YOUTH AND HUMAN SECURITY: PERSPECTIVES ON AFRICAN CONFLICTS

28 February 2003

Presented by Interact, the ISS research project on Children in Armed Conflict

Advocacy efforts have resulted in the entry into force in 2002 of the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the use of Children in Armed Conflict, which prohibits states parties from using children under 18 as soldiers. But child soldiers may be a symptom of a deeper issue: that youth has increasingly become the terrain of intrastate power struggles.

The evidence gathered from Interact’s ongoing research shows that youth survival in armed conflict can hinge on, at one end of a spectrum, affiliation with youth leagues and other political organizations; at the other, the fight-or-die ultimatum of brutal, coerced recruitment. Speakers will include Interact field researchers:

Aki Stavrou
(Irish Centre for Migration) on Uganda

Kwesi Aning
(African Security and Dialogue Institute) on Sierra Leone

João Porto
(ISS) on Angola

Ana Leão,
(independent consultant) on Mozambique

Angela McIntyre
(Interact project leader) chair

Venue:

ISS, Conference Room
Block C, Brooklyn Court
301 Lange Street
New Muckleneuk
(Parking available along Veale Street Click here for map)

Time: 9:00am for 9:30am– 11:30am
(Coffee and registration from 9-9:30am)

RSVP: Agar Ngwenya,
Tel: (012) 346 9500
E-mail:


This seminar has been made possible by generous funding from the Governments of Canada, Norway and the United Nations University.