INTRODUCTION

This chapter examines the ability of the South African Constitutional Court to apply economic and social rights (ESR) and whether the constitutionalization of ESR represents a mechanism capable of entrenching a substantive or ‘thick’ conception of the rule of law. After apartheid, South Africa adopted an impressive Constitution which considers international law and justiciable human rights as pillars of the new democracy. The negotiators of the new constitutional framework acknowledged that the decades of economic and social exclusion of a large proportion of South Africa's population had to end if the rule of law was to be established in a meaningful way. A mere retraction of discriminatory laws and an adherence to a formal (‘thin’) notion of the rule of law was viewed as insufficient to break with the abusive past of the apartheid era. Instead, the drafters adopted a ‘thick’ account of the rule of law. The aspiration of this substantive conception of the rule of law is characterized by the commitment to the values enshrined in South Africa's Bill of Rights, including justiciable economic and social rights. The preamble of the 1996 South African Constitution states that the country modified its constitutional framework in order to ‘[h]eal the divisions of the past and establish a society based on democratic values, social justice and fundamental human rights.’

The present volume studies the effects of empowering domestic courts to apply international legal principles after countries emerge from conflict or oppressive rule. South Africa is an example of an attempt to empower domestic courts to consider international law. Perhaps even more importantly, South Africa is an example of a domestification of the international rule of law: whereas the previous Constitutions of 1910, 1961, and 1983 had no bill of rights, the drafters of the current, 1996 Constitution made a deliberate effort to harmonize the new Bill of Rights with international law. The reliance on international human rights norms was not confined to civil and political rights, but the 1996 Constitution includes a wide range of justiciable socio-economic rights and adopts language from the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) and from General Comments of the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (‘the UN Committee’).

INTRODUCTION

Memories of the conflict in Bosnia are still fresh for those studying post-conflict nations and their rehabilitation efforts. With these efforts to restore peace and order, the common lingua franca of rule of law is actively engaged, including a multitude of actors, goals, and perceived operational successes. In the context of Bosnia, one of the clearest examples of formalizing and establishing the rule of law or, perhaps more accurately, the International Rule of Law (IRL), was facilitated with the creation of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY). The ICTY was mandated to ‘bring to justice those responsible for serious violations of international humanitarian law committed in the former Yugoslavia since 1991 and thus contribute to the restoration and maintenance of peace in the region.’ Concurrent with this international initiative, the local courts in Bosnia were tasked with trying ‘less serious’ war crimes cases.

With the closure of the ICTY, the ability of Bosnian courts to prosecute war crimes cases will become a major manifestation of this IRL implementation because they will be the only ones engaged in these prosecutions. Thus, the ability of local courts to prosecute war crimes and their compliance with international law and general standards of fairness represents a tangible way of assessing the impact of IRL in a post-conflict society and highlights potential problems in its implementation. The work of local courts is also illustrative of the process of re-strengthening the domestic rule of law by the introduction of international legal oversight and international legal institutions. For example, the Office of the High Representative (OHR) was appointed to help focus the number of courts, their locations, jurisdiction, and ethnic balance.

Post-conflict adjudication systems must account for factors outside of structural and rule of law implementation mechanisms, and acknowledge that the post-conflict restructuring efforts must be comprehensive and account for economic, sociological, historical, cultural, and anthropological aspects of the society in question. For the implementation of the rule of law is hindered not only by legal procedural and substantive issues, but by larger political and social limitations.

INTRODUCTION

The degree of social, economic, and psychological damage caused to Nepalese society by the armed conflict between the government and the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) during 1996–2006 is yet to be fully measured. However, there are some indicators. The armed conflict is said to have claimed more than 13,000 Nepali lives and about 1,500 people were involuntarily disappeared and thousands remain displaced. There were several other serious violations of human rights, including widespread practice of torture and use of child soldiers. The Comprehensive Peace Accord (CPA), signed in November 2006, formally ended the armed conflict. It paved the way for the promulgation of the Interim Constitution and election for the Constituent Assembly. However, the Constituent Assembly failed to meet the two-year deadline to promulgate a new constitution in May 2010, and extended its tenure for one more year. A political impasse has contributed to the failure of the Constituent Assembly to select the Premier in its Parliamentary capacity and it has further delayed the constitution drafting process. Ultimately, it has also delayed the formation and implementation of a comprehensive post-conflict justice scheme for Nepal.

