First modification:
The Colombian government announced that it will suspend military bombing of guerrilla camps where minors may be forcibly recruited. La Coalico, a coalition that has been fighting since 1999 against the involvement of children and young people in the armed conflict in Colombia, “recognizes potential advances in the protection of their rights.”
The Minister of Defense of Colombia, Iván Velásquez, announced this Thursday before the press that the bombings of the guerrilla camps “must be suspended”, with the aim of avoiding the death of minors recruited by force.
“Minors forcibly recruited by illegal organizations are victims”
Velásquez indicated that the recruited children and youth are victims of the violence that the country has suffered for decades. “Life must always be privileged over death and (military) operations cannot be carried out on one side absolutely that endanger the civilian population,” added the Minister of Defense, so that from now on, before bombing an area, the military will verify if there are minors in the place.
The Coalition against the involvement of children and young people in the armed conflict in Colombia “recognizes potential advances in the protection of the rights of those under 18 years of age.”
Coalico’s lawyer, Juan Manuel Martinez, referred to this Ministry of Defense project as a decision of great interest: “It is consistent with what we have requested, but also consistent with what national and international law mandates in this regard. that the boys or girls who have been recruited should be treated primarily as victims of acts of recruitment, and in this sense there is a primary state obligation to recover these children and to be able to reestablish the full guarantee of their rights and not by the Otherwise, carry out actions arguing some type of military advantage or strategic advantage that ends up affecting their rights or their lives”.
The Coalico considers that there is a way to prevent the cessation of the bombings from “allowing an increase in the recruitment” of minors by illegal groups, for which they see the intervention of other areas of the national government, such as the Ministry Defense, Health, Education, Culture, among other entities, to propose a strategy that prevents recruitment.
“At the same time, they must give a clear message to the armed actors that are part of the confrontation so that they materialize what they have called a will for peace and, in that sense, turn it into concrete actions. For example, that they stop linking boys and girls under 18 years of age to the ranks of that group and, in addition to that, hand over the boys and girls who currently remain in their ranks,” said Martínez.
According to figures from the Observatory of Children and the Armed Conflict of Coalico, at least 85 Colombians under the age of 18 have been victims of recruitment during the first half of 2022.
Add Comment