Children under International Criminal Law

Abstract

This thesis examines the evolving position of International Criminal Law in relation to children with attention to their vulnerability and consequent plight in situations of war and unrest. It identifies ways in which their rights can be better protected even in circumstances where they are in conflict with the law or even found criminally liable. This involves examination of the statutes and regulating instruments of international criminal courts and tribunals as well as their judgements, with particular reference to first judgement given by the International Criminal Court Prosecutor v Thomas Lubanga Dyilo, which was the first to examine in great detail the crime of conscription and enlistment of children under the age of 15 or their use to participate actively in hostilities. It also gives considerable guidance on how to treat children as particularly vulnerable victims and witnesses in international criminal proceedings. The situation of children in conflict with the law is discussed from a domestic point of view with an aim to identify the best ways to deal with child ex-combatants who are simultaneously perpetrators and victims of international crimes. Finally, it discusses the protection for children elicited by international criminal law through the criminalisation of the use of child soldiers at a customary international law level, down to the protection offered to children by States in their implementation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child.