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Child Soldiers and the Defence of Duress under International Criminal Law

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Abstract

Child soldiers are not only victims but also perpetrators international crimes. This chapter argues that the concept of child soldiers challenges a number of binary models such as child/adult, good/evil and victim/perpetrator upon which criminal justice processes and society more generally rely. Although the predominant narrative frames children as innocent, dependent and in need of protection, international law does not prohibit the prosecution of child soldiers for international crimes. Should they face justice, they can rely on several grounds for excluding criminal responsibility, including duress which is mentioned as the most appropriate defence since child soldiers are often forced to commit atrocities and viewed as victims. This chapter then explains the method and methodology adopted for this study and sets out the scope of the book which is to examine whether child soldiers can successfully invoke the defence of duress when prosecuted for international crimes.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    UNCRC 1989, art. 1. Van Bueren notes that ‘[t]raditionally a child has been defined as a comparative negative: a child is an individual who is not yet an adult. It is a definition which is laden with religious, cultural, physical and psychological practices and beliefs.’ Van Bueren 1998, 33. For a discussion on the concept of a child under international law, see Nair 2017, 41–42.

  2. 2.

    Wessells 2006, 76; ICC Katanga and Chui 2008, paras 256–257; ICC Lubanga 2012, para. 834.

  3. 3.

    Steinl 2017, 18; Human Rights Watch 1999; Davison 2004, 138.

  4. 4.

    Faulkner 2001, 494.

  5. 5.

    McKay 2004, 23.

  6. 6.

    Save the Children 2005, 11; ICC Lubanga 2012, para. 882.

  7. 7.

    Briggs 2005, 18; ICC Katanga and Chui 2008, para. 257.

  8. 8.

    ICC Katanga and Chui 2008, paras 258 and 261; ICC Lubanga 2012, paras 838 and 857.

  9. 9.

    Almohammad 2018, 21.

  10. 10.

    Wessells 2006, 71.

  11. 11.

    Tercier Holst-Roness 2006, 13.

  12. 12.

    Quénivet 2008, 219–235; Yuvaraj 2016, 69–93. For a definition of direct participation, see Sandoz et al. (eds) 1987, para. 1944; ICTR Rutaganda 1999, para. 99; Melzer 2009; Wainryb 2011, 274.

  13. 13.

    Lafayette 2012–2013, 298; Happold 2002, 1144; Drumbl 2012, 85.

  14. 14.

    See Briggs 2005, 6; Wessells 2006, 1–2.

  15. 15.

    See Brett 2003, 857; Leveau 2013, 41.

  16. 16.

    See, for example, Klasen et al. 2010, 576; Amone-P’Olak and Ovuga 2017, 156.

  17. 17.

    Much alike Eichmann who became the face of the crimes linked to the Holocaust, Ongwen is that ‘person [who] becomes a stand-in for all the perpetrators connected to the same tragedy, and the world stares, hoping to grasp how this nightmare, this stain on humanity, could have happened’. Mohamed 2015, 1160–1161.

  18. 18.

    Branch 2017, 38.

  19. 19.

    See, for example, Branch 2017, 38.

  20. 20.

    Baines 2009, 177. Boyden states that: ‘Ultimately, the categories “civilian” and “combatant” become fused, with children, their families, and communities emerging as both victims and perpetrators of violence.’ Boyden 2003, 344.

  21. 21.

    Mohamed 2015, 1165; Cryer et al. 2014, 37; Schabas 2016, 42–43. Fletcher notes that ‘[j]ustice in criminal law is invariably ex post. The facts are always asymmetrical. Someone is an aggressor and someone else is a victim.’ Fletcher 2007, 183.

  22. 22.

    Rauschenbach 2018, 294.

  23. 23.

    Branch 2017, 39 and 41.

  24. 24.

    Hinton 2008, 288.

  25. 25.

    Fisher 2013, 73.

  26. 26.

    Klasen et al. 2015, 181.

  27. 27.

    Nagle 2011, 4; Schmidt 2007, 54; Maystre 2014, 977.

