Policy for Preventing the Recruitment and Use of Children, Girls, and Adolescents by Armed Groups Organized Outside of the law and Organized Criminal Groups

This document, developed by the National Council of Economic and Social Policy of the Republic of Colombia, establishes the policy for the prevention of the recruitment and use of children and adolescents by illegal armed groups and organized criminal groups. The policy is based on the comprehensive protection of childhood as proclaimed in the Convention on the Rights of the Child. The policy assigns families, communities, and government institutions the responsibility to recognize children’s rights, ensure their guarantees, prevent rights violations, and restore those rights when violated.

• Regarding international law, the policy refers to the Additional Protocol to the Geneva Conventions of August 12, 1949, relating to the victims of non-international armed conflicts (approved by Law 171 of 1994), as well as the Convention on the Rights of the Child, Article 38, which recalls the obligation of the State to protect those who have not reached 15 years of age, to refrain from direct participation in hostilities, to refrain from recruiting this population, and to adopt possible measures to ensure the protection and care of those affected by the armed conflict. The policy also references the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.
• Regarding national law, the policy refers to Law 418 of 1997, which establishes the protection of minors under 18 years of age from the effects of the conflict; Law 599 of 2000; Law 1098 of 2006, known as the Code for Children and Adolescents; and Law 1257 of 2008.
• This document also points out that the Constitutional Court, in Auto 251 of 2008, states that the recruitment of children and adolescents is one of the causes of displacement in the country due to four causal mechanisms, which are: “(i) the forced displacement of families and entire communities, due to the risk that their children and adolescents are linked to the armed conflict, either because of threats received directly against the lives of minors or their families, because of the generalized danger existing in a given region, or because one or more members of the family or community have already been recruited and it is desired to prevent others from being recruited as well; ii) the forced displacement of the families of minors who have been effectively recruited, since the recruitment of a child or adolescent implies pressure and persecution for their relatives by the armed actors involved; iii) the forced displacement of the families of minors who have been recruited but have deserted, in order to protect their lives; and iv) the forced displacement only of children or adolescents at risk, who are sent or moved to other places to protect them or themselves from the danger of recruitment.”