Human Rights and Child Protection Norms in Armed Conflicts: Bridging International Standards with Domestic Realities
Abstract
This article explores the intersection between international human rights and child protection norms in armed conflicts, with a focus on bridging global standards and domestic implementation realities. It examines the normative frameworks established by international human rights law (IHRL), international humanitarian law (IHL), and international criminal law (ICL), as reflected in instruments such as the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), the Optional Protocol on the Involvement of Children in Armed Conflict (OPAC), the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child (ACRWC), and the Paris Principles. The paper argues that while these instruments collectively provide comprehensive protection against recruitment, exploitation, and abuse of children, significant gaps persist in their translation into domestic practice, particularly in conflict-affected African states like Nigeria. Legal fragmentation, institutional weaknesses, and socio-economic vulnerabilities undermine enforcement and perpetuate cycles of child recruitment and victimization. Through an analysis of Nigeria’s Child Rights Act (2003) and its uneven adoption across states, the paper demonstrates how weak institutional capacities, poor reintegration programs, and punitive security approaches hinder effective protection. The study also highlights international criminal accountability through the Lubanga case at the International Criminal Court (ICC) as a precedent for deterrence but notes that international justice alone cannot fill domestic enforcement gaps. It concludes by proposing holistic reforms involving legal harmonization, capacity building, socio-economic investment, and child-sensitive operational mechanisms as pathways toward effective protection, reintegration, and accountability, ensuring that normative commitments translate into real-world safeguards for children in armed conflict situations.
Keywords
Human Rights
Children Armed Conflict
Child Soldiers
Child Protection
Welfare of the Child
Paris Principles
References
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Article 1 of the Optional Protocol to the CRC, 1989.
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Supra
Supra
African Union; African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child, 1990, entered into force 1999.
Ibid.
De Than C. and Shorts E.; International Criminal Law and Human Rights, Sweet & Maxwell Limited, London, 2003. See also; Donelly, J.; Universal Human Rights in Theory and Practice, Ithaca, Cornell University Press, 2003.
Hagler, S.O.; The Application of Principles And Rules of International Humanitarian Law To Other Situations of Violence (OSVs), Abia State University, Faculty of Law, 2018. See also; Hagler, S.O.; Enforcement of International Humanitarian Law: Appraisal of the Role of National Committees, Ph.D thesis submitted to the Faculty of Law, ABSU, 2016.
Ibid, See also; Brett, R. and McCallin, M.; Children: The Invisible Soldiers, Stockholm, Rädda Barnen, 1998.
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Ibid.
Fatima et al.; Protecting Children in Armed Conflict, Hart Publishing, Oxford, 2018.
Brett, R. and McCallin, M.; Children: The Invisible Soldiers, Stockholm, Rädda Barnen, 1998.
Okorie, H.; Child Soldiering and Protection, Northeast Nigeria in Perspective, University of Benin Law Journal, Vol. 17, No. 1, 2016.
Hagler, S.O.; The Application of Principles And Rules of International Humanitarian Law To Other Situations of Violence (OSVs), Abia State University, Faculty of Law, 2018.
Ibid. See also; United Nations Secretary-General; Report on Children and Armed Conflict, New York, United Nations, 2024. ReliefWeb; Children and Armed Conflict in Nigeria: Situational Analysis, ReliefWeb, 2023.
De Than C. and Shorts E.; International Criminal Law and Human Rights, Sweet & Maxwell Limited, London, 2003.
Brett, R. and McCallin, M.; Children: The Invisible Soldiers, Stockholm, Rädda Barnen, 1998.
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ICRC; Children and Armed Conflict: Operational Guidelines for Armed Forces and Humanitarian Actors, International Committee of the Red Cross, Geneva, 2021.
Hagler, S.O.; The Application of Principles And Rules of International Humanitarian Law To Other Situations of Violence (OSVs), Abia State University, Faculty of Law, 2018. See also; Okorie, H.; Child Soldiering and Protection, Northeast Nigeria in Perspective, University of Benin Law Journal, Vol. 17, No. 1, 2016.
Ibid.
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Hagler, S.O.; The Application of Principles And Rules of International Humanitarian Law To Other Situations of Violence (OSVs), Abia State University, Faculty of Law, 2018.
Okorie, H.; Child Soldiering and Protection, Northeast Nigeria in Perspective, University of Benin Law Journal, Vol. 17. No. 1. 2016.
UNIDIR; Building a More Secure World: Children, Armed Conflict, and Community Resilience, United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research, Geneva, 2020.
Almila E.; Sexual Violence Against Children in Armed Conflict, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, 2022.
Ese, Malemi.; The Nigerian Constitutional Law, Princeton Publishing Company Nigeria, 2017.
PLACNG; Report on the Domestication of the Child Rights Act in Nigeria, Policy and Legal Advocacy Centre, Abuja, 2020.
Hagler, S.O.; Enforcement of International Humanitarian Law: Appraisal of the Role of National Committees, Ph.D thesis submitted to the Faculty of Law, ABSU, 2016.
Okorie, H.; Child Soldiering and Protection, Northeast Nigeria in Perspective, University of Benin Law Journal, Vol. 17, No. 1, 2016.
Brett, R. and McCallin, M.; Children: The Invisible Soldiers, Stockholm, Rädda Barnen, 1998. See also; Drumbl, M. A.; Reimagining Child Soldiers in International Law and Policy, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2012.
United Nations Secretary-General; Report on Children and Armed Conflict, New York, United Nations, 2024. ICRC; Children and Armed Conflict: Operational Guidelines for Armed Forces and Humanitarian Actors, International Committee of the Red Cross, Geneva, 2021.
Fatima et al.; Protecting Children in Armed Conflict, Hart Publishing, Oxford, 2018.
Hagler, S.O.; The Application of Principles And Rules of International Humanitarian Law To Other Situations of Violence (OSVs), Abia State University, Faculty of Law, 2018.
De Than C. and Shorts E.; International Criminal Law and Human Rights, Sweet & Maxwell Limited, London, 2003. See also; ICRC; Children and Armed Conflict: Operational Guidelines for Armed Forces and Humanitarian Actors, International Committee of the Red Cross, Geneva, 2021.
Hagler, S.O.; Enforcement of International Humanitarian Law: Appraisal of the Role of National Committees, Ph.D thesis submitted to the Faculty of Law, ABSU, 2016.
Almila E.; Sexual Violence Against Children in Armed Conflict, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, 2022.
De Than C. and Shorts E.; International Criminal Law and Human Rights, Sweet & Maxwell Limited, London, 2003.
Hagler, S.O.; The Application of Principles And Rules of International Humanitarian Law To Other Situations of Violence (OSVs), Abia State University, Faculty of Law, 2018.
Donelly, J.; Universal Human Rights in Theory and Practice, Ithaca, Cornell University Press, 2003.
Ibid.
Almila E.; Sexual Violence Against Children in Armed Conflict, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, 2022.
De Than C. and Shorts E.; International Criminal Law and Human Rights, Sweet