  28. 28.

    Schmidt 2007, 54. See Derluyn et al. 2015, 29.

  29. 29.

    UNICEF Paris Principles 2007.

  30. 30.

    ‘[A] child soldier is any child—boy or girl—under the age of 18, who is […] recruited or used in hostilities by armed forces. […] Child soldiers are used for forced sexual services, as combatants, messengers, porters and cooks […]. The majority are boys, but a significant proportion overall are girls.’ Machel 2001, 7.

  31. 31.

    UNGA 1996.

  32. 32.

    ICC Lubanga 2008, paras 17–26.

  33. 33.

    Quénivet 2017, 435. See Leveau 2013, 38; McDiarmid 2006, 86. Fisher poignantly asks whether ‘child soldiers [are] simply tools of adult architects of atrocity, morally equivalent to guns or landmines’. Fisher 2013, 64.

  34. 34.

    It is however different on the national level as the great majority of legal systems provide for criminal responsibility of those under the age of 18.

  35. 35.

    Fonseka 2001, 69–89; Happold 2008, 62; Boyden 2003, 347–348. See Swart and Hassen for a discussion of the role of duress in child soldier marriages. Swart and Hassen 2016, 471–475.

  36. 36.

    Happold 2006, 70; see Nair 2017, 44.

  37. 37.

    Moynagh 2014, 660.

  38. 38.

    See, for example, the ‘coerced youth’ model as discussed in Murphy 2003, 64; Stahn 2019, 314.

  39. 39.

    Drumbl 2015.

  40. 40.

    Drumbl 2014–2015, 626.

  41. 41.

    McDiarmid 2016, 329 (italics in original).

  42. 42.

    Lacey 1988, 63. See Fisher 2013, 62.

  43. 43.

    Nortje 2017, 193. See Goldson 2009, 515.

  44. 44.

    Leveau 2013, 64.

  45. 45.

    Happold 2008, 72.

  46. 46.

    See, for example, Singer 2005, 154; Musila 2005, 330; Wessells 2006, 219–221.

  47. 47.

    Konge 2010, 55.

  48. 48.

    Singh 2007, 211.

  49. 49.

    Happold 2002, 1147; Davison 2004, 129; Fisher 2013, 62.

  50. 50.

    See, for example, Singer 2005, 155.

  51. 51.

    McDiarmid 2006, 85. See Nagle 2011, 35–37.

  52. 52.

    Although a universal minimum age of criminal responsibility does not exist, General Comment No. 10 to the Convention on the Rights of the Child, at para. 32, provides that an age of criminal responsibility below the age of 12 is not an acceptable international standard. See Cipriani 2009, 58; Grossman 2007, 339; Nagle 2011, 35.

  53. 53.

    See Ursini 2015, 1023–1048.

  54. 54.

    ICC Statute 1998; ICTY Orić 2006, fn 1177. See Moreno-Ocampo 2006, 113; Aptel 2010, 105; Drumbl 2012, 119.

  55. 55.

    Freeland 2005, 324. See Ambos 1999, 22; Drumbl 2012, 119–120.

  56. 56.

    Lafayette 2012–2013, 303. See ICC Lubanga 2012, para. 613. In contrast, Sampaio and McEvoy argue that the current international legal framework does not consider children aged 15 or older to be legally able to have the intent to participate in the hostilities. Sampaio and McEvoy 2016, 61–64.

  57. 57.

    Ursini 2015, 1042–1044; Akakpo 2012, 36.

  58. 58.

    Cassese et al. 2013, 227.

  59. 59.

    SCSL Statute 2002, art. 7(1).

  60. 60.

    ICTY Orić 2006, para. 400. See Schabas 2016, 592. Triffterer and Clark commenting on article 26 of the ICC Statute posit that ‘Only the jurisdiction of the ICC is excluded. As can be seen from the historical development of this article, criminal responsibility may not be excluded for persons under eighteen in general.’ Triffterer and Clark 2016, 1036.

