AMERICA/COLOMBIA - The “Day of red hands” to say “enough with child soldiers!”

Bogotà (Agenzia Fides) – The recruitment of children for armed conflict has been banned since 12 February, 2002 by Protocol of the UN Convention on the Rights of Children. However, adoption of this protocol has not stopped the paramilitary groups that continue to attract children to their ranks through deception or force. It is estimated that in Colombia there are between 8,000 and 11,000 children and adolescents who act as soldiers. To raise awareness among the Colombian people and to try to put an end to this criminal practice, Amnesty International organised the “Day of red hands” in the Plaza de Armas in Bogotà, today, 5 February. During this event, passers-by were invited to paint their hands red and place them on a sheet of paper as a symbol of rejection of the practice of child recruitment, predominantly carried on by illegal armed groups. In the note sent to Fides by Adital, it states that to the estimated eleven thousand child soldiers in Colombia, can be added the other children used as “human mine detectors” for the armies, so they can advance with no surprises.
It is generally accepted that male children are the main victims of this phenomenon, but also girls, who are still a minority, suffer the same fate by groups like the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia and National Liberation Army. The latter has even carried out recruitment campaigns in schools.
To prevent this violation of the rights of children and adolescents from continuing, there are groups like the “Colombian Coalition to Stop the use of child soldiers”, the Spanish Coalition, Amnesty International, among others, who call for more attention from the Colombian Government to this scourge, by prohibiting the Colombian army to recruit children as informants.
Globally, the number of child soldiers may be as many as 350,000 in countries like the Democratic Republic of Congo, Sierra Leone, Sudan, Afghanistan and Pakistan. This scourge has become one of the great challenges for Colombia, which still fails to guarantee fundamental rights for thousands of children and adolescents. (CE) (Agenzia Fides, 05/02/2011)