Can we blame them? An examination of the moral responsibility of current and former child soldiers.
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Birmingham
Department Name: School of Philosophy Theology & Religion
Abstract
Dominic Ongwen, a former Lord's Resistance Army leader, is currently on trial for crimes against humanity including the abduction and training of child soldiers. His defence claim that because Ongwen is a former child soldier he cannot be held responsible. My project evaluates whether this defence is plausible - to what extent do childhood experiences undermine moral responsibility?
To do this, my project combines philosophical and psychological research to assess the moral responsibility of child soldiers, with particular focus on how trauma and conflict exposure affects moral development. Current legal discussions adopt a view of the moral responsibility of child soldiers as wholly diminished - they are victims not perpetrators (United Nations, 2000). My project argues that these concepts need not be mutually exclusive. Child soldiers can possess a dual victim-perpetrator nature because there are grounds for attributing a degree of moral responsibility to them. To support this, I propose different conditions for moral responsibility than those currently dominant in philosophy and law.
Though child soldiers are victims of many responsibility-diminishing conditions, such as coercion and trauma, it does not follow that their moral responsibility is completely extinguished. I argue that under certain conditions, the fact that an agent currently endorses their prior actions (including morally heinous actions) can establish a degree of moral responsibility, even if the actions were not carried out under conditions of freedom. With this account of moral responsibility in place, my project develops a restorative approach, which allows former child soldiers to accept this responsibility and be rehabilitated back into their communities.
I am well equipped for this project. I am currently completing an MRes in Philosophy on the ethics of humanitarian intervention, for which I was awarded an Alumni Scholarship on the strength of my first class undergraduate degree. I am also a research assistant for the AHRC Beauty Demands Project, which has given me experience of conducting large-scale, empirically-informed ethical research. The Philosophy Department at the University of Birmingham is an ideal base for my project, as it is a world-leading centre for both applied ethics and empirically-informed philosophy of psychology (and home to the Centre for the Study of Global Ethics and the newly-created Centre for Philosophy, Psychology, and
Psychiatry). Dr Ozlem Ulgen at Birmingham City University's School of Law will also be invaluable in developing the practical implications of my project because of her expertise in international law and ethics.
To do this, my project combines philosophical and psychological research to assess the moral responsibility of child soldiers, with particular focus on how trauma and conflict exposure affects moral development. Current legal discussions adopt a view of the moral responsibility of child soldiers as wholly diminished - they are victims not perpetrators (United Nations, 2000). My project argues that these concepts need not be mutually exclusive. Child soldiers can possess a dual victim-perpetrator nature because there are grounds for attributing a degree of moral responsibility to them. To support this, I propose different conditions for moral responsibility than those currently dominant in philosophy and law.
Though child soldiers are victims of many responsibility-diminishing conditions, such as coercion and trauma, it does not follow that their moral responsibility is completely extinguished. I argue that under certain conditions, the fact that an agent currently endorses their prior actions (including morally heinous actions) can establish a degree of moral responsibility, even if the actions were not carried out under conditions of freedom. With this account of moral responsibility in place, my project develops a restorative approach, which allows former child soldiers to accept this responsibility and be rehabilitated back into their communities.
I am well equipped for this project. I am currently completing an MRes in Philosophy on the ethics of humanitarian intervention, for which I was awarded an Alumni Scholarship on the strength of my first class undergraduate degree. I am also a research assistant for the AHRC Beauty Demands Project, which has given me experience of conducting large-scale, empirically-informed ethical research. The Philosophy Department at the University of Birmingham is an ideal base for my project, as it is a world-leading centre for both applied ethics and empirically-informed philosophy of psychology (and home to the Centre for the Study of Global Ethics and the newly-created Centre for Philosophy, Psychology, and
Psychiatry). Dr Ozlem Ulgen at Birmingham City University's School of Law will also be invaluable in developing the practical implications of my project because of her expertise in international law and ethics.
Organisations
People |
ORCID iD |
| Jussi Suikkanen (Primary Supervisor) | |
| Jessica Sutherland (Student) |