Dětští vojáci: oběti nebo kati?

Abstract

The article studies questions relating to the dilema of the child soldiers' criminal responsibility. Firstly, it presents the conceptualisation process of childhood in the European societies and impacts of colonialism on African childhood. Further, there is a brief analysis of the international law rules which prohibit child recruiting and child participation in armed conflicts. The main interest focuses on the individual criminal responsibility codified by the international law in the sphere of the abuse of child soldiers and the dilemma of child's responsibility for crimes against the international law. In the last part there is a presentation of several cases of application of criminal responsibility on former child soldiers during the post-conflict process in the countries which passed civil armed conflicts. Examples are chosen from Liberia, The Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda and Sierra Leone.