http://www.ifimes.org/en/9222

Child recruitment

• Sarah Alsouhail

Child recruitment

The phenomenon of recruitment of child soldiers in the Middle East, a humanitarian catastrophe by all standards, while the international community and its organizations and bodies and its laws stand unable to face them, if children and peoples of the Middle East region are paying the price for this recruitment currently in the murder of innocence, childhood and turn them into criminals kill everything and everybody, the peoples of the world will pay greater if this phenomenon did not occur, especially since terrorism is spreading in the world as the speed of skyrocketing. Our region ripple many of the organizations that recruit children as is the case in Syria, Iraq, Yemen, Afghanistan and Sudan, such as Daesh, and al-Qaeda and Boko Haram and others. The world is watching to organize Daesh, and he is recruiting children to carry out acts of violence, murder and terrorism, chaos and fragmentation of states, and spawn new generations of terrorists, those children who were raised on the scenes of violence and bombings, murders, they will rise and consider that the murder is a part of everyday life.

Painful Facts 

According to international reports, it is also in Yemen are exploiting children, UNICEF, announced that the proportion of children in the ranks of veterans of the Houthis are a third of all fighters in Yemen, as the corresponding bodies are supported with army and foreign weapons, and here it exploitation of children in

fighting become less. While the organization of Daesh fighters forcing the kidnapped Yazidis children to become soldiers and suicide bombers after taking them for training in terrorist camps, and to prepare them for war. In Nigeria, where the conflict intensifies, the group "Boko Haram"  and committees of popular security which is anti for them, are recruiting children and force them to carry out assistance and spyware, In Somalia, the Young Mujahideen Movement  forcing Somali children to fight in their ranks, after they have been abducted from their families, homes, and schools. 

Means recruiting 

The diversity of methods of terrorist organizations in the recruitment of child soldiers, Daesh depends on  the policy of starvation and entice parents to send their children for money, as is the case with the people of Raqqa, Syria, who is working for the Daesh receive a salary of fighter ranges between 400. $ 1,000 a month, also recruiting methods like, corruption of children through camps, preaching and distributing gifts to them and allow them to use their weapons and play them, the children were kidnapped and are being recruited without the knowledge of parents, as are recruited large numbers of children who are orphans or street children and homeless or without a maintainer, they are lured by providing housing and shelter for them and convince them that they are workers and producers and are paid salaries for their work. On the hand, children are recruited, who stayed away from their homes for long hours in the labor market, these children have lost the atmosphere and the warmth of the family, they became psychological gap that allow any intruder to broke into their suffering and lack of passion and care, and that these children are accustomed to toil and fatigue, responsibility and hardships, they recruited large numbers of children via the Internet, websites and social networking sites, where the child resides for entertainment, exploration and communicate with others. Hence the risk of not watching children and monitor their accounts lies in these sites, whether those responsible for the fight against the recruitment of children by parents or themselves, It turned out that not all recruits from limited  or low or no income, there are children from rich families but suffer from void in the time and the space in the emotion and thought, and they got easily brainwashed. Anything empty is easy to fill it according to the operator, Hence I warned too much, that parents should fill the lives of their children in studying and reading, activities and discuss with them the ideas and put forward important issues awareness in front of them, and their education and enter the moral teachings to their hearts before the recruiters.

The TV channels and what it shows on their screens from a boot to the recruitment of children programs and ideas  are insinuate sometimes openly and directly, other times lightly and gradually simplified method based on repetition of information diluted as putting poison in the honey. Who does not now recognize that education and religious discourse curricula in some houses of worship directed, and also media channels, whether visual or audio or online, all they contributed and contribute to the creation of terrorism, and so far no step or initiative to change it has done. Since I'm more than 7 years I demand to change the curriculum, and suggested that I participate in the preparation for this, but nobody listened. 

After recruitment 

The organization of their education and training to fight and graduation being ready to fight groups, not to exceed 16 years of age in the battle groups, they are often recruited as elements of suicide or spies, because of their mobility and stealth and find out ways on Earth. The economic aspect plays a role in the children's category to take advantage of the terrorist organizations, as the young pay far less than older, the discipline and enthusiasm can be exploited to convince them through influence on the minds of suicide bombers. Major disaster that children with special needs are not immune from terrorist recruitment, where they are used without their wills in car bombings in Iraq, as Daesh organization commented when they used them in suicide bombings, booby-trapping and Jerry without their knowledge or realized what happened to them. 

Brainwashing

One of the most methods and the young recruit to the terrorist organizations is the brains washing through educational schools, International reports have detected the presence of more than 12 thousand schools belonging to the organization of al Qaeda and Daesh in Syria, which means that these young people have been exposed to the case of a deleting of the identity of the ideas of violence and fighting, making them ticking time bombs deliver the face of their communities and the face of the global community, in what they imbued from the thought of atonement and blasting.

