Skip to main content

Advertisement

SpringerLink
Log in

Challenges of Reintegrating Self-Demobilised Child Soldiers in North Kivu Province: Prospects for Accountability and Reconciliation via Restorative Justice Peacemaking Circles

  • Published:
Human Rights Review Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Social reintegration of self-demobilised child combatants can be seriously imperilled by the lack of accountability for human rights violations allegedly carried out during their soldiering life and the failure to pursue reconciliation with their respective communities. This paper examines the circumstances leading young soldiers to voluntarily exit armed groups and militias and the extent to which resettling in the community can be facilitated by restorative justice mechanisms. The findings suggest a large support by war-affected communities for restorative justice peacemaking circles as potential accountability and reconciliation measures to help reintegrate self-demobilised soldiers into society. These results were obtained from interviews, focus group discussions and descriptive statistics in which 1447 respondents participated. These included young ex-soldiers, students, educators, government official, members on NGOs, traditional leaders and councils, Security Services, and the Police. The inquiry was conducted between 3 May and 17 December 2014 in North Kivu Province, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Fig. 1

Similar content being viewed by others

Notes

  1. These mechanisms refer to truth and reconciliation commission, a special court or tribunal and structured and organised DDR.

  2. Effectives provided by an NGO in Butembo in North Kivu, cited in Rouw and Willems (2010).

  3. See the 2009 United Nations Document: ‘The Six Grave Violations Against Children During Armed Conflict.’ UN Office of Special Representative of the Secretary General on Children in Armed Conflict. Working Paper No 1, October 2009 (Updated November 2013).

  4. Names of child soldiers at three interim centres (Nyahanga, Kiwanja and Masisi) were found in the registries accessed with the permission of Caritas Goma and Union for Peace and the Promotion of Child Rights (UPEDECO). Gatekeepers were obtained from these institutions to conduct the study.

  5. Due to the limited scope of this article that draws only on one aspect of the findings, some findings are not included here, though relevant.

  6. These revelations were made during focus groups and interviews with several child soldiers at CTOs of Masisi and Rutshuru, between 3 May and 22 June 2014.

  7. Manoti is an armed group leader well-known for kidnappings and asking for ransom. He operates around Kiwanja, Rutshuru and Rubaya. Manoti from Kiswahili word ‘notes’ refers to US Dollar notes that victims pay for their release once kidnapped by Manoti group.

  8. Focus groups with child self-demobilised child soldiers in Masisi, North Kivu, 11 June 2014.

  9. Baraza intercommunautaire emerged in the first phase of data collection. This is a cultural and traditional council of elders in North Kivu local communities. It helps prevent and resolve interpersonal and intercommunity conflict.

  10. See Table 4.

References

  • A Handbook of restorative justice programmes. Criminal justice handbook series, UN Office on Drugs and Crime (2006).

  • Ashworth, Andrew & McLaughlin, E. (2003). Is restorative justice the way forward for criminal justice? In E McLaughlin, R Fergusson, G Hugues & L Westmarland (Eds.), Restorative Justice. Critical Issues (pp. 164-181). London, Thousand Oaks, New Delhi: Sage Publications.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bless, Claire, Higson-Smith, Craig & Kagee, Ashraf. (2006). Fundamentals of social research methods: An African perspective: Juta and Company Ltd.

  • Boshoff, Henri (2010). Completing the Demobilisation, Disarmament, and Reintegration Process of Armed Groups in the Democratic Republic of Congo and the Link to Security Sector Reform of FARDC: Mission Difficult! Institute for Security Studies. 23, http://dspace.cigilibrary.org/jspui/bitstream/123456789/30998/1/23Nov2010.pdf?1 (27 October 2013)

  • Centre for Justice and Reconciliation (2008) What is Restorative Justice? Restorative justice briefing paper -1. Prison Fellowship International.

  • De Vries, Hugo & Wiegink, Nikkie (2011). Breaking up and going home? Contesting two assumptions in the demobilization and reintegration of former combatants. International Peacekeeping, 18(1), 38-51.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Democratic Republic of Congo (2010). Rapport Annuel 2010 [Annual Report 2010]. Kinshasa: Minitere de la Defense Nationale et des Anciens Combatants. Programme National de Desarmement, Demobilisation et Reinsertion (PNDDRR) [Ministry of Defense and Ex-Combatants. National programme of Disarmament, Demobilisation and Reintegration (PNDDR)].

  • Drumbl, Mark A. (2012). Reimagining child soldiers in international law and policy: Oxford University Press.

  • Hsieh, Hsiu-Fang & Shannon, Sarah E. (2005). Three approaches to qualitative content analysis. Qualitative health research, 15(9), 1277-1288.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jourdan, Luca (2011). Mayi-Mayi: Young Rebels in Kivu, DRC. Africa Development, 36(3-4), 89-112.

    Google Scholar 

  • Juma, Mulanda (2012). Community-based approaches to the reintegration of self-demobilised child soldiers: The case of the Democratic Republic of Congo. In Ilse Derluyn, Cindy Mels, Stephan Parmentier & Wouter Vandenhole (Eds.), Re-member: Rehabiliation, reintegration and reconciliation of war-affected children (pp. 377-401). Cambridge: Intersentia.

