International Criminal Court (ICC) would soon be heralding a prosecution against a Congolese warlord who happen to recruit children as young as 10 to fight on the frontline of a war for the control of gold, diamonds and timber in the vast Democratic Republic of Congo.
Mr. Lubanga, the detainee is a forty six year old man who holds a degree in psychology. He has been accused of engaging young children, training them in military camps and pitching them into a ferocious ethnic war in the Ituri region in northeast Congo that cost the lives of at least 60,000 civilians. So far, the militia leaders have taken little or no action to end the abuse of Ituri’s children.However, he is refuting the accusations.
Mr Lubanga’s trial ends a four-year struggle to establish a permanent war crimes court to replace the ad hoc tribunals that have been used to prosecute war criminals in Sierra Leone, the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda.
Although, the US was never in favor of forming such kind of Criminal Courts, fearing its soldiers would be the target of what it claimed would be politically motivated prosecutions. However, their efforts went into drains as the International Criminal Court came into being after the treaty, which was signed by 104 nations.
Now, the notorious Lord’s Resistance Army in Uganda is next in list of the court.
Mr Lubanga would face life imprisonment if he’s found guilty. Meanwhile, the court too has been blamed of deflating certain charges, for instance, charges of rape, torture and murder against him has not being taken into consideration.
Bottom line
Based on a growing international consensus on the illegality and immorality of recruitment and use of children, international and regional treaties have been elaborated to prevent the recruitment or use of child soldiers. However, while these legal developments do set important standards on child protection, the recruitment and use of child soldiers has continued because of the inadequate implementation or violation of these standards by the parties to the armed conflict.
But ICC has given a ray of hope to these children, now time will only tell how far the endeavor would benefit the innocent lives.