At the time of writing, Nepal faces many complex challenges for the consolidation of the rule of law that was brought to its lowest ebb during the conflict, and for the establishment of a stable democratic regime. For this purpose, among other things, it is necessary to deal with the human rights violations committed during the armed conflict. Even after the end of the conflict, the failure of the Nepalese state system to prevent or end the culture of impunity perpetuated during the armed conflict has not been ameliorated, and nor have the provisions of the CPA relating to the post-conflict justice measures aimed at remedying past abuses been implemented. Among the reasons for the difficulty facing the domestic legal system in dealing with past human rights abuses may be the absence of a strong legal framework and the role for the principle of legality in dealing with past cases (prohibition of retroactive application of the law).

INTRODUCTION

When the long and brutal war in Bosnia and Herzegovina finally ended in 1995 with the conclusion of the Dayton Peace Agreement (DPA), the country was in tatters. One of the many challenges facing post-war Bosnia was the establishment of a legal system based on the rule of law. This (re)building, from a human rights perspective, was characterised by three particular features. First, the key normative framework was the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), with which the Bosnian legal system was not familiar at all. Secondly, that treaty was not particularly geared towards the specific conflict-related problems Bosnia was facing, such as large-scale displacement and expropriation. Thirdly, the judiciary itself had, just as most of the power structures within the country, become divided along ethnic lines as a result of the war. Many citizens did not think of the country's courts as being impartial or independent.

In order to tackle these problems a sui generis court was created as part of the DPA: the Bosnian Human Rights Chamber. The Chamber was, in the first place, meant to cement effective supervision of the warring parties’ new human rights obligations into the Bosnian state structure. In practice, however, it also served a second function: the Chamber became a judicial translator of norms in applying general international human rights law, preponderantly the ECHR, in a tailormade fashion to the particular Bosnian post-conflict context. Its case law and practice in many ways incrementally embedded those external, international norms in the domestic legal order. The very existence of a new human rights institution and the direct applicability of international norms could, moreover, serve as points of connection for domestic judges and officials who were willing to strengthen the rule of law.

As a mixed institution, with both domestic and international elements, the Bosnian Human Rights Chamber provides a revealing case study on the ways in which international law can be applied nationally in post-conflict states. In order to assess how the Chamber inserted the legal Fremdkörper of international human rights in Bosnian practice, this chapter will look at how the Chamber interpreted and applied several substantive ECHR rights: the protection of property and housing rights.

INTRODUCTION

This chapter focuses on the jurisprudence of courts in liberated territories concerning the laws and administrative acts promulgated and applied by the occupying power. These courts must balance the international legality test against the adverse effects that the enforcement of international law could have on the local population and the returning government. As we show, national courts in the aftermath of occupation tend to attach higher priority to the transitional needs of their societies, and this could lead them, in cases of conflict, to downplay questions of international legality.

Our observations suggest that the need to respect legitimate expectations of individual parties has prompted some courts to validate transactions that were conducted in accordance with the occupant's orders even when such orders exceeded the limits that international law placed on the occupant's regulatory power. Moreover, there is some indication that the commitment of national courts to the processes of national reconciliation and the reshaping of national identity may also be stronger than their commitment to enforcing international law. Finally, considerations concerning the courts’ own reputation may also lead them to downplay the international legality test.

The ‘transitional bias’ of post-occupation courts which prefer transitional considerations over enforcing international law usually benefits domestic constituencies and local institutions. Obviously, however, this bias also reduces the effectiveness of the strictures of the law of occupation: future occupants would realize that their illegal measures would nevertheless be respected by the returning sovereign's courts, whereas appropriate legal measures might be ignored. While the ‘transitional bias’ is perfectly understandable, we argue that courts should nevertheless explicitly invoke this bias in their reasoning, thereby doing justice in a particular case while at the same time refining and developing the ex ante obligations of the occupants. One such example of retaining a distinction between the ex ante legality of the occupant's measures and the ex post validity of their outcomes was demonstrated by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) 1971 Advisory Opinion concerning the South African rule in Namibia. The so-called ‘Namibia Exception’ recognizes the need to respect legitimate expectations that are based on illegitimate legislation.

