Latest news with #childSoldiers
Times
03-07-2025
- Sport
- Times
John Barnes: ‘Kabul isn't a place you imagine going on holiday'
John Barnes, 61, is one of England's most celebrated footballers. Born in Kingston, Jamaica, he moved to London when he was 12 and spent most of his playing career at Watford and Liverpool, earning 79 England caps. He is a pundit and campaigner and was awarded the MBE in 1998 for his services to football. He lives in Heswall, in the Wirral, with his wife, Andrea, and children, Isabella, 20, Tia, 19, and Alexander, 14. Football has taken me to 92 countries — almost half the world. Some of those trips, to places such as Somalia and Rwanda, leave a deeper mark. In Rwanda I met boys the same age as my kids who had been child soldiers. You hear their stories and realise that they didn't choose that life — soldiers came, killed their families, gave them guns and drugs and told them to fight. You can't judge them; you just feel grateful for what you have. But I've never needed tragedy to understand what matters. After the Hillsborough disaster in 1989 a lot of players said they re-evaluated things, but I already knew that football wasn't the most important thing in life. Kabul, the Afghan capital, isn't the kind of place you imagine going on holiday, but when I went there with the UN to coach children I was struck by how beautiful it was. The city stands in a natural amphitheatre surrounded by the snow-capped Hindu Kush, as though it's inside a vast football stadium. People imagine that growing up in Jamaica must have felt like a holiday, but when you live there it's just normal life. We weren't by the beach — we lived in a big house on an army base in Kingston, because my dad was a colonel. He was also the national boxing champion, played squash and football for the country and ended up being president of the Jamaican Football Federation and Swimming Association. My sister played squash for the national team and I swam competitively, but I was always kicking a ball and would even fall asleep with one in bed. If no one was around I'd just kick one against a wall, usually breaking something in the process. We moved to London in 1976. One day a taxi driver happened to see me playing football and told a scout about me, and within weeks I was training with Watford. That was six months before we were scheduled to go back to Jamaica. I'd already accepted a scholarship to study international relations at Howard University in Washington DC; then Watford offered me a contract, and that was that. I was in the first team within two months and two years later I was playing for England, on a Jamaican passport — no one ever asked (my dad was a diplomat so we hadn't emigrated). Every time we travelled for matches I'd be stuck in a separate immigration queue while the team waited on the coach. Eventually, I got a British passport. These days my wife organises everything to do with our travels — I just show up in a sunhat. We went to Bali when our daughter was a week old and the locals made such a fuss of her. In their culture babies are considered divine beings until they reach three months, so seeing a newborn was a huge deal for them. We stayed near Seminyak, right on the beach — it was paradise. That is one reason that the Maldives is so great too — turquoise water, white sand and nothing to do but relax. My next stop there, at the end of the month, is with the Campioni Soccer Academy on Kuramathi Island, where I run coaching sessions for children while their parents sip pina coladas — it's not serious, but occasionally I do spot a talented player and pass their name on. • 24 of the best hotels in Bali for 2025 I don't have a travel bucket list. My wife wants to go to Hawaii, so we probably will. Personally I just want to tick off more countries and get that count over 50 per cent, even if it means flying somewhere obscure just to say I've been there. That said I'd love to go to Argentina, to La Bombonera, Boca Juniors' stadium, for a derby match against River Plate — that's where Maradona used to play, whipping the crowd into a frenzy, and I want to feel that South American intensity for myself. My favourite country? South Africa, hands down. I've done the Garden Route to Durban and spent time in Johannesburg, but it's Cape Town that does it for me, particularly Camps Bay, with the Atlantic on one side and the Indian Ocean on the other. If you want to ski, surf and hike, it's all there in South Africa — and the favourable exchange rate makes it unbeatable too. • 21 of the best things to do in Cape Town And then there's Anfield in Liverpool. It's not the biggest stadium in the world, but it's the most intense and you feel it in your chest. The beauty of football is that it connects people everywhere — whether you're on a pitch in a refugee camp or a private beach, kids just want to play. That's the magic, and why — despite all the places I've been — the biggest buzz for me still comes from sitting on my sofa watching the first game of the season. Campioni Soccer Academy will be at Kuramathi Maldives from July 28 to August 8, with John Barnes and his fellow former England player Stuart Pearce ( For more on the resort see
The Independent
24-06-2025
- Politics
- The Independent
At least 120 children abducted by insurgents in Mozambique, Human Rights Watch says