  61. 61.

    See Quénivet 2017; Achton Thomas 2013, fn 12; Maystre 2014, 989. See Schabas 2016, 592–593; Triffterer and Clark 2016, 1036. It is important to note that under customary international law states might allow for the prosecution of children at an even lower age.

  62. 62.

    For a list of various elements, see, for example, Cassese et al. 2013, 20–21; Werle and Jessberger 2014, 32 and Naqvi 2010, 31. For a short review of some definitions, see Scaliotti 2001, 113–114. For a comprehensive discussion of the definition and development of crimes under international law, generally see Heller 2017.

  63. 63.

    See ICTY Tadić 1995, para. 57.

  64. 64.

    See, for example, US Hostages Trial 1948, 1241.

  65. 65.

    See, for example, US Hostages Trial 1948, 1241.

  66. 66.

    In the case of international crimes defined in a narrow sense, see below, ‘universal jurisdiction [is] nowadays acknowledged in the case of international crimes’. ICTY Tadić 1995, para. 62.

  67. 67.

    Freeland 2005, 317. Ambos notes that ‘Crimes against the basic principles of humanity are nothing new to the history of mankind.’ Ambos 2013, 1.

  68. 68.

    Cassese et al. 2013, 21; Ambos 2013, 2–4.

  69. 69.

    For example, the UNGA 2016 (para. 4) was created with a view to collect evidence to be preserved for a future tribunal.

  70. 70.

    Drumbl 2015. An accused aged 18 who committed offences shortly after reaching the age of 18 could raise immaturity as a mitigating factor, but not as a defence. See Triffterer and Clark 2016, 1035.

  71. 71.

    Article 31 is not without criticism. For example, Knoops notes that ‘The absence of a general part of ICL is not remedied by the provisio of Article 31 of the ICC Statute, whose heading misleadingly suggests a complete compilation of all defences. Apart from its clear supplementary function-stemming from its starting text “in addition to other grounds for excluding criminal responsibility” several major defences are not included in the provisio, such as consent of the victim.’ See Knoops 2008, 23–24.

  72. 72.

    See Cryer et al. 2014, 400; Werle and Jessberger 2014, 236, 240; Scaliotti 2001, 111; Cassese et al. 2013, 216.

  73. 73.

    It was chosen to accommodate a variety of legal traditions. Gilbert 2006, 144. Schabas notes that ‘The Rome Statute uses the label “grounds for excluding criminal responsibility” out of a sense of cultural neutrality.’ Schabas 2016, 636.

  74. 74.

    See Robinson 1997, 11–12; Ambos 2013, 354; Knoops 2008, 291–294.

  75. 75.

    See Scaliotti 2001, 111.

  76. 76.

    Merkel 2002, 441.

  77. 77.

    Dressler 1988–1989, 1332.

  78. 78.

    Manirakiza 2008–2009, 752–753; Wessells 2006, 79; Yarbrough 2014, 538 and 559; Grover 2005, 234; Lafayette 2012–2013, 312; Ursini 2015, 1047; Akakpo 2012, 37–44; Fisher 2013, 65–76.

  79. 79.

    Ibidem.

  80. 80.

    Ibidem.

  81. 81.

    Rauschenbach 2018, 292–296.

  82. 82.

    See Derluyn et al. 2015, 35.

  83. 83.

    See Cassese et al. 2013, 219; Eser 2016, 1151.

  84. 84.

    Some attempts, though not comprehensive, are made by Achton Thomas 2013; Akakpo 2012, 37–44 and Happold 2002 (through the prism of refugee law).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Law, University of the Western Cape, Cape Town, South Africa

    Windell Nortje

  2. Bristol Law School, University of the West of England, Bristol, UK

    Noëlle Quénivet

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  1. Windell Nortje
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  2. Noëlle Quénivet
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Correspondence to Windell Nortje .

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Nortje, W., Quénivet, N. (2020). Introduction. In: Child Soldiers and the Defence of Duress under International Criminal Law. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-20663-5_1

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