By Susan McKay and Dyan Mazurana. 2004. International Centre for Human Rights and Democratic Development, Montréal, Canada. (Published in English and French)
Dyan Mazurana and Susan McKay’s study, Where are the Girls?, raises our awareness of the militarization of the lives of girls in fighting forces and the role they play. The authors use data gleaned from their research in Northern Uganda, Mozambique and Sierra Leone to reveal that girls in fighting forces are not, and never have been, simply “camp followers.”
This study is addressed to all those who work in countries that are in conflict or ravaged by war, whether they are community groups or multilateral, governmental, or non-governmental organizations. Where are the girls, if they are not counted as part of the military when the time comes for disarmament, demobilization and rebuilding of societies?