More than 120 children have been abducted by jihadist insurgents in northern Mozambique in recent days, Human Rights Watch (HRW) has warned, highlighting a disturbing escalation in the troubled Cabo Delgado province. The children are reportedly being exploited by an Islamic State-linked group, locally known as al-Shabab, for various brutal purposes. These include transporting looted goods, forced labour, and in some cases, being pressed into service as child soldiers or forced into marriage. Mozambique has been grappling with an Islamist insurgency in Cabo Delgado since 2017. Government forces have struggled to contain the widespread violence, necessitating support from troops dispatched by Rwanda, South Africa, and other regional partners. The latest abductions follow a pattern of extreme violence in the region. In 2020, the insurgents carried out a wave of attacks that saw dozens of people, including children, beheaded. Witnesses have previously reported that children seized from towns and villages were subsequently used as fighters in further assaults. The violence has displaced more than 600,000 people and spilled into neighboring provinces, according to the United Nations. Human Rights Watch said there had been a resurgence of attacks and child kidnappings in the last two months and called on Mozambique's government to do more to find the children and prevent further abductions. The problems in Cabo Delgado were largely overshadowed by Mozambique's deadly and long-running post-election protests last year. Cabo Delgado has also been battered by several recent cyclones and hurt by U.S. President Donald Trump 's cuts to foreign aid. The Norwegian Refugee Council's Secretary General, Jan Egeland, visited Cabo Delgado this month and described the situation in northern Mozambique as a neglected crisis. 'Climate shocks, increasing violence and spiralling hunger are having a terrible impact on the population,' Egeland said. The NRC said more than 5 million people faced critical levels of hunger and more than 900,000 people faced emergency hunger conditions.
CNA
20-06-2025
- CNA
Children in armed conflict: UN reports 25% jump in violations in 2024
A UN report says children in conflict zones fell victim to unprecedented levels of violence last year. Tens of thousands of them were affected by armed conflict, with many of them recruited, maimed, violated or killed in more than 20 countries. In Asia, most cases were recorded in Myanmar.
Daily Mail
08-06-2025
- Politics
- Daily Mail
Asylum seeker 'who recruited child soldiers' wins appeal to stay in Britain despite being refused refugee status in France because he's an alleged war criminal
An asylum seeker who allegedly recruited child soldiers has won an appeal to stay in Britain. The Sri Lankan, who remains unnamed after he was granted anonymity by the Upper Tribunal of the Immigration and Asylum Chamber, faces claims he 'enlisted children under the age of 15' to separatist terrorist group Tamil Tigers. The tribunal also heard he was working for the Tamils Rehabilitation Organisation [TRO] - a refugee charity - but was secretly supplying information. The French Justice system previously ruled he should be denied asylum due to allegations that he was a war criminal. And the Home Office agreed, refusing the man refugee status and attempting to deport him. He then won an appeal against the decision in 2023, with a judge citing a lack of evidence to support the accusations. The Home Office has now lost an appeal of their own, meaning the asylum seeker can remain in the country. British judges stuck with the ruling two years ago and said there is not enough evidence to say the allegations are true. The Home Office's original case referred to the French asylum court's verdict that he 'ought to be excluded from a grant of asylum under Article 1F of the Refugee Convention due to his alleged involvement in war crimes in this case the alleged recruitment of children'. But a judge found that the government department 'had not shown serious grounds for concluding that [the Sri Lankan] was guilty of the war crime of conscription or enlistment of children under the age of 15 or using them to participate actively in hostilities'. The judge added: 'I am not satisfied even on the evidence of his own admissions, accurate or otherwise, to the French that this goes far enough to show that the [Sri Lankan] was effectively collecting information which he knew was going to be misused, and misused specifically for the recruitment of child soldiers under the age of 15. 'Nor am I satisfied that there are serious reasons for considering on all the evidence adduced that the [Respondent] has been shown to have knowingly materially assisted in the recruitment of child soldiers under the age of 15, by the work done by the T.R.O. in gathering information, possibly subsequently used by the L.T.T.E. for that purpose.' Home Office lawyers argued at the appeal in London that the judge had not attached enough wait to the French court's decision. But, Deputy Upper Tribunal Judge Adrian Seelhoff disagreed, saying: 'The Judge assessed that evidence to see if it supported the [Home Office's] case that [the Sri Lankan], whilst working for the TRO, supplied details which the LTTE used to recruit child soldiers. '[The Home Office's] position before us was not that the Judge was bound to follow the French Court decision, but that he had not given adequate reasons for reaching a different decision or that he failed to attach weight to the decision. 'We find that the Judge did give adequate reasons for not following that decision, and for the weight he attached to it and that accordingly there is no error of law in the decision under appeal.
