The Effects of the Lubanga Case on Understanding and Preventing Child Soldiering

On March 14, 2012, a trial chamber of the International Criminal Court (ICC) convicted Thomas Lubanga Dyilo, a rebel leader from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, for child-soldier-related crimes. Some months later, Lubanga was sentenced to a prison term of fourteen years. On August 7, 2012, an ICC trial chamber issued its decision regarding the principles and procedures to be applied to reparations in the Lubanga case.

This Article unpacks the relationships between the Lubanga proceedings and how the international community conceptualizes, and strives to prevent, child soldiering. This Article contends that the Lubanga proceedings reinforce, and incubate, a stylized portrayal of the child soldier as a faultless passive victim, psychologically devastated, and irreparably damaged. Although arguably facilitating criminal convictions of adult recruiters, these portrayals trigger a variety of troublesome externalities when it comes to the reintegration and rehabilitation of the former child soldiers and other youth (and adults) affected by conflict.

This Article proceeds through several steps. First, it defines the term child soldier. Second, and drawing from the author’s prior work, it discusses how child soldiers are portrayed within the international legal imagination. Third, the on-the-ground realities of child soldiering are set out and contrasted with the prevailing imagery. The discussion, fourthly, then moves to a detailed analysis of the Lubanga trial and sentencing judgments, which are placed within broader discursive and socio-legal contexts. The Article concludes with discussion of the Lubanga reparations decision.