Children born of wartime rape face unique realities and needs, particularly as they relate to their birth origins, links with their perpetrator fathers, and challenges regarding identity and community belonging. As children with first-hand, embodied understanding of the legacies of war, their perspectives on postwar accountability and reconciliation are highly relevant. Yet the views of children born of wartime rape are rarely documented. To highlight their perspectives, qualitative interviews were conducted with 79 children born of wartime rape within the Ugandan Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA). Interviews revealed children’s love and loyalty to their fathers—who were high-ranking members of the LRA, as well as children’s struggles reconciling their fathers’ wartime actions, responsibility, and postwar accountability. Far from turning a blind eye to their fathers’ involvement in mass atrocities, children’s narratives centered on themes of violence, forgiveness, responsibility, and ambiguity. Participants’ views of their fathers and accountability mechanisms are linked to larger peacebuilding efforts, highlighting the importance of listening to this important but understudied group of children in postconflict reconciliation efforts.

This chapter explores the complex phenomenon of child soldiers—in theory and in practice. The chapter begins by outlining the international legal instruments aimed at preventing the use of children in armed conflict, as well as summarizing global estimates of the issue. The rights violations faced by children involved in armed conflict are addressed, with a particular focus on girls, who are often overlooked. The chapter then provides an overview of the depictions of child soldiers in popular media, highlighting how iconography may contribute to the shaping of policy and programming. The chapter discusses the tensions and paradoxes associated with the translation of formal legal commitments into practice. It concludes with a discussion of areas for future policy and research.

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Despite growing research and interest in children born of war, their complex realities, and the experiences of their mothers, few studies have examined conceptions of fatherhood—particularly children’s perspectives of their biological fathers. This chapter breaks new ground by drawing upon research of children born in LRA captivity to explore their perspectives of their fathers and being fathered by members of the LRA. The authors’ research analyzes why these youths see their fathers as loving, nurturing, and powerful. They explain that fathers had reportedly provided their children with basic necessities, while protecting them from a variety of harms. The children’s portrayals of their fathers as loving and nurturing is in stark contrast the common depictions of LRA commanders in existing literature and scholarship where they are depicted as ruthless and violent perpetrators. Consequently, there is a need to challenge and transcend the single story of men in the LRA. The authors reveal a more nuanced, complex story of men who were simultaneously perpetrators, victims, fathers, caregivers, and commanders. The challenges that children and youth reported in relation to their origins and identity points toward a pressing need to consider their realities postconflict as separate from the plight of their mothers, whose views on their husbands will invariably differ from their children’s perspectives.

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