%0 Artículo (Article) %A Morini, Claudia %I Universidad del Rosario %D 2010 %G Español (Spanish) %T First victims then perpetrators: child soldiers and International Law %U https://repository.urosario.edu.co/handle/10336/15680 %X This article examines the issue of the position of child soldiers under International Law. After preliminary remarks on the approach of international human rights and humanitarian law to the protection of children involved in armed conflicts, the article discusses the prohibitions on recruiting children and the individual criminal responsibility of recruiters. Case-law on the child soldiers’ recruitment is considered. In the fourth part the position of the child soldiers as perpetrators is discussed and the retributive approach to the issue is explored. The last section offers an overview of the restorative justice-oriented solution to the dilemma of the criminal responsibility of child soldiers adopted in the context of the post-conflict situation in Sierra Leone.