    Google Scholar 

  • Marshall, Tony F. & Britain, Great. (1999). Restorative justice: An overview. London: Home Office London.

    Google Scholar 

  • Morgan, Myfanwy, Gibbs, Sara, Maxwell, Krista & Britten, Nicky (2002). Hearing children's voices: methodological issues in conducting focus groups with children aged 7-11 years. Qualitative Research, 2(1), 5-20.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Morrow, Virginia & Richards, Martin (1996). The ethics of social research with children: An overview1. Children & society, 10(2), 90-105.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Popovski, Vesselin & Arts, Karin (2006). International Criminal Accountability and Children's Rights. Policy Brief. United Nations University.

  • Pranis, Kay, Stuart, Barry & Wedge, Mark (2003). Peacemaking circles: From Crime to community: Living Justice Press

  • Rouw, Hans & Willems, Rens (2010). Connecting community security and DDR: Experiences from Eastern DRC. The Hague: Working Group on Community Security and Community-based DDR in Fragile States, Peace, Security and Development Network.

  • Schotsmans, Martien (2012). No Return home: The (Non-) Reintegration of youth ex-combatants in Sierra Leone as a challenge to the contextualisation of DDR and transitional justice. In Ilse Derluyn, Cindy Mels, Stephan Parmentier & Wouter Vandenhole (Eds.), Re-Member: Rehabilitation, reintegration and reconciliation of war-affected children (pp. 215-241). Cambridge: Intersentia.

    Google Scholar 

  • Scott, Jacqueline (2000). The Challenge for Quantitative Methods. London: Falmers press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Seymour, Claudia (2011). Selective outrage: the dangers of children’s DDR in eastern DRC. In Kerstin Vignard & Ross McRae (Eds.), Children and conflict: Disarmament forum (pp. 57-66). Geneva: United Nations Instutute for Disarmament Research.

    Google Scholar 

  • Stuart, B. & Pranis, K. (2008). Peacemaking circles: reflections on principal features and primary outcomes. In D Sullivan & L Tifft (Eds.), Handbook of restorative justice: London and New York: Routledge International Handbooks, 121-132.

    Google Scholar 

  • Talja, Sanna (1999). Analyzing qualitative interview data: The discourse analytic method. Library & information science research, 21(4), 459-477.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Teddlie, Charles & Tashakkori, Abbas (2009). Foundations of mixed methods research: Integrating quantitative and qualitative approaches in the social and behavioral sciences. Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications Inc.

    Google Scholar 

  • Umbreit, Mark S, Coates, Robert B. & Vos, Betty. (2002). The impact of restorative justice conferencing: A review of 63 empirical studies in 5 countries: University of Minnesota Center for Restorative Justice & Peacemaking, School of Social Work, University of Minnesota.

  • Van Ness, Daniel. (2005). An overview of restorative justice around the world. Paper presented at the Eleventh United Nations Congress on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice. Bangkok, Thailand, 18-25 April 2005. Item 8 (b) of the provisional agenda Workshop 2: Enhancing Criminal Justice Reform Including Restorative Justice, 22 April 2005. http://www.icclr.law.ubc.ca/publications/reports/11_un/dan%20van%20ness%20final%20paper.pdf (21 March 2013).

  • Vlassenroot, Koen. (2001). Violence et constitution de milices dans l’est du Congo: Le cas des mayi-mayi. L’Afrique des Grands Lacs, Annuaire, 2002, 115-152.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wessells, Michael G. (2006). Child soldiers: From violence to protection. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Zehr, Howard. (2002). The little book of restorative justice. PA: Good Books Intercourse.

    Google Scholar 

  • Zena, Prospher N. (2013). The Lessons and Limits of DDR in Africa. Africa Security Brief vol. 24, January 2013, http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/library/report/2013/acss-africa-security-brief-24.pdf (29 August 2014).

Download references

Acknowledgments

The author remains indebted to Durban University of Technology (DUT) and the South African National Research Foundation (NRF) for funding this research; to Prof Geoff T. Harris of DUT (Public Management, my Supervisor), for his timeless support and guidance; to Dr. Bloodless Dzwairo (Interim Grant Administrator-DUT) for valuable organisational remarks; to my helpers during fieldwork (Sandrine Kayandi, Patrick Kibonzi and Julien Modero); and to all former child soldiers and members of various communities in the North Kivu province for their interest and cooperation in this inquiry.

Conflict of Interest

There is no conflict of interest that would undermine the impartiality of this study. It is a scientific study that followed all ethical considerations, as explained in the design and methodology section.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Public Management-Peacebuilding and Conflict Resolution, Durban University Technology-ML Sultan Campus, Durban, South Africa

    Jean Chrysostome K. Kiyala

  2. Emmanuel Catholic Cathedral, Cathedral Road, Durban, 4001, South Africa

    Jean Chrysostome K. Kiyala

Authors
  1. Jean Chrysostome K. Kiyala
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Jean Chrysostome K. Kiyala.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Kiyala, J.C.K. Challenges of Reintegrating Self-Demobilised Child Soldiers in North Kivu Province: Prospects for Accountability and Reconciliation via Restorative Justice Peacemaking Circles. Hum Rights Rev 16, 99–122 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12142-015-0361-7

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12142-015-0361-7

Keywords

Search

Navigation