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Issues >
Disarmament & Demobilization
Concerns
Disarmament and Demobilization of fighting forces is an important first step to ending a conflict and transitioning into peace. It is essential that combatants and those who have supported the war effort start the transition from soldiers to civilians.
RI has pushed for the planners of the disarmament and demobilization process to extend funding to female combatants – who are often forgotten when it comes to planning. Female combatants play a variety of roles in the conflict – from acting as porters and cooks to actually carrying guns, yet they are often seen as ‘dependents’. By overlooking both the important role that women play as combatants and the fact that many women are abducted by fighting forces to be forced sexual slaves, disarmament and demobilization planners are jeopardizing peace processes by leaving women out of the planning.
RI also advocates that child combatants be treated as victims of war rather than put on the same level as adult combatants. There has been a disastrous trend in West Africa to pay child combatants the same ‘disarmament stipend’ as adult combatants receive. Not only has this put child combatants at risk of being exploited by their former commanders, it also acts as a tacit reward to parents who have allowed their children to be recruited into fighting forces. By emphasizing community reintegration processes and added attention to the needs of children, RI believes that these smallest victims of war return to school and their communities and can go on to become productive members of society.
Accomplishments
Refugees International has sought to bring attention to the needs of children affected by conflict to policy makers in the United Nations and the United States. Here are a few of our accomplishments:
- Tens of thousands of Rwandans have
been living in the eastern DRC since the 1994 genocide in Rwanda --
some as refugees and some as members of a militia called the FDLR
(Forces Democratiques de Liberation du Rwanda). In June of 2005, Refugees International called attention to FDLR dependent
women and children and argued that their needs must be taken into
account as the UN peacekeeping force demobilizes the fighters and helps
them and their families return home in peace.
- In 2003, RI successfully advocated with the World Bank to modify its proposed Demobilization and Reintegration Program in Angola so that abducted girls and “wives” of rebel soldiers, or women who had been forced to join the soldiers as spouses, would also be given support. Over 300,000 women received assistance.
What You Can Do
- Sign Up for our bimonthly E-Updates to learn more about demobilization and disarmament of combatants.
- Donate to Refugees International so we can continue to advocate for more resources for disarmament and demobilization programs.