'Paper protection' mechanisms: child soldiers and the international protection of children in Africa's conflict zones.

The article discusses the complexity of implementing laws against child soldiering in Africa. Despite the arrests of former Liberian warlord-President Charles Taylor and Congolese warlord Thomas Lubanga Dyilo, who were both guilty of recruiting child soldiers, ending child soldiering remains a challenge. Reasons for this include a problematic Western-centric social construction of "child" and the culpability of the African government in recruiting child soldiers.