publications

II. Recommendations

To the Karuna Group (TMVP and its military wing)

  • Immediately stop all recruitment of children, including voluntary enlistment as well as recruitment effected by abduction or other force or coercion;
  • Immediately cease the forced recruitment of all persons;
  • Immediately cease the use of children in combat operations;
  • Immediately release children and all others forcibly recruited for Karuna forces and cooperate with UNICEF in ensuring their safe return to their families;
  • Take all appropriate steps to ensure Karuna group commanders and other cadre do not recruit children into Karuna forces, and provide the international community with documentation (through UNICEF or the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR)) of disciplinary actions taken against Karuna cadre responsible for such recruitment;
  • Take all appropriate steps to ensure Karuna group commanders and other cadre do not forcibly recruit any person, and provide the international community with documentation (through UNICEF or the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR)) of disciplinary actions taken against Karuna cadre responsible for such recruitment;
  • Publish in Sinhala and Tamil languages the Karuna group’s policy not to recruit children, and disseminate it broadly in areas where the Karuna group is active;
  • Allow UNICEF, SLMM, and other domestic and international protection agencies access to all Karuna group camps, military and otherwise, to assess the age of recruits, and to identify children for demobilization.

To the Government of Sri Lanka

  • Immediately end all cooperation with the Karuna group in the recruitment of children and in abductions;
  • Immediately launch an investigation into the involvement of government security forces in the recruitment of child soldiers and abductions by the Karuna group, and hold accountable those complicit, regardless of rank;
  • Take immediate steps to locate children recruited and all others forcibly recruited by the Karuna group and secure their return to their families, with follow-up protection;
  • Together with UNICEF conduct unannounced inspections of the Karuna camps and TMVP offices listed in this report and others recently established;
  • Close all camps of the Karuna group in government controlled areas that are used for the recruitment and training of children;
  • Enact and enforce criminal penalties against individuals and groups who recruit children under the age of 18 into armed groups;
  • Instruct the police to actively investigate all reported cases of abduction of children and all others by the Karuna group, and take disciplinary or criminal action against those who fail to do so;
  • Cooperate with humanitarian agencies to create corridors of safe passage for international agencies and monitors to investigate and follow up on reports of child and forced recruitment in areas of LTTE control;
  • Work with donor governments to establish an international human rights monitoring mission under United Nations auspices to monitor government, Karuna group, and LTTE violations of human rights and international humanitarian law, including abductions and child recruitment;
  • Amend the Emergency (Prevention and Prohibition of Terrorism and Specified Terrorist Activities) Regulation No. 7 of 2006 to exclude as an offense the participation of children under the age of 18 in groups engaged in terrorism, and the participation of any person based on having been forcibly recruited;
  • Submit to the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child Sri Lanka’s overdue initial report on compliance with the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the involvement of children in armed conflict;
  • Ratify the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.

To the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE)

  • Immediately stop all recruitment of children, including voluntary enlistment as well as recruitment effected by abduction or other force or coercion;
  • Immediately cease the use of children in combat operations;
  • Immediately release all children from LTTE forces and give those recruited before age 18 the option to leave;
  • Cooperate with UNICEF in ensuring the safe return of all child soldiers to their families;
  • Take all appropriate steps to ensure LTTE commanders and other cadre do not recruit children under the age of 18 into LTTE forces and provide the international community (through UNICEF or the OHCHR) with documentation of disciplinary actions taken against LTTE cadre responsible for such recruitment;
  • Cooperate with humanitarian agencies to create corridors of safe passage for international agencies and monitors to investigate and follow up on reports of child and forced recruitment in areas of LTTE control;
  • Allow UNICEF, SLMM, and other domestic and international protection agencies access to all LTTE camps, military and otherwise, to assess the age of recruits, and identify children for demobilization. 

To All Donor Governments

  • Urge the Karuna group and the LTTE to immediately end all recruitment of children and all persons forcibly recruited, and to release all children and abductees currently in its forces;
  • Urge the government of Sri Lanka to take all feasible measures to
  • end the involvement of government security forces in the recruitment—whether forced or voluntary—of children and the forced recruitment of all persons by the Karuna group;
  • secure the release and return of all children recruited, and all persons forcibly recruited, by the Karuna group and
  • conduct a thorough investigation of individuals involved in such recruitment, and bring them to justice, regardless of rank;

  • Work with the Sri Lankan government to establish an international human rights monitoring mission under United Nations auspices to monitor government, Karuna group, and LTTE violations of human rights and international humanitarian law, including child recruitment and abductions.

To the United Nations Security Council

  • In light of the LTTE’s continuing use of children in its forces and in accordance with Security Council Resolution 1539 on children and armed conflict (April 22, 2004) and Security Council Resolution 1612 (July 26, 2005), adopt targeted measures to address the LTTE’s persistent failure to end its recruitment and use of child soldiers. Such measures could include the global imposition of travel restrictions on leaders and their exclusion from any governance structures and amnesty provisions, a ban on the supply of small arms, a ban on military assistance, and restriction on the flow of financial resources.

To All United Nations Member States

  • In accordance with Security Council Resolution 1379 on children and armed conflict (November 20, 2001), use all legal, political, diplomatic, financial, and material measures to ensure respect for international norms for the protection of children by the parties to the conflict. In particular, states should unequivocally condemn the continued recruitment and use of child soldiers by the Karuna group and the LTTE, and withhold any financial, political, or military support to these groups until they end all child recruitment and release all children currently in their forces.