definition of armed conflict given by appeals chamber of the international criminal tribunal

Recruitment of foreign child fighters in NIAC

2 The legal framework of IHL and International Criminal Law in relation to the recruitment and the use of children in the context of NIACĢ.1. Section Six analyses the question of the age below which the recruitment of children should be interdicted. Section Five turns to specific issues affecting girl soldiers and foreign minor brides in NIAC, including sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV). Section Four briefly questions if one can conceive the idea of ‘child mercenaries’ in NIAC. Section Three explores issues of release and repatriation of child soldiers and children otherwise associated with an armed group. The paper starts with making general inquiries into two conceptual issues in Section Two: how the recruitment of foreign child fighters in NIAC is encompassed within the normative framework of IHL and international criminal law and the types of activities that constitute the proscribed form of the ‘use’ of children under the age of 15.

It will analyse how effectively such a ‘legal patchwork’ can meet the challenge posed by a number of novel (or often side-lined) issues relating to child soldiers or other children who are associated with non-state armed groups in the context of non-international armed conflict (NIAC). This essay will explore how a legal and conceptual framework on child soldiers can be built on the loose coordination of different fields of international law, such as international humanitarian law (IHL), international human rights law (IHRL), and international criminal law.

Definition of armed conflict given by appeals chamber of the international criminal tribunal