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W6nnews.com ==== وطن === تاريخ النشر – 2026-06-27 19:00:00
The Coalition of Sahrawi NGOs highlighted the human rights challenges facing children in conflict zones in Africa, especially inside the Tindouf camps, during an international symposium hosted by the city of Geneva on the sidelines of the sixty-second session of the Human Rights Council, launching the “Geneva Declaration on Africa’s Stolen Childhood” as a collaborative document calling for the development of international protection mechanisms and enhancing accountability regarding the recruitment and exploitation of children in armed conflicts. The participants stressed that the declaration aims to bring about a shift in the international response to the phenomenon of child recruitment, by moving from being satisfied with condemnation to establishing more effective legal mechanisms aimed at prosecuting those responsible for violations, and expanding the powers of the relevant UN bodies to monitor the conditions of children in closed areas and follow up on violations committed against them. In this regard, the symposium raised the catastrophic human rights situation in the Tindouf camps, as the interveners considered that children face increasing risks as a result of the continuation of the crisis, noting their exposure to forms of ideological and military recruitment in light of difficult social and humanitarian conditions, while calling for enabling international monitoring mechanisms to enter the camps and determine the conditions of minors there. The participants also discussed the legal gaps that still limit the effectiveness of the international and African system in confronting the phenomenon of child soldiers, warning of the emergence of new patterns of recruitment, including recruitment through digital media, as well as the continued existence of legal vacuums in some conflict areas, which negatively affects the protection of children and the guarantee of their basic rights. The symposium devoted special space to the suffering of female soldiers, as the interventions pointed out their exposure to multiple forms of gender-based violence, while calling for the adoption of an international approach that takes into account the specificity of their situations, and the integration of their needs into disarmament, demobilization and reintegration programmes. At the end of the symposium, the participants worked on drafting the “Geneva Declaration on Africa’s Stolen Childhood,” which called for strengthening the technical mandate of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict, and establishing a mechanism for judicial referral of grave violations, in addition to urging countries to align their national legislation with international obligations to criminalize the militarization of childhood and impose deterrent penalties on those involved, in a way that enhances the protection of children and enshrines the principle of non-impunity. Children of Tindouf Mina Laghazal, coordinator of the “Coalition of Sahrawi NGOs,” said that the coalition launched from the heart of Geneva a strong call to the conscience of the international community to stop in the face of the tragedy of thousands of children and girls whose horizons are confiscated behind the walls of armed conflicts and inside closed camps, stressing that the phenomenon of child soldiers on the African continent has turned into a systematic strategy adopted by armed parties to ensure the continuation of conflicts, at the expense of the innocence of children and the future of development in Africa. In a statement to Hespress, Ghazal warned that there are at least 300,000 children associated with armed forces and groups around the world, noting that some of them are pushed into wars when they are eight years old, to face a fate that combines physical abuse and psychological mutilation. It also called for attention to be paid to female soldiers, who represent about 40 percent of the total victims, and are subjected to complex gender-based violence, including sexual slavery and forced marriage, while they continue to be excluded from disarmament, demobilization and reintegration programmes. The symposium facilitator explained that the coalition presented before the United Nations mechanisms the details of the situation that it described as tragic in the Tindouf camps in southwestern Algeria, stating that it constitutes a legal vacuum that lacks independent international oversight, which, according to her, has created an incubating environment for the militarization of childhood, the recruitment of minors under the pressure of coercion, ideological load, and the exploitation of human fragility, in violation of international law and the principle of the best interest of the child. The coordinator of the “Coalition of Sahrawi Non-Governmental Organizations” continued, saying: “During our interaction at the international symposium that we organized in Geneva on Africa’s stolen childhood and the problem of child recruitment, we held Algeria, as the host country and the High Contracting Party to the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees, full legal and moral responsibility for the security and safety of all residents on its national territory, and we stressed that the policy of ambiguity and preventing international monitoring mechanisms from entering the camps is not an issue.” Internally, it perpetuates a culture of impunity and gives violators the opportunity to continue their crimes away from the eyes of justice.” Regarding ways to confront these violations, the human rights activist recorded that the coalition firmly called for the adoption of the “Geneva Declaration on Stolen Childhood in Africa” as a binding frame of reference, ensuring the transition from the rhetoric of condemnation to the effectiveness of the measure, considering that strengthening the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court and tightening UN sanctions on those involved in child recruitment, whether they are state or non-state actors, has become an urgent necessity to restore human dignity and dry up the sources of structural violence that affects African childhood. The human rights expert stated that protecting children in conflict areas is no longer just a humanitarian issue, as much as it is an international legal obligation that requires the international community to take practical measures to ensure an end to impunity and the protection of rising generations from the cycle of wars and exploitation. Minna Laghazal concluded her speech to Hespress by stressing that liberating the will of children and girls in the Tindouf camps and in various African conflict hotspots is an international commitment that cannot be divided or postponed, adding that the time has come for weapons to return to stores, and for small hands to regain their natural place by carrying a pen and a doll instead of a gun and hate bombs, in a way that ensures the emergence of a generation that contributes