Roméo Dallaire, founder of the Child Soldiers Initiative at Dalhousie University’s Centre for Foreign Policy Studies, was awarded the Frederick K. Cox International Humanitarian Award for Advancing Global Justice during the Case Western Reserve University School of Law-hosted conference, “End Game! An International Conference on Combating Maritime Policy.”
The award will help Dallaire’s organization continue its efforts to research and document the recruitment and use of boys and girls for violent attacks in some parts of the world.
International law experts at the conference discussed how youths become pirates near Somalia. After receiving the award, Dallaire gave the keynote speech at the conference.
Dallaire; Sulakshna Beekarry, chief of piracy prosecutions in Mauritius; Rosemelle Mutoka, chief piracy judge in Kenya; and international law professor Milena Sterio will appear on “Talking Foreign Policy” Friday, Sept. 13, at 9 p.m. Michael Scharf, associate dean of global legal studies, leads the quarterly radio program on WCPN. listen to the live broadcast from your computer anywhere in the world at ideastream.org/programs/live.
The expert panel will discuss combating maritime piracy, solving the problem of child soldiers/pirates, and the legality of bombing Syria.
Dallaire, an author and Canadian Forces retired lieutenant-general—who was played by Nick Nolte in the 2005 award-winning film Hotel Rwanda—said training and education is needed to end use of soldiers less than 18 years old on land or as pirates at sea. “Otherwise, they become a new and valuable weapon system for armed conflict,” he said.