| Child soldiers were principal perpetrators of egregious atrocities during Sierra Leone's decade-long civil war. Yet, in the post-conflict period, instead of facing criminal trial, children are absorbed into non-governmental organisations (NGOs) that have tasked themselves with the work of building a peaceable nation through reintegrated child combatants. The absolution of child soldiers of their criminality in Sierra Leone's war crimes tribunal, the Special Court, can be understood as an exercise of mercy, which expels child perpetrators outside of law's violence. 'Hegemonic childhood', which defines children as evolving, innocent, amoral and politically incompetent, forms the basis for children's merciful exculpation. Despite its emergence in the modern, capitalist west, hegemonic childhood is increasingly globalised, and institutions like international law play a central role in the neo-colonial expansion of the hegemonic ideal in the service of forging a global moral community. 'The child' of children's rights discourse, moreover, is promulgated in NGOs. The NGO on which I base my research, Connecting for Peace, works towards crafting and subjectivating hegemonic childhood in the reintegration of child soldiers. While the suffering child as metonym for global Southern pathology invites the intervention of the international community and its (neo-colonising) rescue efforts, children in Sierra Leone also use hegemonic discourse in order to make demands. While efforts of international law, the Special Court and Connecting for Peace craft a particular version of childhood, Sierra Leone's Truth and Reconciliation Commission suggests ways to re-vision childhood in order more meaningfully to involve children's participation. |
