ABSTRACT
A recent United Nations report by the Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict (CAAC), children and armed conflict protection standards, and important concrete initiatives, atrocities against children and impunity for violators continue largely unabated on the ground'. This 'cruel dichotomy' then forms the basis of an 'Action plan for the establishment of monitoring, reporting and compliance mechanisms on children affected by armed conflict'. The report is in direct response to Security Council Resolution 1539, and 'draws on extensive consultations on this issue conducted among all stakeholders, particularly Member States, United Nations entities, regional organizations and NGO's. This chapter considers if this new international policy area masks a diversity of conflicts and childhoods and if this creates further issues for all children, both at war and on other, closer, home fronts. The most accepted definition of a child soldier was borne of an attempt by NGOs to better identify soldiers through a more accurate and less weapon-centric interpretation of soldiering.
