Tindouf ‘s Coalition for the Protection of Children calls on the UN to save “child soldiers”

On Feb 13, 2023

The UN is being urged by the Civilian Advocacy Coalition for the Protection of Children in Tindouf Camps to act quickly to protect young victims being held in the Tindouf camps. They are pleading for protection from exploitation, slavery, and being used as human shields in armed conflict.

Members of the coalition urged the UN to act promptly and step up its efforts to stop these kids from being enlisted and exploited for military service in the Polisario front-run camp in southern Algeria.

The Coalition stressed the necessity of fighting to prevent the recruitment and exploitation of children in armed conflict and political conflict, as well as to secure their release and reintegration into society as minors, on the occasion of the International Day for the Elimination of Child Soldiers.

Child protection and human rights laws, such as the 1978 Convention against Torture, the Convention on the Rights of the Child, and its optional protocols, are violated by the detention of these kids and their enlistment in the military, as members of the Child Protection Coalition in the Tindouf camps recalled.

The NGO contends that instead of attending school, having fun, and living their childhoods, the child soldiers are being indoctrinated and abused into becoming killing machines.

Instead, they are forced into military activity, trained to carry weapons, and are dehumanized to serve the polisario’s agenda.

The Coalition claimed that the armed separatist group still deprives children of their dignity, destroys their lives and future, and prevents hundreds of them from having access to decent healthcare, education, and play and recreation.

The Coalition notes that these juvenile soldiers of both genders “are victims of sexual abuse and exploitation” and that “female minors are forcibly wedded to combatants in armed groups.” Some of these youngsters are sold into slavery.

The Coalition urged nations to have the political audacity to condemn the abuses committed by armed and terrorist groups against children in the Tindouf camps. These nations must also be legally and politically committed to the fight against this human crime.