In order to appreciate the challenges faced by national courts in postoccupation periods, and to explore strategies they adopt in response to those challenges, this chapter examines several judicial decisions delivered in different post-occupation situations.

INTRODUCTION

In the process of empowering domestic institutions, particularly the judiciary, the use of international law is often perceived as a means of stabilizing the legal order, contributing to the protection of fundamental rights, and protecting the separation of powers. Legal scholarship which scrutinizes situations of postconflict reconstruction of legal systems often assumes implicitly, or even expressly, that reliance on international law as the source of substantive norms and processes is beneficial to the domestic system because international law imposes a more stringent standard for protection of human rights than domestic law does. However, international law operates at various levels and in various contexts, and in some of them it may have a destabilizing effect on the domestic system. Moreover, courts are often perceived as the guarantors of the application of international law, shielding individuals from the excesses of government. Yet, in practice, courts no less than other institutions may abuse their power, and such abuse carries particular weight as it is carried out under the guise of law.

This article concerns an incident in which the Court of Appeal of East Timor invoked international legal principles relating to the consequences of illegal annexation when determining the domestic law of East Timor under UN administration and after independence, without giving due regard to their implications in the field of human rights. Rather than enhance the post-conflict reconstruction, this invocation risked destabilizing the emerging political and legal apparatus; it could have brought about a fundamental transformation of East Timor's legal system. While the Court of Appeal's attempt to bring about this change was thwarted by the objection of the legal community and the legislature, the incident demonstrates that the recourse to international law must be discriminative so that it does not subvert the very purpose for which this law is invoked.

Section 1 of this article provides a brief background to the post-conflict process in East Timor. Section 2 describes the dilemma concerning the choice of applicable law in post-conflict East Timor, and the role of international law in shaping that choice, while section 3 examines the role that the Court of Appeal attached to international law with regard to the same question. Section 4 analyses the ruling of the Court of Appeal and the implications for domestic law of unqualified reliance on certain branches of international law.

INTRODUCTION

This paper analyses and compares the practice of implementation and application of international law rules by the domestic courts in Russia before and after the end of the former Soviet Union.

In the last two decades, Russia has gone through two critical moments which dramatically influenced the change of its political, economic, and legal systems, as well as the role of international law in the practice of domestic courts and in the entrenchment of the rule of law. The first of these critical moments was the disintegration of the Soviet Union and the establishment of Russia as a separate state (December 1991). The second was the confrontation between the Supreme Council (former Parliament) and the presidential power (October 1993), which led to the establishment of a new form of government and adoption of a new constitution (December 1993).

This chapter shows the place of international law in the Russian legal order, the role of Russian courts in implementation and application of international law in the Soviet and post-Soviet periods, and reveals some tendencies in their contribution to the development of the constitutional provisions concerning international law – and to the strengthening of the rule of law.

To offer the reader a sense of all the really radical changes, I first offer a brief look at the constitutional and legislative provisions and the judicial practice in the Soviet period (section 2). Then I review the amendments to the Constitution of Russia in the transitional period which reflected a step-by-step movement towards more openness to the international community and international law. I also discuss some of the reasons leading to the adoption of a new constitution, and highlight the basic principle of the 1993 Constitution concerning international law and its significance (section 3). The main portion of the chapter is devoted to an analysis and illustration of judicial practice connected with strengthening the role of international law in the domestic legal order.

INTRODUCTION

Children have been affected by war throughout history.This article will analyse how children in Europe have been a privileged category in qualifying for a refuge protecting them against violence throughout the twentieth century. We focus on three cases during what some have called the long Second World War (1936–45): Basque children during the Spanish civil war, German-Jewish children persecuted by the Nazis in the late 1930s and children in France in the early 1940s. These three groups of children were considered particularly deserving and protection was granted to them. The reasons why these children were singled out for protection will be covered as well as the concrete modalities of assistance to them. Refugee policy at that time was a public-private mix and from the outset civil society was strongly involved in the decision to grant protection to the children.This contribution pays considerable attention to the input of civil society into the rescue schemes. The long-term consequences of these humanitarian programmes directed at children will also be discussed. The rehabilitation and reintegration of the war-affected children can be fully assessed through the evaluation of the rescue operations by all stakeholders, including of course the children.

