Derluyn Ilse, Vandenhole Wouter, Parmentier Stephan, Mels Cindy
Department of Social Work and Social Pedagogy & Centre for Children in Vulnerable Situations, Ghent University, H. Dunantlaan 2, 9000, Gent, Belgium.
Law and Development Research Group, University of Antwerp, Venusstraat 23, 2000, Antwerp, Belgium.
BMC Int Health Hum Rights. 2015 Oct 14;15:28. doi: 10.1186/s12914-015-0068-5.
Worldwide, thousands of children are acting in different roles in armed groups. Whereas human rights activism and humanitarian imperatives tend to emphasize the image of child soldiers as incapable victims of adults' abusive compulsion, this image does not fully correspond with prevailing pedagogical and jurisprudential discourses, nor does it represent all child soldiers' own perceptions of their role. Moreover, contemporary warfare is often marked by fuzzy distinctions between perpetrators and victims. This article deepens on the question how to conceptualize the victim-perpetrator imaginary about child soldiers, starting from three disciplines, children's rights law, psychosocial approaches and transitional justice, and then proceeding into an interdisciplinary approach.
We argue that the victim-perpetrator dichotomy in relation to child soldiers needs to be revisited, and that this can only be done successfully through a truly interdisciplinary approach. Key to this interdisciplinary dialogue is the growing awareness within all three disciplines, but admittedly only marginally within children's rights law, that only by moving beyond the binary distinction between victim- and perpetrator-hood, the complexity of childhood soldiering can be grasped. In transitional justice, the concept of role reversal has been instructive, and in psychosocial studies, emphasis has been put on the 'agency' of (former) child soldiers, whereby child soldiers sometimes account on how joining the armed force or group was (partially) out of their own free will. Hence, child soldiers' perpetrator-hood is not only part of the way child soldiers are perceived in the communities they return to, but equally of the way they see themselves. These findings plea for more contextualized approaches, including a greater participation of child soldiers, the elaboration of accountability mechanisms beyond criminal responsibility, and an intimate connection between individual, social and societal healing by paying more attention to reconciliation. This article deepens on the question how to conceptualize the victim-perpetrator imaginary about child soldiers through an interdisciplinary dialogue between children's rights law, psychosocial approaches and transitional justice. With this interdisciplinary perspective, we intend to open up narrow disciplinary viewpoints, and contribute to more integrated approaches, beyond a binary distinction between victimhood and perpetrator-hood.
在全球范围内，数以千计的儿童在武装团体中扮演着不同角色。人权行动主义和人道主义需求往往强调儿童兵是成人虐待性强迫行为的无助受害者形象，但这一形象与主流的教育学和法学话语并不完全相符，也不能代表所有儿童兵对自身角色的认知。此外，当代战争往往以加害者与受害者之间的模糊区分作为特征。本文从儿童权利法、社会心理方法和过渡司法这三个学科出发，深入探讨如何将儿童兵的受害者 - 加害者想象概念化，进而采用跨学科方法。
我们认为，与儿童兵相关的受害者 - 加害者二分法需要重新审视，而这只有通过真正的跨学科方法才能成功实现。这种跨学科对话的关键在于，所有这三个学科都日益意识到，诚然儿童权利法领域内的认识较为有限，即只有超越受害者与加害者身份的二元区分，才能把握儿童当兵现象的复杂性。在过渡司法中，角色转换的概念具有启发性，而在社会心理研究中，重点则放在了（前）儿童兵的“能动性”上，据此儿童兵有时会说明加入武装部队或团体（部分）是出于他们自己的自由意志。因此，儿童兵的加害者身份不仅是他们回归的社区对他们的认知方式的一部分，也是他们看待自己的方式的一部分。这些发现呼吁采用更具情境化的方法，包括让儿童兵更多地参与，制定超越刑事责任的问责机制，以及通过更多地关注和解，在个人、社会和社会层面的愈合之间建立紧密联系。本文通过儿童权利法、社会心理方法和过渡司法之间的跨学科对话，深入探讨如何将儿童兵的受害者 - 加害者想象概念化。从这种跨学科视角出发，我们旨在拓宽狭隘的学科观点，为超越受害者与加害者身份二元区分的更综合方法做出贡献。
