OpenForum – a blog by the Health and Human Rights community

A former child soldier from Uganda, Grace Akallo, recently spoke at the UN Security Council about her experiences being abducted, sexually assaulted, and forced to fight for the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) at the age of 16. She described being sent into battle with an AK47 and forced to kill other children who attempted escape. The Security Council is now discussing using stronger methods to stop “repeat offenders” from recruiting children.

It is estimated that 250,000 children, some age 10 or younger, are currently recruited into armed conflicts around the world and used as soldiers, guards, messengers, or sex slaves. Such recruitment of children occurs most often in conflict zones such as Colombia, Democratic Republic of Congo, Uganda, and Sri Lanka. The use of child soldiers has been officially prohibited by a UN treaty ratified by 126 countries since 2002. Children in conflict areas are guaranteed special protection under the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the Worst Forms of Child Labour Convention.

It is no surprise that rehabilitating child soldiers is a difficult and lengthy process. Because of the severe trauma they suffer, children who have been in combat require extensive long-term support to be re-integrated into communities, says UNICEF spokesman James Elder. He explains that child combatants “live in a theatre of violence and suffering…Instead of hope, fear defines their childhood.” Read more

The non-profit organization, Physicians for Human Rights (PHR), published a report in January of 2009 on the cholera outbreak and related health crises in Zimbabwe. Outlining the outbreak in painful detail, the report suggests that the scope of the disaster, largely due to government mismanagement and neglect on a national scale, constitutes crimes against humanity.  PHR thoroughly examined the wide-spread public health crisis in the context of the 28 year rule of Robert Mugabe and urges further investigation and involvement from the international community and possibly the International Criminal Court.

Article 7 (1) (k) of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court describes crimes against humanity to include “other inhumane acts of a similar character intentionally causing great suffering, or serious injury to body or to mental or physical health.” Zimbabwe is not a signatory of the Rome Treaty.  However PHR asserts that crimes against humanity, as defined by the Rome Treaty, are within the bounds of customary international law. Because Zimbabwe has disregarded the epidemic and openly blocked international aid resulting in the deaths of thousands, PHR believes this constitutes a crime against humanity.

The situation in Zimbabwe dire. During August of 2008, the country saw the beginning of a cholera outbreak that the World Health Organization has categorized as “explosive.” Cholera is easily treated with fluids administered orally or intravenously while the infection runs its course. Without this simple intervention, cholera leaves its victims with severe dehydration that can lead to death. An update published by the World Health Organization on February 20, 2009 listed nearly 80,000 cases and almost 4,000 as recorded by Zimbabwe’s Ministry of Health and Child Welfare (MoHCW). The WHO did provide some encouraging data as it estimated the epidemic peaked in November of 2008. Read more