WAR-AFFECTED CHILDREN FROM SPAIN: OFFERING ASYLUM IN AN EXTREMELY POLITICALLY POLARISED SITUATION (1937–39)

General Franco led a revolt in Spanish Morocco against the democratically elected Popular Front, a coalition of left-wing parties. The Italian fascist government supported this rebellion, thereby enabling it to spread quickly to the Spanish mainland. Burgos joined the insurgents and the rebels moved up to the north of Spain. In the Basque country the rebels met with fierce resistance and battles began by mid-August 1936. The violence of this war was extreme, not only due to the fact that it was a civil war, but also due to foreign involvement. Germany and Italy sent considerable quantities of arms and equipment to the fascist rebels – Germany even gave air support – while the Soviet Union gave military aid to the Republican side. German air support (the Condor legion) added to the high number of casualties and the extreme violence. Not only military objectives were the target: the civilian population was not spared at all.

I am pleased to write this preface on the occasion of the publication of the proceedings coming out of the international conference on ‘Rehabilitation and Reintegration of War-Affected Children’, held in Brussels, Belgium, in October 2009.

CHILD SOLDIERS

One important category of children in armed conflict are the many thousands of child soldiers who are recruited and trained to play an important role in the violence. In relation to this category of children, it is worthwhile to draw attention to two major aspects, i.e. the reintegration of these children and the accountability of those who recruit them.

The reintegration of child soldiers has been a complex issue which has tested even the best programmes on the ground. The Paris Principles of 2007 give us the best guidance, as they contain key insights that need implementation and relate to social and economic rights of children, as well as their rehabilitation and reintegration. Three overarching guidelines configure the entire reintegration effort. Firstly, children must be heard and be enabled to participate in all decisions affecting them, so as to ensure that these decisions are taken in their best interest. Some children for example may think that they are wasting their time at school while they want to learn practical skills. Secondly, nondiscrimination is an absolute must in any reintegration programme. It is important that former child soldiers do not receive a preferential treatment over those who have not been associated with armed groups. Also, particular attention should be given to girls, so as to ensure that they are involved in the reintegration effort and to see to it that their specific needs are being met. Thirdly, the capacity of reintegration programmes and the actors involved should be strengthened in order to ensure their self-sustainability.This is particularly important when it comes to schools and hospitals.

Apart from these overarching guidelines, the same Paris Principles also contain four operational principles that must be implemented to strengthen the effectiveness of the programmes geared at reintegrating child soldiers into society.

This work concerns itself with rule of law assistance in the aftermath of war and crisis. Over the past decade, rule of law has emerged as an essential objective in state-building missions. This has led to a host of programmes and projects on law reform, constitutional development, judicial training, and institutional establishment.

The overriding purpose of this book is to describe and analyse the effects of international assistance, norms and standards on post-crisis legal, judicial and administrative systems. Three central areas are examined – how the rule of law is conceptualised by international actors; what the principal methods are for putting the concept into effect; and effectiveness and international accountability in rule of law assistance.

The first part of this work begins with a description of how different ‘types’ of conflict affect legal and administrative systems, and what forms of intervention have been employed. It then moves on to analyse how the rule of law is conceptualised by specific international actors and the ‘ideologies’, views and interests underpinning the various definitions. This examination provides common characteristics and a framework upon which successive chapters are constructed. The relevance of rule of law conceptualisations is also discussed, particularly their prime relevance to criminal, constitutional, or administrative law.

The second part of the book concentrates on what the principal methods are that international actors apply within rule of law assistance. Following three broad themes – law reform and constitutional reform, institution-building, and access-creation – the typical approaches of international agencies are discussed. In other words, what types of approach work, the main difficulties involved, and how methods in rule of law assistance can be improved. The emerging lack of accountability and effectiveness is then addressed, particularly ways of enhancing the mutual accountability of international reformers and national authorities.

Part three is forward-looking and makes suggestions for improving rule of law reform after war and crisis.

At an unmatched pace children's rights have set a new standard in programs dealing with the plight of children affected by armed conflict. In particular, fieldwork shows that taking children's rights as an overarching guideline and aspiring to fully implement them are widely seen as ‘best practice’ in programs aimed at the reintegration of children associated with armed forces and groups in South Kivu.

