Disarming Children and Youth: Raising Awareness and Addressing the Impact of Small Arms

The document provides a comprehensive action plan to address the involvement of children and youth with small arms and light weapons (SALW). It details strategies across several pillars: the disarmament and reintegration of child combatants to prevent rearmament, the prevention of recruitment under international protocols, and the mainstreaming of child-related arms issues into policy and practice. The framework emphasizes the need for vocational training, psychosocial care, and the integration of non-violence curricula in schools. It also advocates for youth engagement through mediation skills and the establishment of youth-to-youth networks, alongside long-term research into reintegration patterns for refugees and internally displaced persons.

• The framework proposes a multi-pronged approach to the disarmament and reintegration of children and youth, which includes advocating for their inclusion in peace agreements, documenting the DDR process through data collection on weapon quantities, and monitoring commitments regarding non-conscription to prevent rearmament.
• To prevent the arming of children, the document advocates for the use of the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child to stop recruitment and suggests the creation of gun/violence-free zones and the introduction of non-violence training in primary and secondary school curricula.
• The strategy emphasizes mainstreaming children and small arms issues by coordinating with UN agencies like UNICEF and UNHCR, engaging with national commissions on small arms, and developing policies for dialogue with non-state actors.
• Reintegration efforts are to be supported by expanding vocational training and specialized psychosocial care for ex-combatants, including women and girl mothers, and by linking education to agricultural sector strategies.
• The document calls for peace-building and justice initiatives, including long-term research on reintegration patterns for refugees and internally displaced persons, judicial reform collaboration, and peace education training within prisons.

APA

Institute for Security Studies (2003). Disarming Children and Youth: Raising Awareness and Addressing the Impact of Small Arms. https://issafrica.org/research/publication-archives/conference-reports/12-sep-2003-conference-report-disarming-children-and-youth-raising-awareness-and-addressing-the-impact-of-small-arms-accra-8-12-september-2003/context

Chicago

Institute for Security Studies. Disarming Children and Youth: Raising Awareness and Addressing the Impact of Small Arms. 2003. https://issafrica.org/research/publication-archives/conference-reports/12-sep-2003-conference-report-disarming-children-and-youth-raising-awareness-and-addressing-the-impact-of-small-arms-accra-8-12-september-2003/context.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=Institute for Security Studies |title=Disarming Children and Youth: Raising Awareness and Addressing the Impact of Small Arms |date=12 September 2003 |url=https://issafrica.org/research/publication-archives/conference-reports/12-sep-2003-conference-report-disarming-children-and-youth-raising-awareness-and-addressing-the-impact-of-small-arms-accra-8-12-september-2003/context |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{instituteforsecuritystudies2003disarming, author = {{Institute for Security Studies}}, title = {{Disarming Children and Youth: Raising Awareness and Addressing the Impact of Small Arms}}, institution = {Institute for Security Studies}, year = {2003}, month = sep, url = {https://issafrica.org/research/publication-archives/conference-reports/12-sep-2003-conference-report-disarming-children-and-youth-raising-awareness-and-addressing-the-impact-of-small-arms-accra-8-12-september-2003/context}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }