From Victims to Perpetrators: The Legal Treatment of Child-Soldiers Who Commit International Crimes, as Children and as Adults, in International Criminal Law

Abstract

The aim of the present thesis is the study of how children turned soldiers should be treated by an international criminal tribunal, regarding their commission of war crimes or crimes against humanity, both as children and as adults. The thesis employs a psychoanalytical section in the beginning and then the legal positivist and doctrinal methods of analysis. We present the psychological and social profile of the child-soldiers from the scope of victim of an armed conflict and perpetrators of crimes with emphasis on the procedures that molds them into soldiers. We then present the relevant legal framework regarding the age under which an individual is still considered a child and analyzed the merits of each approach. Having set the stage, we proceed in assessing the ICC’s approach regarding the age parameter and the criminal responsibility of children. Subsequently, we analyze the criminal responsibility of former child-soldiers once they became adults. In particular, we examine the concepts of criminal mens rea, mental defects, duress and mitigating circumstances in the ICC’s system and their application on adult child-soldiers. To illustrate our points, a case-study upon the trial of Dominic Ongwen is included. Finally, we summarize our findings and present our suggestion upon the proper treatment of child-soldiers from the scope of international criminal law.

Keywords: International Criminal Law, International Human Rights Law, Child Soldiers

JEL Classification: K33