Electronic recruitment

The organization of Daesh hired modern technology in the recruitment of children by publishing manuals on the Internet networks explain to mothers how to raise their children on Aldaasha thought, and to urge them to read the stories about jihad when they went to sleep, and encourage them to practice sports, such as archery, in order to improve their ability to aim. Encourage children to play the game with pistols, conversion training to the fun and joy for kids, terrorist organizations also resorted to exploit the technique and technology in recruiting young children and juveniles through electronic games, and make friends mock them and exploit their accounts and to know their PIN numbers, then being intimidated and threatened for later. And it bears the parents and the community the responsibility of the occurrence of this crime, because they neglected to monitor their children while playing such dangerous games, the society also bears the responsibility for its inability to set controls for these games codify the use and control. These electronic games is prone to penetrate terrorist groups and then offer the children who use them for threats Aldoaash and al-Qaeda to kill their parents or kidnapped if they do not obey their desires and their guidance.

Raise awareness 

This issue remains serious societal issue that requires electronic school cooperation, and I think it is time to take stock in the Arab world of specialized scientific studies that warn of these games, Including a study of the Organization for Justice and Development, one of the study organizations in the Middle East, which was the first to warn of the production of Playstation Games, and which are sold in various markets during the summer vacation because of the seriousness and close association with psychology and its impact on the subconscious mind and the subconscious, through the introduction of ideas and formulation in the form of an exciting story reaches of the human mind, which is not aware of messages affect the subconscious mind for children and young people. The organization has demonstrated in it's study of a large number of games used to control the mind and is aware of associated intelligence, It is a comprehensive control personality and emancipate the mind of the laws and morality and immorality allow the community through instill these concepts minds of children. The international intelligence used the strategy of mind control to carry out terrorist operations in the countries where the major powers failed to penetrate its national security, especially Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia, Sudan, where they used symbols and codes that Games a major terrorist operations, In addition to its role in controlling the mind and the recruitment of thousands of young people to fight the ranks of militant groups after the operations of mind control operations, and therefore used Daesh used it to recruit the children in the camps they are trained in the killings and bombings. 

The position of the law of God 

Divine religions, including the Islamic religion forbids the use of children in war and conflict as little atonement Observatory of the Dar al-Fatwa in a report,  stressing that Islamic law emphasized the protection of children in wars and armed conflicts and prevent them from joining the army and fight in wars, because the child is poor infrastructure and not able to withstand its horrors, as discouraged about the killing of children in wars and ruled that exposure to them, The Prophet forbade – Peace Be Upon Him - expressly forbid the killing of women and boys in wars, where he said: " "What's wrong with people who reached their murder that killed the race ?, do not kill the race, do not kill the race". The most important of these principles endorsed by Islam and warned Observatory Azhari of the recruitment of children, because it's going to tame the coming generation carries the ideology and terrorist organizations. As well as the Christian religion and of our Lord Jesus Christ, who urged to protect children and give them the attention and care and love and teach them tolerance and compassion and love.

The recruitment of children and international law

The recruitment of children under 15 years of fighting is prohibited under international humanitarian law and in accordance with the treaties and norms, as being defined as a war crime by the International Criminal Court. Human rights law also declares the age of 18 years as the legal minimum age for recruitment and use of children in hostilities, the parties of the conflict that recruit and use children by the Secretary-General were added on the list of shame, that issued annually.

While UNICEF remains concerned with the rights of children are unable to stop this crime which expands in the Middle East, UNICEF is not able to offer any assistance to these children who are under the control of terrorist organizations only after their liberation from the grip, and then UNICEF can work to support these children once the demobilization of armed groups, and take them back to their families, and health care, and the provision of necessities, psychological support, and provide education and social rehabilitation.

Cooperation to wash the shame 

The remaining operations of recruiting children to the terrorist organizations in the Middle East, shame on the forehead of the international community requires cooperation with human rights organizations and civil society organizations to put pressure on the governments of this region and to stop the arrival of any financing of terrorist groups.

And the faithful of the wisdoms of this region to make every effort to raise awareness of the seriousness of the recruitment of children in conflict, to make learning and religious, social and media institutions roles parallel to work on strengthening family links and spread awareness among parents, to protect their children from having to work in appalling conditions and fortify their children from wash brains, which runs through the social networks and across the electronic games and other methods.

In the end, all States, their government institutions have to provide a healthy environment for children of food, clothing, housing, health, compulsory schools and change the education curriculum and control the terrorists and their methods to protect children from their evil, and last but not least, the proper education of religion, so they have a full awareness of the difference between right and wrong.

The most important of all of this is that the start from the house and the family, a mother who does not give her children a lot of love and passion will lose this baby who would become a cruel violent, how the child is going to learn love, if he doesn't feel it in childhood.

Sarah Alsouhail, Iraqi Writer and human rights activist. Member of the Arab Federation for the Protection of Intellectual Property Rights. Goodwill Ambassador of the United Nations UN in 2013.

Ljubljana, September 28, 2016