Thomas Lubanga Dyilo, the leader of a Congolese rebel group who stood accused in the International Criminal Court of recruiting and deploying child soldiers, has been found guilty. Lubanga was the first suspect taken into custody by the ICC, in 2006, and now becomes the first to have a verdict rendered. This is also the first time an individual has been tried before an international court for war crimes involving the use of child soldiers.
This brief film produced by the Open Society Justice Initiative and WITNESS offers an overview of the case against Lubanga and the trial prior to the rendering of the verdict, which occurred today at The Hague.
For more on the issue of child soldiers, see Amnesty International USA, Human Rights Watch, the Child Soldiers Initiative, or Child Soldiers International.