Children in Armed Conflict: A Human Rights Crisis in Somalia

Abstract Despite the consolidated body of public international law on children’s rights and armed conflict, why do rebel groups state forces deploy children in particularly Somalia? First, due to lack alternative sources income livelihood beyond join army coercive recruitment by commanders groups. Their participation conflict generates a fleeting false sense material security belongingness group. Second, many Somali were born an environment existential violence insecurity that normalized routinized violence, thereby motivating them view enlistment as morally permissible necessary for survival.