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A Duty To Protect: Justice for Child Soldiers in the D.R.C

Urge your Congressional representatives to support the ICC and to call on President Bush to re-sign the Rome Statute:

1. Email your Congressional representatives here.

2. Call your member of Congress at the Capitol Switchboard at 202-224-3121 and ask to be connected to your member of Congress.

3. Host a video screening and get others to write or call their Congressional representatives. Order a copy of "A Duty To Protect" at the WITNESS Store and invite others to learn more how to get involved in a solution to the issue of child soldiers in the DRC. Have sample letters directed to your Congressional representatives ready for them to sign and mail off.

September 02, 2010

Subject:

I have recently watched "A Duty To Protect: Justice for Child Soldiers in the D.R.C." and am deeply concerned about the use and recruitment of child soldiers in the Democratic Republic of Congo. I am writing to urge you to support the ICC and to advocate for the Rome Statute to be re-signed by President Bush.

The United Nations has reported that all parties to the conflict in the DRC have recruited and used child soldiers. With over ten thousand children estimated to have been recruited into the armed forces since 1996, children as young as eight are used as porters, spies and in active combat. In addition, girl soldiers are particularly vulnerable to sexual exploitation and gender-based violence.  The use and recruitment of child soldiers is a war crime under the Rome Statute and perpetrators of this crime are to be prosecuted by the ICC as the first investigation before the Court.

“A Duty To Protect" tells the stories of Mafille and January, two girls who were recruited into the military at thirteen and ten years of age respectively.  Mafille is a demobilized girl soldier whose experience of violence and sexual exploitation cause her deep psychological scars. In addition to having suffered during the year and a half she spent in the military, Mafille also recounts the stigma she has faced upon returning to civilian life and the constraints in seeking medical attention due to a lack of financial resources. January is a girl soldier whose bravado veils her suffering and whose character and perceptions personify the complexity of the conflict and local perceptions. In this unique portrayal of child soldiers, “A Duty To Protect” also looks at the effects of the recruitment and use of child soldiers on their families and the broader community, concluding that the people of Eastern DRC wish for peace and justice in their region.

The use and recruitment of child soldiers is unacceptable everywhere and must be prosecuted in order to end the type of impunity currently reigning in the DRC.  I urge you to pressure the US government to cease its hostility against the ICC and re-sign the Rome Statute.

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