Author

Fanny Leveau

Date of Award

2011

Degree Type

Thesis

Program

Law

Supervisor

Professor Valerie Oosterveld

Abstract

This dissertation examines who should be held liable under international criminal law for international crimes committed by child soldiers. In order to do so, analysis of primary sources of international criminal law such as the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court and the Statute of the Special Court for Sierra Leone as well as analysis of their jurisprudence is conducted. This thesis also looks at the Convention on the Rights of the Child and at transitional justice mechanisms. It concludes that adults who unlawfully recruit and use child soldiers must be the ones held criminally responsible for the crimes committed by these children. It also concludes that in theory, child soldiers who were over 15 years at the time of the crimes could be prosecuted for these. However, this solution is not recommended because other solutions maybe better adapted to deal with child soldiers.

Share

COinS
 
 

To view the content in your browser, please download Adobe Reader or, alternately,
you may Download the file to your hard drive.

NOTE: The latest versions of Adobe Reader do not support viewing PDF files within Firefox on Mac OS and if you are using a modern (Intel) Mac, there is no official plugin for viewing PDF files within the browser window.