“I wish for all children to be free,” says Alfred Orono Orono, former Child Protection Adviser for the peacekeeping mission in South Sudan (UNMISS). He understands this need more than most: at age 11, he joined the Tanzanian forces fighting to oust the dictator Idi Amin from his home country, Uganda. As an adult, he worked to prevent children from experiencing similar childhoods.
Today, UNMISS, along with peacekeeping missions in the Central African Republic (MINUSCA) and Democratic Republic of Congo (MONUSCO) are working to free children from parties to conflict and prevent their recruitment in the face of numbers that have been on the rise.
Armed groups have increased their recruitment and use of children in the wars they are fighting, according to 2024 recent UN reports. Children are used in multiple roles like soldiers, spies, or cooks, or for sexual purposes. This constitutes a grave violation of the children’s rights and takes a devastating toll on their childhoods and their futures.
Children used in conflict are deprived of growing up with their families, can be injured or killed, and can be forced to watch or even participate in atrocious acts of violence. Many are subjected to sexual and gender-based violence, with dramatic consequences, and children returning to their communities often face stigmatization and rejection. Despite their experiences, these children have demonstrated resilience and often see themselves as strong and hardworking. With the right support they can live successfully and in dignity, and many become agents of peace in their communities.
This was the case with Alfred. On leaving the army, he returned to school, eventually attending university in Canada. Later, he worked as a UN peacekeeper, protecting children in conflict-affect South Sudan. He called it his “dream job” despite the challenging and often dangerous environment he worked in.
“I have to see how do I work together with others to ensure that the children do not get recruited into the armed forces? And if the children already in the army, how do I get them out of the army? Which commander should I talk to? How am I going to get there safely? So that my colleagues are not killed, so that they go back home to meet their children, their wives, their parents,” he said in an interview. “I work with children, who when I look at them, I know exactly what's going on in their minds. And I know how they feel. And I'm part of the solution to their problems.”
Through work like Alfred’s, peacekeeping missions have secured the release of over 100,000 children from armed forces and armed groups since the first Child Protection Adviser was deployed to Sierra Leone in 2001. Today, MINUSCA, MONUSCO, and UNMISS are continuing this critical work.
Once released, the peacekeeping missions work with UNICEF and other partner organizations to ensure the children receive the support they need to rejoin their communities and thrive. Missions provide security and logistical support to allow for the verification of instances of grave violations against children to take place, a task they are uniquely positioned to perform. The data collected lays the foundation for all the UN’s interventions, from high-level political engagement and advocacy with parties to conflicts, to policy and programmatic interventions.
Prevention is also at the heart of peacekeeping’s efforts. UNMISS, MONUSCO and MINUSCA work to address the factors that make children vulnerable to recruitment, and engage with governments, armed groups and other actors to get commitments to end the use of children by armed forces and armed groups.
Every February 12th Red Hand Day raises awareness of the issue and call for urgent political action to end it. This call is more urgent than ever, as the recruitment and use of children has continued, and as growing global conflict places more children at risk. Member States have committed to accelerate the implementation of their commitments under the children and armed conflict agenda: in 2025, we must all ensure these commitments are met.
Learn more about the work of peacekeeping’s Child Protection Advisers here, and about UNICEF, and the work of the Office of the Special Representative of the Secretary General for Children and Armed Conflict.