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13 - Life in Rebel Captivity and its Challenges for the Psychosocial Rehabilitation and Reintegration of Former Child Soldiers: The Case of Northern Uganda
- Edited by Ilse Derluyn, Cindy Mels, Stephan Parmentier, Wouter Vandenhole
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- Intersentia
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- 20 January 2021
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- 21 February 2012, pp 307-328
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Summary
INTRODUCTION
CHILD SOLDIERING IN NORTHERN UGANDA
In northern Uganda, a civil war has been waging for more than two decades between the rebel faction Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) and the Ugandan Government. Although, the roots of this conflict reach back to the colonial era and the conflict has known many episodes; an intensification occurred when Yoweri Museveni, president of Uganda, seized power in 1986 and Joseph Kony, leader of the LRA, set up his guerrilla campaign.
The battlefield of this conflict is situated in the northern districts of the country, where the Acholi population resides. The LRA adopted various civiliantargeting strategies from a political and operational aim, resulting in numerous civilian casualties. Attacks on villages, the maiming of civilians, ambushes, massacres and other atrocities were countless during this emergency. It is estimated that over a million and a half had to flee their homes and reside in internally displaced persons camps4 and that thousands of children sought protection as night commuters in town each night. Furthermore, the conflict limited their access to security, food, employment, education and health services.
One of its adopted strategies, mainly targeting children, is the violent abduction and forced recruitment of minors to serve as child soldiers. It is estimated that so far about 25,000 children have been forcibly involved as child soldiers in the LRA. These children are used to empower the LRA by filling its ranks and are thereby actively engaged in the battle against the government and people of Uganda.
In captivity, abducted children live in harsh circumstances, are exposed to several potentially traumatising events and are made perpetrators of atrocities against their own people. There can be no doubt that these experiences affect the child's well-being and development. Research has found that they are psychologically distressing, resulting in high rates of post-traumatic stress symptoms among former child soldiers. These in turn pose serious threats to the long-term rehabilitation and reintegration of the former child soldiers.
14 - Psychosocial Care in Rehabilitation Centres for Former Child Soldiers in Northern Uganda
- Edited by Ilse Derluyn, Cindy Mels, Stephan Parmentier, Wouter Vandenhole
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- Intersentia
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- 20 January 2021
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- 21 February 2012, pp 329-362
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Summary
INTRODUCTION
This chapter aims to outline an overview of psychosocial caretaking activities organised by rehabilitation centres (RCs) for former child soldiers in northern Uganda. The conflict in northern Uganda is sometimes referred to as ‘one of the most forgotten conflicts in the world’ or ‘one of the worst violations of children's rights anywhere in the world’. For over 20 years this country has suffered from a cruel and bloody war between the government army (Ugandan People's Defence Force, UPDF) and the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), a rebel group under the command of Joseph Kony. The LRA had a tremendous impact on daily life as it concentrated its terror on the civilian population by looting and attacking villages, burning houses, and, worst of all, by mutilating, killing and abducting children and adults. It is estimated that over the course of the conflict, Kony and his army were responsible for the deaths of about one million people, while nearly two million people were forced to live in camps for internally displaced persons (IDP) for several years.
The abduction or use of children for the purpose of forced conscription and sexual exploitation is even today an important problem, as it is estimated that between 250,000 and 300,000 children are deployed as child soldiers in 17 conflicts worldwide. Northern Uganda had its share, with estimations ranging from 24,000 to 38,000 children to as many as 66,000 children and young adults between 14 and 30 years old. Even more striking, Annan et al. found that more than one third of male youths and one fift h of female youths questioned in their study reported being abducted. Once abducted by the LRA, children were confronted with very difficult living conditions and without doubt life became a true struggle for survival. It started at the moment of abduction, when many children were tied, beaten and/or given heavy loads to carry.
20 - Exploring the Context for Adolescent Mental Health and Psychosocial Assistance in the Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo
- Edited by Ilse Derluyn, Cindy Mels, Stephan Parmentier, Wouter Vandenhole
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- 20 January 2021
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- 21 February 2012, pp 475-496
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Summary
INTRODUCTION
Although clashes between social groups are as old as mankind, the characteristics of warfare and how it is conceptualised have changed through history. During recent decades, a shift has become clear from wars between states to conflicts within states, which appear to be characterised by a mixture of political, economic, military and social forces in competition for power and scarce resources, thereby violently targeting civilians who now compromise up to 90 per cent of war casualties. The case of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the focus of this paper, is a striking example of such contemporary prolonged conflict, frequently referred to as a ‘Complex Political Emergency’ (CPE).
Following these changed dynamics and conceptualisations, the international community has simultaneously been confronted with the limitations of its traditional humanitarian principles and approaches. Subsequent to past failures when intervening in CPEs, new ideas of development relief and conflict sensitivity have arisen, introducing ‘community-based’ as the new buzzword in the intervention field. While these new trends have stimulated humanitarian agencies to broaden their scope into maximising contextual conditions for sustainable peace and development, they have equally been criticised for entailing unintended consequences, reproducing structural inequalities and providing simplified and unsustainable solutions.
Within this ‘new aid paradigm’, the mental health of war-affected societies has gained attention, as psychological problems in civilians, resulting from their massive exposure to violence, have been increasingly recognized as threats to the development and long-term security of society. Firstly, psychologically and socially well-functioning people and societies are considered an essential prerequisite for the rehabilitation and rebuilding of political, social and economic institutions. Secondly, as is confirmed in recent findings on the association of post-traumatic stress symptoms on the one hand with feelings of revenge and negative attitudes towards reconciliation on the other, mental health problems could undermine peace-building processes and may eventually lead to renewed or sustained violence.
