Children and marine piracy.

AuthorWhitman, Shelly L.
PositionEnd Game: An International Conference on Combating Maritime Piracy

The international community has continued to respond to the resurgence in piracy with an array of strategies that involve tactical, social, political, and economic responses. However, one trend the international community has largely overlooked is the proliferation of juvenile piracy. There is little data on the use of child pirates, and those involved in counter-piracy efforts have not adequately considered the effects of juvenile piracy in addressing the piracy problem as a whole. As such, this article examines juvenile piracy through a socio-economic lens by exploring its root causes and consequences on operational and legal responses, which must be tailored to meet the unique challenges that child piracy poses. Further, this article draws parallels between child pirates, child soldiers, and youth gangs to better understand the factors leading to their recruitment. In addition to increasing awareness of youth involvement in piracy and bridging the informational gap in this area, this article provides recommendations for moving forward, which include shifting to a demand-side approach in tackling piracy; creating an international standard on the treatment of juvenile pirates; and cooperating with various stakeholders to devise new mechanisms to deal specifically with juvenile piracy.

CONTENTS I. INTRODUCTION II. CHILDREN AND YOUTH PIRATES III. "WORST FORM OF CHILD LABOUR" IV. CRIMINAL EMPLOYMENT OF CHILDREN V. VULNERABILITY OF CHILDREN--WARTIME VS. PEACETIME VI. IMPLICATIONS OF YOUTH INVOLVEMENT IN PIRACY VII. CONCLUSION A. Supply and Demand B. Children and Youth I. INTRODUCTION

According to the Failed States Index Data 2011, created by the Fund for Peace Organization, six countries most affected by piratical activity fall within the top fifteen most fragile states. This list includes Somalia, Cote d'Ivoire, Guinea, Pakistan, Yemen and Nigeria. (1) Piracy is not the main factor as to why these countries are fragile; at the same time, not all fragile littoral states have marine piracy. However, this does demonstrate the importance of looking at the broader social, political, and economic environment that enables piracy. Understanding the human factors associated with piracy and its root causes is critical to the development of solutions to address piracy.

The Dalhousie Marine Piracy Project (DMPP) has undertaken such an integrated and interdisciplinary approach to addressing the problem of contemporary piracy and its impact on the shipping and coastal communities. In so doing, the DMPP comprehensively examined the four interdependent themes of Law and Governance, Socio-Economics, Operational Responses, and Information Management; assessed current literature on the topic of contemporary marine piracy; and, through analysis of that work, highlighted potential areas for policy development and implementation.

Piracy appears to develop where weak or non-existent government and enforcement capabilities, impoverished coastal communities, and shipping targets exist in relatively close proximity. Other elements such as organized criminality, youth unemployment, political conflict and even natural disasters may also contribute to the likelihood of piracy emerging as a major threat to shipping in a particular region. The DMPP, with the intention of identifying and evaluating the effectiveness of current and proposed responses to piracy, has examined the economic, political and social conditions that have led to contemporary outbreaks of piracy.

This article highlights an important and growing issue identified from the DMPP research. Of deep concern is the increasing evidence that piracy gangs are recruiting children and youth, and yet those who are responsible for addressing piracy have failed to recognize this problem and the complexities it introduces. For this particular problem, however, it is important to note that a systematic collection of data on this matter does not currently exist, thus it has been difficult to conduct a clear, evidenced-based assessment of the situation. As such, three key objectives of this article are to: (1) raise the awareness of those involved in either studying or addressing piracy of their failure to address the question of children and youth involvement; (2) provide a rationale for states who are capturing, releasing, reporting, and prosecuting those involved in piratical activity to collect and improve accessibility of disaggregated data on those committing piracy; and (3) provide possible alternatives to addressing marine piracy by focusing on the challenges posed by the involvement of children and youth. In addition, it should be noted that many who are involved in studying or addressing marine piracy have failed to pose questions regarding the involvement of children and youth. This means that closing the critical gap in the data collection, research, and responses to marine piracy has yet to be considered as a potential approach in the overall effort to halt or reduce marine piracy.

