Children of War: Evolving Local and Global Understandings of Child Soldiering in African Conflicts, c.1940-2000

战争儿童：当地和全球对非洲冲突中儿童兵的理解的演变，c.1940-2000

• 批准号: AH/X00399X/1
• 负责人: Stacey Hynd
• 金额: $ 99.97万
• 依托单位: UNIVERSITY OF EXETER
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Research Grant
• 财政年份: 2023
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2023 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=AH%2FX00399X%2F1
• 关键词: Children; War; Evolving; Local; Global

Children are integral to contemporary humanitarian and human rights campaigns, both as subjects of intervention and as humanitarian icons. In the 1990s one form of child victim came to prominence: the child soldier. Global estimates at that time posited that over 300,000 child soldiers were fighting or had recently been demobilized, 120,000 of those in Africa. The iconographic image of 'the child soldier' was overwhelmingly African. Humanitarian campaigns in 1990s raged against this new 'child soldier crisis', depicting child soldiers as traumatized victims of adult abuse and the 'barbarism' of new hyper-violent, civilianized forms of contemporary warfare. However, contrary to these campaigns, child soldiering was not a new phenomenon: this project shows that children were a significant presence in African conflicts throughout the twentieth century, and their involvement was linked to wider patterns of warfare, child labour and modern slavery, and youth mobilization.This three-year project delivers the first properly historical account of the development of child soldiering in Africa, through a comparative analysis of children's involvement in warfare from the colonial to contemporary eras. It traces African child soldiering from the Second World War to anti-colonial insurgencies, through civil wars and Cold War proxy conflicts to the 'new wars' of the 1990s that made the 'African child soldier' the literal poster child of global advocacy. Key case studies will be Uganda, Angola, Rwanda and Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) providing comparisons across time, region, forms of warfare, and varying forms of child recruitment and military use. There will be a strong critical focus on both gender and generational dynamics, with three levels of child soldiering analysed, looking at direct and indirect participation throughout: youth as able-bodied force multipliers; as liminal covert agents; and as symbolic militarized 'children'. The 'child soldier crisis' emerged in late 1980-90s not because children suddenly appeared on global battlefields, but because changing notions of childhood, child rights, human security and war rendered them visible as objects of humanitarian concern. As such, this project also traces the evolution of humanitarian responses to children's involvement in war from their absence in the 1949 Geneva Additional Protocols to the 2000 Optional Protocol to the Convention of the Rights of the Child. It forms a phenomenological study of shifting ideas of 'the African child soldier' in both African and global knowledge systems. The project analyses the legal and discursive emergence and expansion of the category of 'child soldier', highlighting tensions between local and global norms of childhood and youth. Informed by postcolonial and decolonial perspectives, it shows how the object figure of the child soldier as victim was framed by racialized and paternalistic tropes of African/global South societies that suffused international organizations. To do so, this groundbreaking project analyses qualitative evidence from imperial, international humanitarian, and African archives, alongside human rights reports, news media, and child soldier memoirs. Oral history interviews with key humanitarian practitioners and activists, and selected former child soldiers, form a supplementary methodology. A visual and cultural history dimension is added through analysis of war photography, film, documentaries, novels and music. Project development will incorporate input from international child soldier NGOs and grassroots groups in Uganda, Angola and Rwanda/DRC to determine impact outputs, including briefing reports, data for global surveys, and teaching materials. Academic outputs are a PI-authored monograph, co- and full-team authored articles, and articles by PDRAs. Research findings will be publically disseminated through a project website/digital archive to facilitate engagement by African researchers and communitie

儿童是当代人道主义和人权运动不可或缺的一部分，既是干预的对象，也是人道主义的象征。 20 世纪 90 年代，儿童受害者的一种形式开始受到关注：儿童兵。当时的全球估计表明，有超过 300,000 名儿童兵正在战斗或最近复员，其中 120,000 人在非洲。 “儿童兵”的形象绝大多数是非洲人。 20 世纪 90 年代的人道主义运动激烈反对这一新的“儿童兵危机”，将儿童兵描述为成人虐待和当代战争新的超暴力、平民化形式的“野蛮行径”的受害者。然而，与这些运动相反，儿童当兵并不是一个新现象：该项目表明，儿童在整个二十世纪的非洲冲突中占有重要地位，他们的参与与更广泛的战争模式、童工和现代奴隶制有关，这个为期三年的项目通过对从殖民时代到当代儿童参与战争的比较分析，首次对非洲儿童兵的发展进行了正确的历史描述。它追溯了非洲儿童兵的历史，从第二次世界大战到反殖民叛乱，再到内战和冷战代理人冲突，再到 20 世纪 90 年代的“新战争”，这场战争使“非洲儿童兵”成为全球倡导的名副其实的典型代表。主要案例研究将是乌干达、安哥拉、卢旺达和刚果民主共和国（刚果民主共和国），提供不同时间、地区、战争形式以及不同形式的儿童招募和军事使用的比较。将重点关注性别和代际动态，对儿童当兵的三个层面进行分析，着眼于整个过程中的直接和间接参与：青年作为健全的力量倍增者；作为阈限秘密特工；以及象征性的军事化“孩子”。 20世纪80-90年代末出现的“儿童兵危机”并不是因为儿童突然出现在全球战场上，而是因为儿童、儿童权利、人类安全和战争观念的变化使他们成为人道主义关注的对象。因此，该项目还追溯了从 1949 年《日内瓦附加议定书》到 2000 年《儿童权利公约》任择议定书中没有儿童参与战争以来，人道主义应对措施的演变。它形成了对非洲和全球知识体系中“非洲儿童兵”观念转变的现象学研究。该项目分析了“儿童兵”类别的法律和话语出现和扩展，强调了当地和全球儿童和青少年规范之间的紧张关系。它以后殖民和非殖民视角为基础，展示了作为受害者的儿童兵这一客体形象是如何被国际组织中充斥的非洲/全球南方社会的种族化和家长式比喻所塑造的。为此，这个开创性的项目分析了来自帝国、国际人道主义和非洲档案的定性证据，以及人权报告、新闻媒体和儿童兵回忆录。对主要人道主义从业者和活动家以及选定的前儿童兵的口述历史访谈形成了一种补充方法。通过对战争摄影、电影、纪录片、小说和音乐的分析，增加了视觉和文化历史的维度。项目开发将吸收乌干达、安哥拉和卢旺达/刚果民主共和国的国际儿童兵非政府组织和基层团体的意见，以确定影响产出，包括简报、全球调查数据和教材。学术成果包括 PI 撰写的专着、共同和整个团队撰写的文章以及 PDRA 撰写的文章。研究结果将通过项目网站/数字档案公开传播，以促进非洲研究人员和社区的参与