18 - The Fit Between Mental Health Needs and Programming Responses for War-Affected Children in Northern Uganda
- Edited by Ilse Derluyn, Cindy Mels, Stephan Parmentier, Wouter Vandenhole
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- Re-Member
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- 20 January 2021
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- 21 February 2012, pp 437-446
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Summary
INTRODUCTION
The challenges of reintegration in post-conflict settings have been a focus of attention in Uganda, which experienced over 20 years of armed conflict between the government of Uganda and the rebel Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) that ended only five years ago. War-affected children in Uganda include not only those who were abducted by rebel forces, but all those children and adolescents who suffered – amongst other difficult experiences – internal displacement, loss of livelihood and caregivers, and disruption of infrastructure and services during the prolonged armed conflict. Several studies have highlighted the important interaction between exposure to possible traumatising experiences, available social and professional support and children's mental health in conflict settings. Simultaneously, a large number of interventions have been created in these conflict settings to tackle the possible impact of traumatising experiences on the mental health of war-affected young people.
This paper will focus on the fit between children's mental health needs on the one hand and the programming responses for children in (post-)conflict settings on the other hand by providing, firstly, an overview of child- and adolescenttraumatising experiences and their outcomes; secondly, discussing the interventions that have been used with war-affected children and adolescents to improve their mental health; and, lastly, discussing practice implications for the fit between mental health needs and feasible programming responses.
TRAUMATISING EXPERIENCES AND MENTAL HEALTH NEEDS OF WAR-AFFECTED CHILDREN IN NORTHERN UGANDA
A mental health disorder can be defined as ‘the presence of psychological distress; impairment in psychological, social, or occupational functioning; or, any disorder that is associated with an increased risk of suffering death, pain disability or loss of freedom’. Mental health problems among war-affected children have been well documented in Uganda. Most of these studies have focused on post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), although the prevalence rates of PTSD in these studies vary considerably, ranging from 97 to 27%.
Other mental health problems have also been documented, including depression, generalised anxiety disorders and substance abuse.
6.3 - Child soldiers
- from Part VI - Special topics
- Edited by Jennifer M. Brown, London School of Economics and Political Science, Elizabeth A. Campbell, University of Glasgow
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- The Cambridge Handbook of Forensic Psychology
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- 06 July 2010
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- 29 April 2010, pp 638-644
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Summary
The phenomenon of using children in armed conflict as soldiers has received increasing attention through the important study of the impact of war on children by Machel. One of the common tasks assigned to children is to serve as porters, often carrying very heavy loads of up to 60 kilograms, including ammunition or injured soldiers. Child soldiers are often both physically and psychologically abused. Some children are also sexually abused, and forced to abuse others. Sexual violence not only causes emotional problems, but can also cause important physical problems such as HIV/AIDS. Reintegration of former child soldiers into their community and society might be hampered significantly through public reactions of revenge, stigmatization and even rejection. Long-term exposure to extreme experiences, such as killings, rape, fights, mutilation, can make it very difficult for these children and adolescents to adapt again to the 'normal' way of life in society.
Contributors
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- By Joanne R. Adler, David A. Alexander, Laurence Alison, Catherine C. Ayoub, Peter Banister, Anthony R. Beech, Amanda Biggs, Julian Boon, Adrian Bowers, Neil Brewer, Eric Broekaert, Paula Brough, Jennifer M. Brown, Kevin Browne, Elizabeth A. Campbell, David Canter, Michael Carlin, Shihning Chou, Martin A. Conway, Claire Cooke, David Cooke, Ilse Derluyn, Robert J. Edelmann, Vincent Egan, Tom Ellis, Marie Eyre, David P. Farrington, Seena Fazel, Daniel B. Fishman, Victoria Follette, Katarina Fritzon, Elizabeth Gilchrist, Nathan D. Gillard, Renée Gobeil, Agnieszka Golec de Zavala, Jane Goodman-Delahunty, Lynsey Gozna, Don Grubin, Gisli H. Gudjonsson, Helinä Häkkänen-Nyholm, Guy Hall, Nathan Hall, Roisin Hall, Sean Hammond, Leigh Harkins, Grant T. Harris, Camilla Herbert, Robert D. Hoge, Todd E. Hogue, Clive R. Hollin, Lorraine Hope, Miranda A. H. Horvath, Kevin Howells, Carol A. Ireland, Jane L. Ireland, Mark Kebbell, Michael King, Bruce D. Kirkcaldy, Heidi La Bash, Cara Laney, William R. Lindsay, Elizabeth F. Loftus, L. E. Marshall, W. L. Marshall, James McGuire, Neil McKeganey, T. M. McMillan, Mary McMurran, Joav Merrick, Becky Milne, Joanne M. Nadkarni, Claire Nee, M. D. O’Brien, William O’Donohue, Darragh O’Neill, Jane Palmer, Adria Pearson, Derek Perkins, Devon L. L. Polaschek, Louise E. Porter, Charlotte C. Powell, Graham E. Powell, Martine Powell, Christine Puckering, Ethel Quayle, Vernon L. Quinsey, Marnie E. Rice, Randall Richardson-Vejlgaard, Richard Rogers, Louis B Schlesinger, Carolyn Semmler, G. A. Serran, Ralph C. Serin, John L. Taylor, Max Taylor, Brian Thomas-Peter, Paul A. Tiffin, Graham Towl, Rosie Travers, Arlene Vetere, Graham Wagstaff, Helen Wakeling, Fiona Warren, Brandon C. Welsh, David Wexler, Margaret Wilson, Dan Yarmey, Susan Young
- Edited by Jennifer M. Brown, London School of Economics and Political Science, Elizabeth A. Campbell, University of Glasgow
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- Book:
- The Cambridge Handbook of Forensic Psychology
- Published online:
- 06 July 2010
- Print publication:
- 29 April 2010, pp xix-xxiii
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