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Child Combatants of Columbia In this paper, I will discuss Columbia’s use of child combatants as a human rights issue. This problem is in direct violation of Columbia’s national laws, treaty obligations and customary international law. I will then describe what the Columbian government says about its national law and practice regarding this human rights problem and how honest it is about its policies. Next presenting how this human right goes unnoticed by the Universal Declaration of human rights and the American Convention of human rights in which Columbia has ratified. And lastly, I will discuss what the government officials, national citizens and international actors should do to resolve this human rights issue. In Columbia, like dozens of other countries around the world, children have become direct participants in war. Denied a childhood and often subjected to horrific violence, more than 14,000 of Columbia’s children fight as combatants in its armed forces. This is one of the highest totals in the world, following only Burma (Myanmar) and the Democratic Republic of Congo, which are believed to have significantly larger numbers of child combatants. An estimated eighty percent of the children under arms belong to one of the two guerrilla groups, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) or the National Liberation Army (ELN). At least one of every four irregular combatants in Colombia is under eighteen years of age. Of these, several thousand are under the age of fifteen, tragically ranging downwards to the age of ten. Physically vulnerable and easily intimidated, children typically make well-trained soldiers. Some are kidnapped or recruited by force, and often obligated to follow orders under the threat of death. But most join armed groups by choice as conflict storms through their villages further destroying their society. Due to such destruction, children are often left without access to school; they are driven from their homes, or separated from loved ones. Many children perceive armed groups as their best chance for survival. Others seek escape from poverty, domestic violence or sexual abuse. These young combatants participate in every aspect of contemporary warfare.
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