ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — The US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) signed an Action Plan over the weekend with a top United Nations official to end the recruitment and use of children in conflict.
The People’s Protection Units (YPG), a Kurdish armed group which forms the backbone of the SDF, has been accused several times of recruiting child soldiers over the course of its war against the Islamic State group (ISIS).
In its 2018 report on child recruitment in Syria, the UN said 263 boys and 152 girls have been recruited and used by Kurdish groups between 2013 and the first quarter of 2018.
The SDF vowed to investigate the claims and ordered a crackdown on child recruitment.
According to a UN statement published Monday, the commander-in-chief of the predominately-Kurdish SDF, Gen. Mazloum Kobane (Ferhat Abdi Shahin), and the UN Secretary General’s special representative for children and armed conflict, Virginia Gamba, signed an agreement during an official ceremony at the Palais des Nations, Geneva, on Saturday.
“Through this Action Plan, the SDF commits to end and prevent the recruitment and use of children, to identify and separate boys and girls currently within its ranks and to put in place preventative, protection, and disciplinary measures related to child recruitment and use,” read the UN statement.
“It is an important day for the protection of children in Syria and it marks the beginning of a process as it demonstrates a significant commitment by the SDF to ensure that no child is recruited and used by any entity operating under its umbrella,” said Gamba.
The Action Plan is the result of months of engagement and is an opportunity for “parties to change their attitude and behavior,” the UN statement said, calling on all parties to resolve the Syrian crisis to end violations against children.
“The Plan was signed after a last long discussion on the needs of Children Protection and providing assistance for them in the region of Self Administration for north and east Syria (NES),” Mustafa Bali, the head of the SDF Press Office, said in a tweet.
Saturday’s agreement is the first time an international entity has officially dealt with the SDF as an organization, which has been largely blocked from the various peace processes due to Turkish opposition.
However, UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said the Action Plan does not lend the SDF legitimacy.
“The actions of the special representative of children and conflict does not imply any legitimacy, political legitimacy, for any armed groups that she engages with, whether it is the SDF or other armed groups she has engaged with in the past. Her focus, her mandate is on children and protecting children, getting them out of harm’s way, getting them out of conflict. That is her focused work. Her interaction in no way implies any legitimacy or any claim that any group may have,” Dujarric told Rudaw in New York on Monday.
Throughout the war in Syria, all sides have recruited children, who have become the primary victims of the grinding eight-year conflict, especially under indiscriminate regime bombings.
“Children’s development, health and well-being are disrupted when they are drawn into military organisations,” UK-based charity Child Soldiers International explains on its website.
“Recruited children, particularly those used in armed violence, run a high risk of being killed or maimed, and of suffering serious psychological and social problems afterwards.
“Witnessing killing, and especially taking part in it, is particularly harmful to a child, who is still developing psychologically and emotionally. Children associated with military forces also face a higher risk of being sexually abused by adults or other children in their military group. Such traumatic events can disrupt children’s development, staying with them for the rest of their lives.”
With the assistance of the US-led international coalition, the SDF rid Syria east of the Euphrates of the Islamic State (ISIS) group from 2014 until their final battlefield defeat in al-Baghouz on March 23, 2019.
The SDF and coalition continues to work with local military and civilian councils to attempt to stabilize the liberated areas. Various political movements exist within the SDF, and their future role within the Syrian state is yet to be negotiated.
Ankara conflates the SDF with the YPG and the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), a banned political group in Turkey that has fought for greater cultural, political, and minority rights over the past four decades — often using Syria as a launch pad.
Additional reporting by Majeed Gly in New York
.JPG&w=3840&q=75)