to construction and development instead of demolition and conflict. Implementation gap Rael Nyabuki, a certified mediator and researcher in international law at the University of Bremen in Germany, recorded that the international community faces what she described as a “catastrophic implementation gap” that threatens the future of the rising generations on the African continent, despite the availability of an advanced international legal system to protect children in armed conflicts. Nyabuki added, in a statement to the electronic newspaper Hespress, that the international legal framework, which extends from the Convention on the Rights of the Child and its Optional Protocol of 2000 to the Rome Statute, is an integrated system in theory, but the field reality reveals the continued recruitment of more than one hundred thousand children into armed groups and regular forces in Africa, noting that this situation does not reflect a deficiency in the legal texts as much as it reflects a structural failure in the implementation mechanisms and institutions charged with transforming these standards into actual protection. For children. Participation in the work of the international symposium in Geneva confirmed that civil society organizations play a pivotal role in bridging this gap, noting the initiative of the Sahrawi NGO Alliance to organize the international symposium on “Africa’s Stolen Childhood,” as a space to enhance discussion on mechanisms for protecting children in conflict areas. Nyabuike said: “Civil society organizations have three strategic pillars that countries and international organizations lack, namely societal trust that allows them safe access to affected communities, the ability to dismantle international standards and adapt them to local cultural and linguistic contexts, as well as their proximity to the front lines, which allows them to monitor cases of recruitment and intervene to prevent them before they escalate.” The Kenyan human rights activist stressed that strengthening the role of civil society remains one of the basic keys to ensuring the effective implementation of international obligations to protect children, and transforming legal principles into practical measures that respond to the reality of armed conflicts on the African continent. Regarding the conditions of girl soldiers, the human rights defender criticized what she called the “blind spot” in international law, explaining that girls constitute between 30 and 40 percent of child soldiers, but they are subjected to a complex suffering that combines forced participation in combat, sexual violence, and domestic slavery, at a time when disarmament, demobilization and reintegration programs are still designed according to patriarchal approaches that assume that the fighter is a man, which perpetuates the exclusion of girls and deprives them of justice. And reparation. Rael Nyabuki summed up by saying that addressing the phenomenon of child recruitment requires moving from simply building legal standards to ensuring their implementation on the ground, by enabling the relevant institutions and civil society organizations to carry out their roles in prevention, monitoring and protection, in a way that ensures the protection of children’s rights and ends manifestations of impunity. Black Decade Abdel-Wahab El-Kayne, President of Africa Watch, believes that the launch of the “Geneva Declaration on Africa’s Stolen Childhood” from the heart of the Palais des Nations constitutes a historic turning point in the course of international civil litigation, as it is a step aimed at moving the issue of child soldiers from the realm of theoretical descriptions and diplomatic discourses to the stage of fulfilling international obligations and translating them into practical measures, while pushing towards firm international criminal accountability against those responsible for these violations, as an embodiment of the commitment to protect future generations. Al-Kayen added, in a statement to Hespress, that the coalition confirmed, coinciding with the sixty-second session of the Human Rights Council, that the African continent is experiencing what it described as a “dark decade” for the deprivation of children’s innocence, based on international data documenting the exploitation of thousands of minors within armed militias and non-governmental groups, stating that the continuation of this phenomenon constitutes a fundamental challenge to the rules of international humanitarian law and requires a cross-border human rights response. The human rights activist stressed that the real problem in protecting children does not lie in the lack of international agreements or legislation, but rather in the wide gap between the strength of legal texts and the continued systematic impunity within conflict hotspots, calling for bridging this gap and transforming international protection from theoretical obligations to enforceable rights coupled with mechanisms for international judicial accountability. Regarding the conditions inside the Tindouf camps, Al-Kayen explained that the coalition considers these camps an exceptional and disturbing case, describing them as a “judicial gray area,” stressing that the militarization of childhood under the guise of ideological indoctrination places the host state before its direct legal responsibilities, stressing that geopolitical considerations should not turn into a cover that prevents those responsible for violations from being held accountable. He continued, saying: “Through the Geneva Declaration, we put forward strategic axes aimed at institutionalizing this document as an international reference, which begins with strengthening the technical mandate of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict, and granting him independent field investigative powers that guarantee direct access to closed areas, as a decisive measure to prevent these areas from turning into legal loopholes that perpetuate impunity and legitimize the deprivation of children’s rights.” The deputy coordinator of the coalition of non-governmental organizations warned that the coalition continues to advocate for the adoption of a UN protocol that takes into account the gender specificities of girls associated with armed groups, who face, in his words, “double slavery,” in addition to calling for the systematic inclusion of the issue of child soldiers within the processes of transitional justice and institutional reconstruction in African countries, ensuring the restoration of the rights of these children and breaking the cycle of human exploitation. Abdel Wahab Al-Kayen concluded that “stolen childhood” in Africa is not an inevitable fate, but rather the result of a policy of systematic silence, stressing the commitment of the Sahrawi NGO coalition to continue civil pressure at the international level until every child whose identity was stolen in the Tindouf camps or in any African hotspot of conflict regains his full human dignity and his right to a future of peace and justice.
