Abstract
This thesis addresses how a civil conflict impacts reported incidents of child exploitation. I hypothesize that civil conflict increases the incidents of child exploitation in the state of the conflict and speculate that increased incidents of child victimization occur when the following conditions are present: 1) an increase in the number of non-state armed groups present in the conflict; 2) the insurgents’ ability to gain power within the geography they hold; 3) weakened state institutions in the territories controlled by non-state armed groups, and 4) the use of illegal activities to finance and supply the ongoing conflict operations by non-state armed actors. Additionally, I surmise that the type of conflict, whether intrastate or interstate, impacts the international community’s power to intervene the conflict in general, its ability to report on incidents of child exploitation, and its ability to fight child exploitation more specifically. In order to evaluate my theory, I compare and contrast the conflict in Colombia (1960s – 2016) during the rise of guerrilla and paramilitary groups and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) (1996 – 2020) after the migration of refugees following the Rwanda Genocide. In addition, this thesis will examine the role of international law in combatting child exploitation and management of civil conflict. My research supports existing literature in demonstrating how civil conflicts increase the number of reported incidents of child exploitation and goes a few steps further by comparing how the nature of the conflict, whether intrastate or interstate, impacts the number of incidents reported. Furthermore, my research exhibits how international awareness and intervention in a civil conflict can impact the ability to gather accurate evidence and the capacity to better protect vulnerable populations in times of conflict.