step five: developing a policy about child soldiers

Children and Parents Criminal Court Judges Finance and Trade Advisors	Human Rights Activists Mental Health Professionals Military Advisors

Previous	Next

Mental Health Professionals

Before developing a policy for child soldiers, your group needs to:

• Read the following stories about UNICEF programmes and governmental policies designed to help children who have experienced armed conflict.
• Béoué (Rehabilitated child soldier)
• Iraq (Armed conflict)
• Panama (Armed conflict and poverty)
• And read one or more of the following:
• Description of Rehabilitation Programmes for Child Soldiers
• Child Combatants: The Road to Recovery
• Read the Paris Principles, especially sections: 1.6, 3.2-3.3, 3.10, 3.25, 4.0, 7.6.4, 7.31-32, 7.73-76
• Find out what the country you’re representing spends on its military, education, and health care systems to get a sense of how public funds are being allocated. This information can be found in the "Info by Country" section of UNICEF's Web site. [Note: : The "Economics" chart is located within each country's “Statistics” section.]

Use these resources to fill out the following form and use it while presenting your policy recommendation to the Legislative Assembly. As your team develops its policy, remember that its task is to answer the question: WHAT SHOULD BE DONE ABOUT CHILD SOLDIERS?



Group Name:
1) Based on what you've just read, what are the social and emotional problems child soldiers face once they are released from combat? List at least three.
2) How do these problems differ from the usual challenges children face during their childhood, early adolescence, and adolescence? (Include at least three differences.)
3) Using the information published by UNICEF, what programmes do you think might help in the country you are representing?
4) What recommendations does your group have for reintegration of child soldiers into the community, based on the sections of the Paris Principles that you read?
5) Based on your readings from the Paris Principles, what special considerations and policy recommendations concerning the mental and emotional health of girls who have been impressed into armed service has your group considered?
6) What other actions do you recommend that the government and/or civil society take to address the use of child soldiers in the country you are representing?
7) What information about the current conflict in the country you are representing can you use to support your policy recommendations on the use of child soldiers?
8) How does the country you're representing allocate its funds for military, education and health services?
9) Which area gets the most funds? Which gets the least? What does this say about the country's priorities?
10) Based on the data you have examined and what you think needs to be done to address the issue of child soldiers, what changes are needed in the way money is spent in these three areas in order to support your policy recommendations?
You are now ready to create your policy recommendations as Mental Health Professionals. Using the questions on the past two pages as your guide, gather your recommendations to create a succinct declaration on the WebQuest's BIG QUESTION, "What should be done about child soldiers?"
Report prepared by:

Top

STEP FIVE: Page 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13