However, children's rights with their concepts and categories are not just objectively given, as they are necessarily situated through their genealogy and context. The question thus arises whether they are that easily transposable on the situation in South Kivu. From this perspective, children's rights are not merely an instrument, but they rather actively define and structure how we perceive reality and act upon it. Which problems does the children's rights approach highlight? But also – and maybe more importantly – what does it neglect, leave behind?

Based on fieldwork carried out in South Kivu, this essay aims firstly at unravelling these structural silences. Drawing on narratives of spirit possession amongst former mayi-mayi and of children struggling to come to terms with their guilt, we will see how culture and the child soldiers’ perpetrator side are systematically undervalued. This allows to shed light on the meeting between the children's rights discourse and its legal concepts on the one hand and the local context on the other, and also permits to find out to what extent they are compatible and where they get lost in translation. By doing so we can put children's rights in perspective and complement them with a culturally sensitive approach.

CHILDREN's RIGHTS, A TOOL YET TO BE MASTERED

While the conflict in Eastern Congo was still smouldering, children's rights emerged as an important road map for the reconstruction of society and as an essential building block in the efforts made to reintegrate children associated with the armed forces or armed groups. The introduction of children's rights in these programs has meant a leap forward in bringing the interests of the child victims to the forefront of action. The attention has shift ed away from short-term demobilisation goals towards strengthening these children's education and livelihood opportunities over the long run.

INTRODUCTION

The previous chapter provided a context to war-torn and crisis societies through the discussion on crisis anatomy and the overall structure of international responses in rule of law reform. This chapter examines the objectives behind rule of law interventions, and how the concept of the rule of law is applied and understood by international actors. The reasons behind a discussion on conceptualisation are straightforward. How the rule of law is interpreted and defined at legal and policy levels has a fundamental influence on the level of implementation – that is, on how the concept is put to practice and on what type of reforms that are given priority. Simply put, precise and clear conceptions provide for an easier understanding and compliance, with breaches more clearly observed. Conversely, a lack of clarity greatly diminishes understanding and compliance. As a concept, however, the rule of law does not lend itself to an effortless description.

Absence of clear guidelines on what the concept means for rule of law officers and related staff on the ground is illustrated in a survey conducted by the Centre for OSCE Research. The survey targeted 18 field missions of the OSCE, asking questions to their personnel such as whether they based their activities on any particular rule of law definition or if they had criteria for distinguishing rule of law tasks from those of human rights and democratization. The results from the survey describes the absence of rule of law guidance in the field and, one can assume, is not isolated to the perceptions of OSCE staff but rather symptomatic for most actors involved in rule of law reform:

INTRODUCTION

As discussed in the previous chapter, the viability of law reform and constitutional reform together depend on a number of factors, such as inclusion and the pragmatic consideration of host country ownership. Another essential circumstance is the creation of an adequate institutional framework that can implement, monitor and manage structural legal reforms meeting the needs of end-users, the state and international donors. The international community has identified the construction of sound institutions as something central to the rule of law, and institutional reform has remained a core objective since the early activities of the law and development movement.

The building of institutions, and judicial reform in particular, is regarded by many commentators as being the most difficult of reform areas in rule of law promotion in war-torn and crisis societies. Yet international actors often approach the topic as a technical or practical matter – that is, translated into refurbishing court-houses and prisons, and merely the upgrading of technology. However, the creation of institutions is, above all, a matter of enhancing capacity and changing behaviour, which is time-consuming and difficult, particularly since it involves changing procedures, mentalities and other often well-established institutional patterns and ways of working.

This chapter examines methods of international support in the strengthening of capacity and integrity of legal and administrative institutions after war and crisis. In particular, it analyses how issues of organising the courts and bureaucracy, the selecting and vetting of public officials, and capacity-building initiatives and how the newly made or reformed institutions are supported.

The difficulty of institutional capacity has in some cases led to an internationalisation of institutional reform, a topic also discussed in this chapter. More often than not, structural legal reform, constitutional or ordinary law, lacks effect because of weakness in the institutions set up to enforce them. Here, too, as in relation to constitutional and law reform, the political economy – that is, commitment and ownership – play vital parts in the implementation of rule of law reform, as well as the influences of international law, benchmarks and codes.

