MODERN SLAVERY AS A TACTIC IN ARMED  CONFLICTS

Armed groups, violent extremists, and militias fuel conflicts that devastate communities and weaken social and governmental structures, leaving adults and children defenseless and vulnerable. Women and children in armed conflicts are particularly vulnerable to multiple abuses, including those involving human trafficking and sexual and gender-based violence.
The use of modern slavery as a tactic in the armed conflicts in Iraq and Syria is particularly alarming. The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), as well as other armed groups and militias, continue to intimidate populations and devastate communities through unconscionable violence, fear, and oppression. ISIL has made the targeting of women and children, particularly from Yezidi and other minority groups, a hallmark of its campaign of atrocities. In the past year, ISIL has abducted, systematically raped, and abused thousands of women and children, some as young as 8 years of age. Many   of the horrific human rights abuses that ISIL has engaged in also amount to human trafficking. Women and children are sold and enslaved, distributed to ISIL fighters as spoils of war, forced into marriage and domestic servitude, or subjected   to horrific physical and sexual abuse. ISIL has established “markets” where women and children are sold with price tags attached and has published a list of rules on how to treat female slaves once captured.
In a recent UN report, women and girls who managed to escape from ISIL recounted how they were treated. A young woman shared how she was taken to a school and given to an ISIL emir as his slave, and in another case, 150 unmarried girls and women were reportedly transported to Syria from Iraq to be given to ISIL fighters as rewards. Some isolated reports indicate ISIL has begun transporting captive women and girls to buyers in the Gulf. Men and boys are also vulnerable to trafficking, as entire families are reportedly abducted and forced to work in agriculture, such as on sheep and poultry farms in Iraq. Additionally, there is growing concern that some ISIL recruits from Central Asian countries may be vulnerable to trafficking after arriving in Syria. Others, deceived by recruiters promising jobs in Turkey, are later taken to Syria and forced by extremist groups to fight, work, or endure sexual servitude.
ISIL continues to actively and unlawfully recruit, including by abduction, train, and use children—some as young as 12 years old—as soldiers in Iraq and Syria. These children are forced to undergo military training to join the front lines  of combat, while some are deployed as human shields or made to patrol ISIL checkpoints. In training camps, children nicknamed “Cubs of the Caliphate” are trained to use weapons, make bombs, and deploy as suicide bombers.
Whole communities in Iraq and Syria continue to be displaced internally and in neighboring countries, as increasing numbers of adults and children flee the horrors of war, including those perpetrated by ISIL and other armed groups. The  UN estimates 2.8 million individuals in Iraq have been displaced and nearly four million Syrians have fled the country, mostly to Turkey, Jordan, Lebanon, and Iraq. This displacement is compounded by the use of human trafficking as a tactic by ISIL in the armed  conflict.

The use of modern slavery in armed conflicts is not unique to ISIL, but is also evident in the case of other armed groups that are forcibly recruiting children and training them to be soldiers or otherwise exploiting them. Boko Haram has forcibly recruited and used child soldiers as young as 12 years old, and abducted women and girls in the northern region of Nigeria, some of whom it later subjected to domestic servitude, other forms of forced labor, and sexual servitude through forced marriages to its militants. In Somalia, al-Shabaab has recruited and used children in armed conflict. The Lord’s Resistance Army, a Ugandan rebel group that operates in eastern regions of the Central African Republic, enslaves boys and girls for use as cooks, porters, concubines, and combatants. The use of human trafficking in the midst of armed conflicts further amplifies the unspeakable devastation communities and families experience and perpetuates intimidation and fear among oppressed communities.

IRAQ
The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) overran Tariq’s town and kidnapped his daughter, along with the wives and daughters of many others. After a week of silence, Tariq  finally received a phone  call
—his daughter had gained access to a phone shared by several of the girls imprisoned, and she had called to tell him she was going to be sold that day for $10. In the past year, ISIL has abducted and exploited thousands of women and children, sold them in markets and sexually enslaved them, forced them into marriages, or subjected them to forced labor. Family members like Tariq are often left helpless, with knowledge of their daughters’ or wives’ whereabouts but unable to prevent the horrendous abuse of their loved ones.

PREVENTING HUMAN TRAFFICKING IN THE GLOBAL MARKETPLACE 37

CHILD SOLDIERS PREVENTION  ACT  LIST

The Child Soldiers Prevention Act of 2008 (CSPA) was signed into law on December 23, 2008 (Title IV of Pub. L. 110-  457), and took effect on June 21, 2009. The CSPA requires publication in the annual Trafficking in Persons Report of a list of foreign governments identified during the previous year as having governmental armed forces or government-supported armed groups that recruit and use child soldiers, as defined in the act. These determinations cover the reporting period beginning April 1, 2014, and ending March 31,  2015.
For the purpose of the CSPA, and generally consistent with the provisions of the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the involvement of children in armed conflict, the term “child soldier” means:
(i) any person under 18 years of age who takes a direct part in hostilities as a member of governmental armed forces;
(ii) any person under 18 years of age who has been compulsorily recruited into governmental armed forces;
(iii) any person under 15 years of age who has been voluntarily recruited into governmental armed forces; or
(iv) any person under 18  years of age who has been recruited or used in hostilities by armed forces distinct from the  armed forces of a state.
The term “child soldier” includes any person described in clauses (ii), (iii), or (iv) who is serving in any capacity, including    in a support role, such as a “cook, porter, messenger, medic, guard, or sex slave.”
Governments identified on the list are subject to restrictions, in the following fiscal year, on certain security assistance and commercial licensing of military equipment. The CSPA, as amended, prohibits assistance to governments that are identified in the list under the following authorities: International Military Education and Training, Foreign Military Financing, Excess Defense Articles, and Peacekeeping Operations, with exceptions for some programs undertaken pursuant to the Peacekeeping Operations authority. The CSPA also prohibits the issuance of licenses for direct commercial sales of military equipment to such governments. Beginning October 1, 2015, and effective throughout Fiscal Year 2016, these restrictions will apply to the listed countries, absent a presidential national interest waiver, applicable exception, or reinstatement of assistance pursuant to the terms of the CSPA. The determination to include a government in the CSPA list is informed by a range of sources, including first-hand observation by U.S. government personnel and research and credible reporting from various UN entities, international organizations, local and international NGOs, and international media outlets.
The 2015 CSPA List includes governments in the following countries: