Author Description

There is a legal gap in international criminal and humanitarian law regarding instances of child soldiers who are sexually violated by their own military members during armed warfare. International humanitarian law generally does not regulate the conducts of combatants in the same armed group against their co-combatants. Supervision of such actions would resumably be monitored by their own internal discipline structure but this is lacking. Whilst there may be a universal understanding that any harmful attacks would be directed towards the enemy, sexual violence is inflicted extensively on both sides and, in this context, against child soldiers who have limited protection by international law and military structures.On that account, this book examines how international humanitarian law protects child soldiers who are being sexually abused by their own troops and consequently, how international criminal law punishes the perpetrators of sexual violence against child soldiers. As an example, this book looks into the ongoing trial of Dominic Ongwen at the International Criminal Court. This case is unique because despite his background as a child soldier himself, Ongwen became a sexual violence perpetrator against child soldiers who were recruited within the Lord's Resistance Army in Uganda.This research addresses the current limits of international criminal law and humanitarian law in this sphere with reference to relevant case laws which need to be resolved.