INTRODUCTION

There is a widespread consensus on the critical importance of addressing the protection and promotion of the rights of the girl child. However, girls still bear the worst human rights abuses, during and after armed conflict, which have mental, emotional, spiritual, physical and material repercussions. These violations include abduction, forced removal from families, forced recruitment of children into fighting forces and a wide range of physical and sexual violations, including rape, enforced pregnancy, forced prostitution, forced marriage and forced child-bearing.This is especially true for girls who return from captivity with children who are considered particularly vulnerable. The result has been untold suffering and trauma.This has implications for the delivery of psychosocial support services for the girls as stipulated in Article 39 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC).

The northern part of Uganda has been beset by conflict for the last 22 years as a result of the insurgency mainly of the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), one of Africa's most notorious and brutal wars. The conflict in northern Uganda has been devastating and has had an adverse impact on people's lives; many people, especially women and girls, have been abducted, raped, tortured and even killed. Due to the conflict in northern Uganda, up to 2 million people (80%) have been displaced and forced to live in neglected internally displaced persons camps; these have been displaced within districts of Gulu, Kitgum, Pader, Lira, Apac, Soroti, Kaberamaido and Adjumani. Displacement has led to the erosion of the Acholi culture, destruction of individuals, families and communities, reinforcement of feelings of economic and political marginalisation, and loss of property (ibid.). Although not as numerous as boys, girls have been abducted in large numbers by the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), which has been waging war against the Government of Uganda since 1987. Of an estimated 38,000 children abducted by the LRA since the beginning of the conflict, 7,500 are girls and 1,000 are “girl mothers” who conceived children while in captivity.

INTRODUCTION

CHILD SOLDIERING IN NORTHERN UGANDA

In northern Uganda, a civil war has been waging for more than two decades between the rebel faction Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) and the Ugandan Government. Although, the roots of this conflict reach back to the colonial era and the conflict has known many episodes; an intensification occurred when Yoweri Museveni, president of Uganda, seized power in 1986 and Joseph Kony, leader of the LRA, set up his guerrilla campaign.

The battlefield of this conflict is situated in the northern districts of the country, where the Acholi population resides. The LRA adopted various civiliantargeting strategies from a political and operational aim, resulting in numerous civilian casualties. Attacks on villages, the maiming of civilians, ambushes, massacres and other atrocities were countless during this emergency. It is estimated that over a million and a half had to flee their homes and reside in internally displaced persons camps4 and that thousands of children sought protection as night commuters in town each night. Furthermore, the conflict limited their access to security, food, employment, education and health services.

One of its adopted strategies, mainly targeting children, is the violent abduction and forced recruitment of minors to serve as child soldiers. It is estimated that so far about 25,000 children have been forcibly involved as child soldiers in the LRA. These children are used to empower the LRA by filling its ranks and are thereby actively engaged in the battle against the government and people of Uganda.

In captivity, abducted children live in harsh circumstances, are exposed to several potentially traumatising events and are made perpetrators of atrocities against their own people. There can be no doubt that these experiences affect the child's well-being and development. Research has found that they are psychologically distressing, resulting in high rates of post-traumatic stress symptoms among former child soldiers. These in turn pose serious threats to the long-term rehabilitation and reintegration of the former child soldiers.

INTRODUCTION

This chapter aims to outline an overview of psychosocial caretaking activities organised by rehabilitation centres (RCs) for former child soldiers in northern Uganda. The conflict in northern Uganda is sometimes referred to as ‘one of the most forgotten conflicts in the world’ or ‘one of the worst violations of children's rights anywhere in the world’. For over 20 years this country has suffered from a cruel and bloody war between the government army (Ugandan People's Defence Force, UPDF) and the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), a rebel group under the command of Joseph Kony. The LRA had a tremendous impact on daily life as it concentrated its terror on the civilian population by looting and attacking villages, burning houses, and, worst of all, by mutilating, killing and abducting children and adults. It is estimated that over the course of the conflict, Kony and his army were responsible for the deaths of about one million people, while nearly two million people were forced to live in camps for internally displaced persons (IDP) for several years.

