Child Soldiers Global Report 2004 - Zambia

Republic of Zambia

Covers the period from April 2001 to March 2004.

Population: 10.7 million (5.7 million under 18)
Government armed forces: 18,100
Compulsory recruitment age: no conscription
Voluntary recruitment age: 18; 16 with parental consent
Voting age: 18
Optional Protocol: not signed
Other treaties ratified (see glossary): CRC, GC AP I and II, ICC, ILO 138, ILO 182

It seemed probable that under-18s were serving in the armed forces, given the low rate of birth registration and the possibility for 16 year olds to enlist with parental consent. Armed groups involved in conflicts in neighbouring states may have continued to recruit child soldiers from refugee populations in Zambia.

Context

Presidential elections in 2001 were marred by allegations of ballot rigging. The security forces continued to carry out unlawful killings, torture and other serious abuses.¹ In early 2004, 370,000 people required food assistance.² Up to 20 per cent of the population was thought to be HIV positive.³

Zambia hosted significant refugee populations which had fled conflicts in Angola, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Rwanda and Burundi. In January 2004, 112,000 refugees were registered for humanitarian aid.⁴

Government

National recruitment legislation and practice

The Defence Act prohibits a child "under the apparent age of 18" from being recruited into the armed forces without the consent of a parent, guardian or local District Secretary (Chapter 106). Recruits must be Zambian nationals and have a national registration card, obtainable at the age of 16. The Act does not provide for conscription.⁵ There were no reports of underage recruitment, but the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child expressed concern that the minimum age for voluntary recruitment was an "apparent age" and noted that "less than 10 per cent of children were registered at birth in 1999, and even less in rural areas".⁶

Recruitment by armed political groups

Many refugees in Zambia had fled conflicts in which child soldiers were used.⁷ The government tried to minimize recruitment of child refugees by posting police officers within refugee settlements and by locating the camps more than 60 km from the border.⁸ The Mai Mai armed group in neighbouring DRC continued to recruit children as young as ten years old, and it seemed probable that children were being recruited by such groups within refugee communities.

1 US Department of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices 2003, February 2004, http://www.state.gov/g/drl/hr/c1470.htm.

2 UN World Food Programme, World Hunger: Zambia, January 2004, http://www.wfp.org. 3 Oxfam, Emergency work in Zambia, http://www.oxfam.org.uk.

4 UN World Food Programme op. cit.

5 Report of Zambia to UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, UN Doc. CRC/C/11.Add.25, 19 November 2002, http://www.ohchr.org.

6 UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, Concluding observations: Zambia, UN Doc. CRC/C/15/Add.206, 2 July 2003.

7 Human Rights Watch, Forgotten fighters: Child soldiers in Angola, April 2003, http://www.hrw.org.

8 Report of Zambia to UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, op. cit.