  1. CHILDREN AND YOUTH PIRATES

    The U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) provides in Article 1 that the term "child" means "every human being below the age of 18 years, unless under the law applicable to the child, majority is attained earlier." (2) The UNCRC is one of the most universally accepted international conventions, with 140 signatories and 193 parties to the Convention. (3) This particular definition has implications for the age at which an individual can be charged for the offense of piracy and the procedures that must be followed in the handling of young offenders.

    It is estimated that there are 2.2 billion people in the world below the age of eighteen years, and nearly two billion of these children live in the developing world. (4) These demographics have an impact on the involvement of children in criminal activity and armed conflict, as far too often the current balance of power in the world leads to the exploitation of the innocent and less powerful. (5)

    The evidence that does exist with respect to the use of children and youth in piracy activity indicates that the socio-economic factors (poverty, armed violence, lack of educational or employment opportunities, orphans, displacement, and exposure to disease) that make children vulnerable and thus prone to use by armed groups exists in each of the major areas in which piracy currently is reported. Additionally, in many of the regions where piracy exists, children are being used by terrorist groups, criminal gangs, and state and non-state armed groups (e.g. Somalia, Nigeria, Haiti). (6) Therefore, the use of children and youth by pirates could be viewed as a natural extension of these armed groups.

    A major reason for this use can also be attributed to factors that would impact the use of children in piracy, such as poverty, high youth unemployment, and weak state structures that lead to a lack of social programming. It may be argued that the current demographics showing children constituting at least 50 percent of the population, (7) in addition to the average life expectancy rates that may impact the average age of the workforce and easy access to small arms and light weapons, also play key roles in child-pirate recruitment. In addition, children often come from families that have partaken in piracy, such as in Somalia, and are therefore exposed at a young age to the business.

    Following the Paris Principles definition of a child soldier, the Romeo Dallaire Child Soldiers Initiative defines a pirate as any person below eighteen years of age who is or who has been recruited or used by a pirate gang in any capacity, including but not limited to children--boys and/or girls--used as gunmen in boarding parties, hostage guards, negotiators, ship captains, messengers, spies or for sexual purposes. This definition does not only refer to a child who is taking, or has taken, a direct part in kinetic criminal operations. (8)

    The media first gave significant attention to the use of children in piracy as a result of the MV Maersk Alabama attack in the Gulf of Aden in April 2009. (9) Following this incident, the Indian Navy discovered that 25 out of 61 pirates arrested were under the age of fifteen years old, four of whom were estimated to be just eleven years old. (10) Based on 2011 media reports, the DMPP's research showed that child pirates on trial comprise the following numbers:

    Country of Trial Numbers of Pirates Number of Pirates on on Trial Trial Under 18 Years Old France 6 1 India 61 38 Germany 10 3 Malaysia 7 3-15-year-olds 2-18-year-olds USA 3 * 3 * Regarding one yacht hijacking, one pirate on trial is fifteen years old; with respect to the MV Maersk Alabama, four pirates are on trial, including one sixteen-yea-old that was shot and ione between seventeen to nineteen years old that has been sentenced to thirty-four years in prison. (11) On marine piracy, the former U.N. Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Children and Armed Conflict, Ms. Radhika Coomaraswamy, commented that a jailed pirate in Puntland had told her that former pirates who had become wealthy increasingly relied on child recruits to seize ships for ransom. (12) Many of the people in charge of piracy operations are not out on the seas themselves but on shore in their homes in Somalia or Kenya. The people they actually send out to "do the dangerous stuff are young children and youth, between the ages of 15, 16 and 17," says Coomaraswamy. (13) She also stated that if an international criminal tribunal is convened to deal with the perpetrators of acts of piracy, no child should be tried in the same court as adults. (14) Instead, child pirates should be rehabilitated and integrated back into their communities. (15)

    Armed groups and criminal gangs view children as desirable in part due to their lack of accountability under legal proceedings depending on the national laws in question. It is therefore imperative to ensure that the leaders and...

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