TY - CHAP
T1 - Child soldiers in international courtrooms: unqualified perpetrators, erratic witnesses and irreparable victims?
AU - Holá, Barbora
AU - Bouwknegt, Thijs
PY - 2019
Y1 - 2019
N2 - International criminal trials deal with perpetrators and victims of mass atrocity crimes. Child soldiers have appeared in international courtrooms as perpetrators, witnesses and victims. However, these various encounters were often inappropriate, uncomfortable and uneasy. This chapter provides a comprehensive analysis of child soldiers in international courtrooms, focusing on the Special Court for Sierra Leone and the International Criminal Court. It analyses trials with and about child soldiers, describes applicable legal rules, discusses existing practices and identifies core challenges. The chapter unpacks an empirically grounded overview of law’s encounters with child soldiers and then normatively problematizes that encounter. In both international and internationalized courtrooms, child soldiers have been characterized as unqualified perpetrators, erratic witnesses and irreparable victims.
AB - International criminal trials deal with perpetrators and victims of mass atrocity crimes. Child soldiers have appeared in international courtrooms as perpetrators, witnesses and victims. However, these various encounters were often inappropriate, uncomfortable and uneasy. This chapter provides a comprehensive analysis of child soldiers in international courtrooms, focusing on the Special Court for Sierra Leone and the International Criminal Court. It analyses trials with and about child soldiers, describes applicable legal rules, discusses existing practices and identifies core challenges. The chapter unpacks an empirically grounded overview of law’s encounters with child soldiers and then normatively problematizes that encounter. In both international and internationalized courtrooms, child soldiers have been characterized as unqualified perpetrators, erratic witnesses and irreparable victims.
UR - https://www.mendeley.com/catalogue/113c8046-ac60-3fe2-90d2-37287f95c8ab/
UR - https://www.e-elgar.com/shop/gbp/research-handbook-on-child-soldiers-9781788114479.html
U2 - 10.4337/9781788114486.00027
DO - 10.4337/9781788114486.00027
M3 - Chapter
SN - 9781788114479
T3 - Research Handbooks in International law series
SP - 350
EP - 373
BT - Research Handbook on Child Soldiers
A2 - Drumble, Mark A.
A2 - Barrett, Jastine C.
PB - Edward Elgar Publishing, Incorporated
ER -