The World of Child Soldiers

Making News

Pace Replaced as Joint Chiefs Chair in Pentagon Shake-Up ()

Defense Secretary Robert Gates announced today that General Peter Pace will step down in September as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs-of-Staff, along with Vice Chair Ed Giambastiani.  Stating that the decision had nothing to do with the performance of either man, Gates said he will recommend Admiral Mike Mullen, currently chief of naval operations, to replace him.  Greg Lubold reports on the Pentagon for the Christian Science Monitor.

Guests:

• Gordon Lubold: Pentagon Correspondent for Military Times

Main Topic

Child Soldiers ()

Baby brigades, little bees, small boys units…the names may change, but the reality doesn't. More than a quarter of a million children around the world are fighting adults' wars, serving in rebel militias, national armies, and paramilitary groups.  At The Hague this week, where the trial began for the former president of Liberia, one of charges facing Charles Taylor is solicitation of child soldiers. Why does the US give military aid to countries that use child soldiers? What impact will recent trials have on punishing children in arms or the adults who recruit them? What price do the children pay?  What kind of rehabilitation is possible for children who have killed?

Guests:

• Grace Akallo: former child soldier
• Jo Becker: Children's Rights Advocacy Director for Human Rights Watch
• David Crane: former Chief Prosecutor of the Special Court for Sierra Leone
• Mike Wessells: Senior Adivsor on Child Protection for the Christian Children's Fund

Links:

• International Labour Organization on Elimination of Child Labour
• UN Convention on the Rights of the Child
• Security Council Working Group on Children and Armed Conflict
• World Vision on Child Soldiers
• SeekJustice.org
• Child Soldiers Prevention Act (S 1175)
• US v Omar Ahmed Khadr
• International Criminal Court on Thomas Lubanga, Democratic Republic of Congo
• Ishmeal Beah's 'A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier'
• Akallo's 'Girl Soldier'
• Wessells' 'Child Soldiers'

Reporter's Notebook

Saudi Arabia through the Eyes of One Western Woman ()

Megan Stack thought she knew what she was in for when she made her first trip to Saudi Arabia nearly four years ago. Aware of the restricted world in which women lived, the Los Angeles Times reporter came prepared to be respectful of a foreign culture. What she didn't anticipate, however, was the way her experiences there made her feel. She chronicled those experiences this week in an article called "In Saudi Arabia, A View from Behind the Veil."

Guests:

• Megan Stack: Reporter for the Los Angeles Times