RITE AND REASON: The children were made take drugs, commit atrocities against their families and neighbours, and were forced to become sex slaves, writes Declan Fahy of the recent war in Sierra Leone
During a 10-year civil war in the small west African country of Sierra Leone, thousands of children were abducted, forced to fight as child soldiers, were repeatedly raped, and were made perform other atrocities such as cutting off limbs.
The country is a part of the world where children have suffered the worst forms of child exploitation, a global issue which aid agency Trócaire wants to highlight in its Lenten campaign for this year.
Following on from last year's theme of slavery and bonded labour, the campaign will this year focus on the worst forms of child exploitation, including all forms of slavery, the compulsory recruitment of children for armed combat, the use of children for illicit activity, such as drug trafficking, and the commercial sexual exploitation of children.
Ms Caoimhe de Barra, campaigns officer, Trócaire, said the issue was chosen as this year's theme because it is such a serious matter of which there was limited public knowledge.
Furthermore, Trócaire has strong links and helps fund a local partner, Caritas Makeni, in Sierra Leone, which works to rehabilitate and reintegrate former child soldiers.
Sierra Leone had an estimated 6,000 child combatants during the war. A further 5,000 were used as forced labour in rebel camps.
The war was fought from 1991 between government forces and armed groups, including the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) and the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (AFRC).
Children as young as seven were recruited by the RUF and the AFRC.
But it was not only the rebel factions which recruited children. Up to 30 per cent of government-sponsored Citizens Defence Forces (CDF) militias are between seven and 14.
The children were made take drugs, commit atrocities against their families and neighbours, and were forced to become sex slaves.
Peace was declared in the country on January 17th, and many former child combatants, with aid from Caritas Makeni, are now being formally educated or are learning vocational skills.
Worldwide, there are, at any one time, 300,000 child soldiers serving in armed forces in 40 countries.
A total of two million children have died in armed conflict during the past 10 years. Countries affected in Africa as well as Sierra Leone include Angola, Burundi and Uganda.
In Sri Lanka, of 180 Tamil Tiger guerrillas killed in one government attack, more than half were still in their teens.
And a survey of wounded soldiers in Cambodia found that one fifth were between the ages of 10 and 14 when recruited.
The aid agency says Ireland has a key role to play in child protection: in January this year it assumed a two-year role on the Executive Committee of UNICEF, the UN body for children.
To highlight the issue of child soldiers, Trócaire wants the Government to adopt a UN protocol which makes it illegal for armed forced like rebels or paramilitaries to recruit people under 18.
The Defence Forces can currently recruit people from the age of 16 but only with written parental consent.
In 1998, some 22 per cent of recruits were under 18.
Nobody under 18 can go on overseas missions, said a spokesman, adding that recruits under 18 were closely monitored.
Trócaire says the State has signed the protocol - Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the Involvement of Children in Armed Conflict - but has not ratified it.
Ratifying this protocol, Trócaire argues, "would strengthen Ireland's voice at an international level" as the State - in this UN decade of peace and non-violence for children of the world - "would be seen to have adopted the highest standards of child protection at home."
Yet raising the age of recruitment, it is understood, may hit recruitment to the Defence Forces as children leaving school would instead opt for other professions.
Trócaire also wants the Government to ratify the International Criminal Court to ensure people are tried for using child soldiers.
A total of 60 countries must ratify the statute for the court to be established.
In its Lenten campaign this year, Ms de Barra said Trócaire also wanted to highlight the political context which allowed children to be exploited in this matter.
This context almost invariably involved poverty, inequality of wealth and corruption, said Ms de Barra.
During the Lenten campaign last year, some €10m was raised. Lent this year runs from February 13th until March 31st, and Trócaire says punts, as well as euros, can be placed in its boxes.
Further information on the campaign is at www.trocaire.org Donations can be made by phoning Callsave on 1850-40.
Declan Fahy is a freelance journalist with The Irish Times. He has recently been with Trócaire in Sierra Leone