LIABILITY UNDER INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL LAW FOR INTERNATIONAL CRIMES COMMITTED BY CHILD SOLDIERS

This dissertation examines who should be held liable under international criminal law for international crimes committed by child soldiers. In order to do so, analysis of primary sources of international criminal law such as the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court and the Statute of the Special Court for Sierra Leone as well as analysis of their jurisprudence is conducted. This thesis also looks at the Convention on the Rights of the Child and at transitional justice mechanisms. It concludes that adults who unlawfully recruit and use child soldiers must be the ones held criminally responsible for the crimes committed by these children. It also concludes that in theory, child soldiers who were over 15 years at the time of the crimes could be prosecuted for these. However, this solution is not recommended because other solutions maybe better adapted to deal with child soldiers