CORE urges RPF to review recruitment policy
Source: The Sangai Express
Imphal, April 06 2013 :
Seeing the clarification of Revolutionary People's Front (RPF), on 'recruitment' of the two adolescent indigenous girls students of Grace Reach Academy, Kakching as a scandalous disgrace for an organisation which is generally viewed as progressive and disciplined and that had unilaterally acceded to the four Geneva Conventions' Common Article 3 in 1997 by declaration during the 49th session of the UN Human Rights Sub-Commission, at Geneva, the Centre for Organisation Research and Education (CORE) courteously urged the RPF to review its existing policy at the earliest regarding the minimum age of recruitment to conform to the now universally accepted norm of Straight-18 .
Further, the two girls were claimed in the reported clarification to be 16 years old, which is contradictory to the age given by the school's Principal and respective families as 14 and 15 years old, said a statement issued by CORE today.
It stated that any claim of "willingness" by a child is always questionable.
On the other hand, the State Government's vague references to trace, rescue and restore the two girls to their families clearly set a negative precedence to the public that the democratic voices and rights of the indigenous peoples have sunk to the delayed and denied policy.
It seems that the State's Home Minister, Gaikhangarn supports the recruitment of minors into armed organisations if they are "willing" .
According to the CORE statement, fixing the minimum age of 16 years by RPF for recruiting into its armed wing the People's Liberation Army (PLA) can only lead to increase in the number of security forces atrocities with maximum impunity to commit extensive human rights violations of juveniles in the name of counter insurgency in the State causing doom to future generations.
It may further reinforce the state's position that even children are tenorists and justify killing them.
Documentation of 1528 cases of alleged extrajudicial executions in Manipur by the Civil Society Coalition on Human Rights in Manipur and the UN in 2012 revealed that almost 100 children were reportedly murdered in cold blood by security personnel and the police in Manipur.
One of the six persons investigated by the Supreme court panel on fake encounters in Manipur recently was a boy of merely l4 years of age.
Such a grim situation will prevail in Manipur if the recruitment of children is justified by any armed organisation on whatever grounds.
Indigenous children must be protected by everyone from performing any work that is likely to be hazardous or to interfere with the child's education, or to be harmful to the child's health or physical, mental, spiritual, moral or social development, taking into account their special vulnerability and the importance of education for their empowerment (Article 17[2] of the (UN Declaration on the rights of indigenous peoples).
According to the UN committee on the Rights of the child (General comment No 11 of 2009: Indigenous children and their rights under the convention), need arises to ensure that indigenous women and children enjoy full protection and guarantees against all forms of violence; recruitment into an armed organisation does not provide such protection or guarantees to the two girls.
Courteously urging the RPF to review their existing policy at the earliest regarding the minimum age of recruitment to conform to the now universally accepted norm of Straight-18, the CORE appealed for the safe release of the two girls immediately on the grounds of international human rights and humanitarian principles and law.
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