Teaching Tools

LESSON PLAN : The ICC and Children

CASE STUDIES

Children and the International Criminal Court

The following are based on true stories. Compare these with the International Criminal Court statues and find out what violations have been committed against children.

When a group of men arrive at a 14 year old girl's house in Sierra Leone, she is raped. The aim of these men is to make people afraid of them. It worked: this girl is afraid.

13-year-old George is from Liberia. He joined the rebels when they came to his village and forced all the boys to join them. He is beaten by the soldiers and provided with drugs to give him the courage to fight. George has killed many innocent people.

In Northern Uganda girls have been forcibly impregnated by rebel commanders and then forced to strap their babies on their back and take up arms.

A boy in Burma talks about the beatings, sleep deprivation and starvation that the young recruits in the camp experience. He has been a soldier since he was 10 years old.

In Colombia, children who have been forced to fight are subjected to on-the-spot execution if they try to escape.

A boy from Burma is not allowed to practice his religion so he flees to the Thai-Burmese border after family members have been killed for their beliefs. He lives in a refugee camp with many other children like himself.

Thousands of women and children are trafficked each year. They are coerced, forced from their homes and families. They are then sold as sex workers, as domestic workers, as labourers, and for other types of exploitative work in Thailand

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