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Demobilization, Disarmament and Reintegration
Today’s term that describes the needs of children who were soldiers as well as the needs of their families, communities and societies is DDR, Demobilization, Disarmament and Reintegration.

Children need to be demobilized from captivity and enlistment with combatant forces and this implies permanent demobilization. At the same time, children – indeed all soldiers - need to be disarmed. Many children take their weapons with them after they escape captivity or are demobilized. Trained to intimidate, rob and kill, these weapons are now used by children in newly formed militia, or in criminal enterprises in order to survive. Remember, these are children who were deprived of education, cultural enrichment, family and community support. They have lived by their wits and through violence. The gun and machete have become their plow. In addition, former child soldiers with guns or callous to committing atrocities are vulnerable to being lured into criminal activity by organized crime. In addition, those who aspire to political power by force seek out former child soldiers as a ready army for their purposes. Disarmament is a must if children are to move forward and society is to be secure and free from armed violence.

Reintegration is a broad term encompassing all the needs of a child who was abducted, coerced or recruited into combat or combat-related activities. Among the many needs of children who were soldiers include the following:

· Clinical and cultural treatment for depression and post-traumatic stress
· Cultural and clinical counseling and therapy
· Prevention, management and treatment of diseases, including HIV/AIDS
· Peer socialization
· Empowerment and restoration of girls stigmatized by sexual abuse and rape
· Literacy, education and vocational skills training
· Arts, culture, sports and recreation activities
· Jobs creation and job-readiness skills
· Reproductive health and family planning services
· Diversion from criminal justice systems
· Drug and alcohol rehabilitation
· Participation with projects that build peace and a culture of human and children’s rights
· Reintegration into family and community

In addition, many former child soldiers killed family or community members and cannot easily return home. Families and communities also need preparation for the return of a child who killed at home or in the community. Oftentimes, traditional healers and family and community members must conduct traditional rituals and ceremonies with the returning child to chase away spirits or commune with ancestors. Sometimes, third party organizations must help to facilitate the former child soldier’s return to his family and community, and help the family and community to prepare in advance.

Former child soldiers often get arrested and wind up in jail. Increasingly, criminal justice systems are being asked to consider diverting former child soldiers to alternatives to prison. Children and Armed Conflict Units, such as at the University of Essex in England, are training judges, prosecutors, police and probation officers around the contexts and needs of former child soldiers and to help divert them to rehabilitation programs rather than jail. Unfortunately, many such systems do not have the capacity or access to rehabilitation programs for former child soldiers. Thus, many wind up in jail.

Communities also need education around human and children’s rights, and the ability to monitor and enforce these rights. Children have internationally recognized rights not to be abducted and recruited as soldiers, and not to be neglected or abused, but these rights must be understood and the means to enforce them must be developed.

Many former child soldiers are orphans, their parents having been killed in conflict or died from disease, especially from AIDS. Such orphans are more vulnerable to being forced into child soldiering, or being re-recruited. Upon release from combat, orphans need a place to live, a means of support and rehabilitative and restorative services. If the orphan is a girl or young woman, oftentimes she is also a young mother and must support her child or children. She may also be HIV positive and have counselling, testing, management , treatment needs and income.
In regions where child soldiering is rife, HIV/AIDS rates are also higher than in the rest of the country, since health services in war zones are less accessible, have lower capacity or have collapsed. In Uganda, for instance, where government policies and civil society participation has reduced a once double-digit HIV/AIDS rate to about 6% nationally – a major feat, the HIV/AIDS rates in the Northern Districts are twice to three times as high, between 10 and 18% depending on the district and locale. Some of Uganda’s western districts also have higher HIV rates due to their location on the DRC border, where years of insurgency affected the local population in Uganda.

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