Who We Are and What We Do
The Roméo Dallaire Child Soldiers Initiative
The Roméo Dallaire Child Soldiers Initiative (the Dallaire Initiative) is a global partnership based at Dalhousie University. Our mission is to progressively eradicate the use and recruitment of child soldiers through a security sector approach.
Training
We deliver tactical, prevention-oriented training to security sector actors, to promote broader security sector reform
Research
We conduct world-class interdisciplinary research to build--and share--knowledge, which in turn leads to new solutions.
Advocacy
We engage in high-level advocacy activities to create and promote the political will to end the use of children as soldiers.
The Roméo Dallaire Child Soldiers Initiative
Our Unique Approach
The contemporary use of children as weapons of war continues to challenge the international community. Often left picking up the pieces after the child has served as a soldier, we have failed to protect the child, and ultimately prevent their recruitment and use as a child soldier in the first place. Tackled from a humanitarian approach, the security sector actor is not included in the international response or solution to the issue.
Through taking a security sector approach, we compliment international efforts, including child protection, international law, and demobilization, disarmament and reintegration programs. Through engaging with the security sector actors, who are often the first point of contact for child soldiers in the field, we can create a comprehensive international response that enables us to take a preventive approach to the issue of children used as weapons of war.
In order to solve this problem it must be seen as a security concern and security sector actors must be included as part of the solution. Through this prevention-oriented approach, we aim to create the necessary tools and training, supported by research, to better protect children from recruitment, and in so doing, help end this crime against humanity, community-by-community, country-by-country, once and for all.
What do we mean?
The Child as a Weapon System
The Roméo Dallaire Child Soldiers Initiative uses the term “weapons system” to describe the use of children as soldiers. In doing so, it acknowledges the perversity of the concept.
The use of this term in no way precludes or ignores the humanity of children; instead, it serves to highlight the security concerns posed by child soldiers that are often overlooked.
By emphasising these concerns, the Dallaire Initiative underscores its belief that security sector actors have an important role to play in the protection of children during conflict.
Complimenting the International Approach
Bringing a Security Sector Perspective
The global response to this phenomenon has been largely reactive, focused on the disarmament, rehabilitation and reintegration of child soldiers. The contemporary use of children as weapons of war continues to challenge the international community. Often left picking up the pieces after the child has served as a soldier, we have failed to protect the child, and ultimately prevent their recruitment and use as a child soldier in the first place. Tackled from a humanitarian approach, the security sector actor is not included in the international response or solution to the issue.
Through taking a security sector approach, we compliment international efforts, including child protection, international law, and demobilization, disarmament and reintegration programs. Through engaging with the security sector actors, who are often the first point of contact for child soldiers in the field, we can create a comprehensive international response that enables us to take a preventive approach to the issue of children used as weapons of war.