全球化对儿童充当士兵的影响:刚果民主共和国背景下的挑战与机遇

The impact of globalisation on child soldiering: challenges and opportunities in the context of the Democratic Republic of Congo

全球化的影响,对世界是个地球村的感知,可以从以下情形识别出来:意识形态的迅速传播;暴力冲突和国家间的敌对状态的区域化;轻型武器的大量扩散和容易获得;为武装集团、民兵和域外大国代理人上演反对已有政府军事行动提供资金帮助的非法矿产贸易。正是在这种不断变动的环境中,儿童被招募和充当士兵。尽管全球化对儿童安全构成了重大威胁,但本文认为,国际社会已作出努力,对非正常使用儿童士兵的行为作出持续的反应。其基础是有关儿童权利的国际法律,以及跨国非政府组织对停止在敌对行动中招募、剥削和使用儿童的倡导。本文把与刚果民主共和国的武装组织和武装部队有关的“卡多戈”(kadogo)儿童,作为一项研究案例,描述全球化对当代儿童充当士兵现象的挑战和带来的机遇。

The impact of globalisation,the perception of the world as a global village,is discernible in the rapid spread of ideologies,the regionalisation of violent conflicts and inter-state hostilities,the proliferation and availability of light weapons,and the illicit trade of minerals that helps finance armed groups,militias and proxies of foreign powers staging military campaigns against established governments.It is within this changing environment that children are recruited and used as soldiers.Despite a major threat posed by globalisation to children’s security,this article argues that international efforts have emerged to provide an ongoing response to the deviant use of child soldiers.This is based on both international jurisprudence pertaining to children’s rights,and advocacy by transnational non-governmental organisations to stop all recruitment,exploitation and use of children in hostilities.The kadogo children associated with armed groups and forces in the Democratic Republic of Congo are used as a case study that depicts both the challenges and opportunities of globalisation for the contemporary child soldiering phenomenon.