ELS at a Panel Discussion Dealing with the Problem of Child Soldiers

In the morning hours of 6 March 2019, the Director of ELS, Dr. Daniel Mekonnen, gave a speech at a side event (panel discussion), hosted on the fringes of the 40th Session of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, Palais des Nations. Co-organised by the International Fellowship of Reconciliation (IFOR) and Child Soldiers International, the side event took place under the theme of “Child Soldiers: Seventeen Years after OPAC.” The speech of Dr. Mekonnen focused on the prolonged practice of juvenile military conscription in Eritrea. His speech was based on the following background notes. Eritrea and Its Prolonged Practice of Juvenile Military Conscription Eritrea has a pervasive problem of underage military conscription. The fact that the issue of child soldiers is often times discussed in the context of on-going armed hostilities, a problem non-existent in present day Eritrea, the issue may be subject to obscurity, requiring a short contextual […]