The abduction or use of children for the purpose of forced conscription and sexual exploitation is even today an important problem, as it is estimated that between 250,000 and 300,000 children are deployed as child soldiers in 17 conflicts worldwide. Northern Uganda had its share, with estimations ranging from 24,000 to 38,000 children to as many as 66,000 children and young adults between 14 and 30 years old. Even more striking, Annan et al. found that more than one third of male youths and one fift h of female youths questioned in their study reported being abducted. Once abducted by the LRA, children were confronted with very difficult living conditions and without doubt life became a true struggle for survival. It started at the moment of abduction, when many children were tied, beaten and/or given heavy loads to carry.

This book is a most welcome contribution to the growing body of multidisciplinary scholarship on children's rights. By focusing on recovery, reconciliation and reintegration, it expands the scope of much of the literature on children in armed conflict from the recruitment and participation of child soldiers to the broader questions of rebuilding societies and healing and reintegrating children who have been affected by armed conflict.

I will use the opportunity given to me to write a foreword to set an agenda for action at the international level that may facilitate reconciliation, recovery and reintegration. I will insist in particular on the need for prevention; universal ratification of the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the Involvement of Children in Armed Conflict (OPAC); the adoption of the Paris Principles and Guidelines by the UN General Assembly; and the establishment of a fund for the recovery and reintegration of children affected by armed conflict (CAACs). But first, by way of preliminary question, I will examine whether the recovery and reintegration of CAACs is a matter of human rights or international humanitarian law. Before I present my agenda for action, I will introduce a children's rights approach, in which I will try to identify the specific rights of war-affected children and the related obligations of states and others.

REHABILITATION AND REINTEGRATION OF WAR-AFFECTED CHILDREN: A HUMAN RIGHTS MATTER (?)

INTERNATIONAL HUMANITARIAN LAW

International instruments of humanitarian law are important for the protection of children affected by war, notably the Geneva Convention relative to Protectionof Civilian Persons in Time of War (1949). They contain various provisions for the protection of children under the age of 15, i.e. parties to a conflict have to take measures necessary to ensure that children under fifteen who are orphaned or are separated from their families as a result of the war are not left to their own resources and that their maintenance and education are facilitated in all circumstances. Furthermore, parties to the conflict must endeavour to arrange for all children under twelve to be identified by the wearing of identity discs or by some other means (Art. 24).

OVERVIEW OF CHILDREN's INVOLVEMENT IN ARMED CONFLICT

Since the early 1990s, when the issue of child soldiers first became a feature of international human rights, humanitarian, peace and security agendas, significant measures aimed at ending children's involvement in armed conflict have been taken. A framework of international law and policy to protect children from military exploitation has been established; close to two thirds of states are parties to the core human rights treaty prohibiting children's involvement in armed conflict; and some 80 states have set 18 as the minimum age at which an individual can enter their armed forces, including for training.

Progress can also be measured by the level of attention the issue now receives from key international bodies, not least the UN Security Council. A greater level of scrutiny of grave abuses against children in situations of armed conflict, including their recruitment and use as child soldiers, has been achieved through the establishment of the UN-led monitoring and reporting mechanism.This in turn, better informs the actions of the Security Council and others.

In the realm of criminal justice, successful prosecutions by the Special Court for Sierra Leone in 2007 and ongoing trials at the International Criminal Court (ICC) of individuals on such charges have underscored the gravity with which the crime is regarded internationally.

In the meantime, tens of thousands of child soldiers have been released from armies and armed groups as long-running conflicts have ended in a number of countries, including Burundi, Côte d’Ivoire, Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone. Elsewhere, for example in Nepal and Sri Lanka, large-scale recruitment of children effectively ceased with the end of hostilities, although the question of the release and reintegration of those already recruited has yet to be fully resolved in both countries.

In situations where armed conflict is ongoing, efforts to release children have also yielded results. Action plans to end the recruitment of children have been agreed between the UN and parties to armed conflicts in Côte d’Ivoire, Sri Lanka, Sudan and Uganda. Negotiations are ongoing with parties elsewhere, including in the Central African Republic, Darfur, Myanmar and the Philippines. In Myanmar, three ethnic armed groups, to which access by the UN is prohibited by the Myanmar government, have unilaterally declared their commitment to preventing under-18s from joining their ranks.