Forbes
04-06-2025
- General
- Forbes
Children Under Attack Across All Conflicts And Atrocity Crimes
June 4 marks the International Day of Innocent Children Victims of Aggression, a day established by the UN General Assembly on August 19, 1982, in response to 'the great number of innocent Palestinian and Lebanese children victims of Israel's acts of aggression.' The main aim behind this annual day is to 'acknowledge the pain suffered by children throughout the world who are the victims of physical, mental and emotional abuse.' The day is used by the UN to reaffirm its commitment to protect the rights of children and call for more action to protect them, especially from predictable and preventable harms. In this regard, the work of the UN is guided by the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), that provides for the protection of their right to life (Article 6), protection from being separated from their parents against their will (Article 9), the right to education (Article 28), protection from all forms of sexual exploitation and sexual abuse (Article 34), protection from abduction of, the sale of or traffic in children for any purpose or in any form (Article 35), protection from torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment (Article 37), among others. Furthermore, the CRC also requires states to ensure that 'persons who have not attained the age of fifteen years do not take a direct part in hostilities' (Article 38) as so-called child soldiers. Unfortunately, as it is clear from reports from all situations of conflict and atrocity crimes, these rights are too often violated, with the perpetrators enjoying impunity across the board. The data on the situation of children continues to shock. The UN Secretary-General Annual Report on Children and Armed Conflict identified that in 2023 alone, 11,649 children were killed or maimed - mostly as a result of the use of explosive ordnance, including explosive weapons and remnants of war, improvised explosive devices and landmines, including in populated areas. The same year, 8,655 children were recruited or used, and 4,356 were abducted, with the highest numbers verified in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Somalia and Nigeria. Almost 30% of the victims were girls. In 2023, at least 1,470 children were victims of sexual violence. More than 90% of sexual violence was perpetrated against girls, who are disproportionately affected by sexual violence and forced marriage, however, incidents of sexual violence against boys are on the increase. In 2023, the UN recorded 1,650 attacks on schools and hospitals, an increase of nearly 60% in comparison to 2021. Attacks on girls' schools and the abduction of girls at school or on the way to school have frequently targeted girls' education because of harmful gender norms. It did not stop there. In December 2024, UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell said that 'by almost every measure, 2024 has been one of the worst years on record for children in conflict in UNICEF's history—both in terms of the number of children affected and the level of impact on their lives.' More children than ever are estimated to be either living in conflict zones or forcibly displaced due to conflict and violence, over 473 million children or more than one in six globally, the highest number of conflicts since World War II. A record number of children affected by conflict are having their rights violated, including being killed and injured, out of school, missing life-saving vaccines, and being critically malnourished. The number is only expected to grow. Unfortunately, this data only shocks, and does not translate into more proactive approaches to protect children across situations of conflict and atrocity crimes. Furthermore, again and again, we witness how children are being specifically targeted in situations of conflict and atrocity crimes, including with genocidal acts of 'forcibly transferring children of the group to another group' and other prohibited acts. For example, in Ukraine, thousands of children were abducted and transferred to Russia, where they would be subjected to indoctrination at schools and forced adoptions by Russians. In Iraq, thousands of children were abducted by Daesh and subjected to sexual violence by every 'husband' they were forcibly married to. To this day, close to 11 years after their abduction, over 2,600 Yazidi women and children are still missing. In China, many Uyghur children were removed from their families and placed with ethnic Han families, to again deprive them of their Uyghur ethnic and religious identity. Across situations of genocide, children are being targeted with mass killings, sexual violence, and much more, as targeting the children is to destroy the community and its future. Violations of this sort must be addressed with all tools in the toolbox - including justice and accountability. The crimes committed against children call for justice and accountability, at a level not seen to date. Justice and accountability for the crimes against children cannot be an exception to the rule (and the rule being impunity). Justice and accountability must become the norm - to send a message to all perpetrators across all situations of conflict and atrocity crimes - that they cannot get away with the crimes against children.
