and id is 85 raw text is: SIERRA LEONE:
THE ROAD TO CHILDHOOD RUINATION THROUGH
FORCED RECRUITMENT OF CHILD SOLDIERS AND
THE WORLD'S FAILURE TO ACT
Aubrey F. Mitchell, III *
I. INTRODUCTION
The United Nations Children's Fund estimates more than 5,400
children have been forced to fight in Sierra Leone, ranking it as one of
the worst places in the world to be a child.' Mr. Olara Otunnu, Special
Representative for Children, and Kofi Annan, Armed Conflict to the
United Nations Secretary General stated, [t]he international
community has done well in terms of developing and elaborating
norms, standards and rules against the use of child soldiers. But where
we have not been effective is their application on the ground. Words
on paper do not save a child in war.,'2 Secretary General Annan
denounced the practice of using child soldiers and proclaimed that
their use must be recognized as intolerable.3 These are strong words,
but actions speak louder than words. As the Secretary indicated, there
has not been much action.
The U.N. Security Council adopted Resolution 1379 (2001) in an
effort to address the involvement of as many as 300,000 children in
armed conflicts throughout at least fifty countries.4 While the
Resolution expresses the importance of action, it stops short of
L.L.M. candidate, George Washington University Law School; J.D., Regent
University School of Law, 2003; M.B.A., University of Virginia, Colgate-Darden
Graduate School of Business Administration, 1985; Commander, Naval Air Systems
Command, Naval Acquisition Contracting Officer Program, 1982; B.S., North
Carolina State University, 1975.
1 Norimitsu Onishi, Children of War in Sierra Leone Try to Start Over, N.Y.
TIMES, May 9, 2002, at A14.
2 Id.
3 Id.
4 Bruce Zagaris, UN Security Council Adopts Resolution on Protecting
Children During Armed Conflict, INT'L ENFORCEMENT L. REP, May 2002, Vol. 18,
No. 5; U.N. SCOR, 56th Sess., 4423rd mtg., Res. 1379 at UN Doc. S/Res/1379
(2001).](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.journals/regjil2&div=7&collection=&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)
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Sierra Leone: The Road to Childhood Ruination through Forced Recruitment of Child Soldiers and the World's Failure to Act
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