Despite Nepal’s 2006 Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) targeting rehabilitation of children from armed group associations, the government has failed to implement satisfactory reintegration. This paper, published by the Institute of Peace and Conflict Studies, reviews the current status of the reintegration of Children Associated with Armed Forces and Armed Groups (CAAFAG). State failure to tackle deep-rooted inequality and structural problems continues to allow armed movements to recruit marginalised groups, including children, and consequently flourish.
Deeply-rooted poverty and lack of opportunity allowed vulnerable children to be exploited by the Communist Party of Nepal-Maoist (CPN-M) in the recent Maoist insurgency. The CPN-M successfully recruited vulnerable children, aged 10 to 16, forced them to perform spy and messenger services and accompany reconnaissance missions during the country’s civil war.
Responding to the CPA’s commitment to reintegrate these children into society, Nepalese and international non-governmental organisations (NGOs) formed the CAAFAG in 2007 to harmonise efforts to release the children. Reintegration packages fostered by the group include education, income generation and community-based programmes to assist the children’s reintegration into society.
Despite the short time the CAAFAG working group has been operating, it is possible to make the following observations about child reintegration progress to date:
- Education projects targeting CAAFAG have been fruitful, with returnees performing well in a variety of educational programmes. Income-generation programmes have been less encouraging – many projects are under-funded, too short and lack follow-up.
- Exact numbers of CAAFAG recruits and their whereabouts are largely unknown. NGOs are often unable to assist CAAFAGs, including girls who are stigmatised for their CPN-M involvement, married off or moved to another village and rejected by their families.
- Despite overt statements of support, the government has not been supportive of the reintegration process. It has not begun to construct a framework for the child reintegration programme.
- Lack of consensus between and among major political parties hinders not only child reintegration efforts but prevents the enforcement of laws against torture of children.
- Despite their rhetoric, the CPN-M continues to flout regulations over illicit recruitment of children. Rival coalition and opposition parties and insurgents have created paramilitary youth wings and are fostering militant youth activities.
- Both the Nepalese legal system and the wider culture do not recognise the need to institutionalise children’s rights.
To date, the CAAFAG working group has performed reintegration coordination well. However, the following issues are cause for serious concern:
- More CAAFAGs need to be located;
- Psychological and sociological impacts of conflict on CAAFAGs need to be assessed;
- Greater political capital and a government framework must be created to provide direction to civil society, which is bearing the lion’s share of CAAFAG reintegration efforts; and
- More internal dissent and international pressure is needed to force the government to act upon CAAFAGs and decrease the low intensity violence the country is currently experiencing.
