Children in Nepal have been severely impacted by the ten years of armed conflict, which ended two years ago.
During that time hundreds of children have been killed, maimed, orphaned, displaced and used as combatants, informants, and porters. Many have been left traumatized and emotionally scarred. Thousands of these children still remain separated from their parents within cantonments formerly under Maoist control, following the peace deal in 2006.
When Nepal ratified the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1990, and the Optional Protocol on involvement on children in armed conflict, it gave its commitment to children, to every Nepalese citizen and to the international community to protect, promote and implement these rights for children.
Eighteen years on from the signing of the Convention not nearly enough has been done to protect children, especially those children who have been the victims of armed conflict.
Under international law anyone aged under 18 is considered a child. As such, the state must move quickly to ensure that children in the cantonments are treated as children, not fighters, and are allowed to recover what has been lost of their childhood.
The Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal's decision to support the discharge of nearly 3,000 minors who once fought with the Maoists, firmly in line with the Comprehensive Peace Agreement of 2006, is to be welcomed.
The sad thing is that it has already taken far too long to rescue these children from their past. Many have already become adults and have lost years of schooling that it will be impossible to recover. There have already been two years of lost opportunities. It is time to move swiftly to ensure that these children are reintegrated into their home communities, supported as they return to their families, and given the care and encouragement needed to recover from the physical and emotional hurts that they have been subjected to.
To fail to do this deprives Nepal of children who could be productive and upstanding citizens contributing to their family's and the country's wellbeing. It could also leave the nation with a generation of battle-hardened and damaged children who will be prone to violence, social isolation and emotional instability. Putting the dignity of children aside, it plainly makes selfish sense to rehabilitate these children. Nepal pays the price for keeping them locked in the past.
International non-government organisations like World Vision International Nepal have partnered with networks like the Children as Zones Of Peace in calling for children to be protected from conflict and schools to be regarded as safe havens, as well as trying to help communities be more vigilant in protecting their young ones from being exploited by warring factions.
The network has also talked to children. The children have themselves called for boys and girls to be released and have powerfully stood up to demand that children not be sucked into conflict or politics.
While World Vision will not be working directly to reintegrate former child combatants, as a humanitarian agency with a focus on child rights we are fully supportive of the UN's efforts to undertake this important work.
We welcome the fact that the New Child Rights Bill, which will address the use of children by armed forces and armed groups, is being drafted and we hope that it will more effectively enshrine the rights of children so that future generations will be safeguarded.
The government has also expressed its readiness to address and prevent children being exploited for political and electioneering purposes, particularly relating to their use by politicians and agitators in stirring up political violence. But the most critical need now is the immediate and coordinated release of these children from the cantonments.
Children have a right to a family, a right to a childhood, the right to live in peace and the right to a future. Without a speedy resolution these children will continue to live in insecurity and without a future. Two years on from the formal end of the conflict it is wrong to continue to steal the childhoods of another generation of lost children and to steal these children from their parents.
Deepesh Thakur, World Vision Nepal's advocacy officer, works closely with government and other NGOs on issues of child rights and exploitation. He is available for further comment, insight or interview: Mobile : 977-9851102379 E-mail: deepesh_paul_thakur@wvi.org
[ Any views expressed in this article are those of the writer and not of Reuters. ]
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