What #Kony2012 Should Have Asked For

Pierre Holtz, via Wikimedia Commons

by Kayleen Hartman

By now the story of #Kony2012 is growing old. The viral video on Joseph Kony and the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) has received almost 80 million hits, and is famous in some circles more for the backlash against it than for its advocacy ask: to stop the LRA’s deplorable use of child soldiers, tell the Obama administration to continue to provide the support it’s already providing to the Ugandan military’s mission against the LRA.

There’s been loads of commentary about the concerns with a video like this, whether or not or it’s useful, and its questionable accuracy. There is also the fact that there are other organizations in Uganda, founded by former child soldiers and for child soldiers, that might be a great place to put your money if you’re feeling moved. But we've missed the fact that not only is simple maintenance of the status quo a wasted use of the advocacy power of millions, there is another, much more necessary, powerful, and on-point demand that those affected by the video could ask of their president.

First, it’s important to note that the LRA is not the only military group to exploit child soldiers. Several world governments, including governments to whom the United States provides military aid, are known to recruit and make use of children in their militaries’ ranks. A few weeks ago, we put up a post detailing the Obama administration’s use of waivers under the Child Soldier Prevention Act of 2007, a bill then-Senator Obama had co-sponsored. The law withholds military assistance to countries whose governments use child soldiers – the basic, correct thing to do.

But for the second year in a row, the Obama administration has issued waivers under the law to allow the U.S. to continue providing military assistance to several countries whose governments make use of child soldiers. They did so without demonstrating that those countries were showing improvement or even good faith efforts to deal with their problem, and without disclosing any benchmarks or goals those governments would have to meet to secure aid in the future. As the prior post details, this is not only a breach of the intended purpose of the law, it’s also likely a violation of U.S. treaty obligations and international law.

This issue affects the LRA problem and the Kony 2012 campaign directly. One of the countries who received a waiver, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), is also one of the places Kony is suspected to be operating these days. Not only is the DRC not using U.S. military assistance to join in the hunt for Kony and the LRA, it is actually frustrating those attempts, refusing entry to the U.S.-backed Ugandan troops in pursuit of Kony. And yet, the U.S. government provides military assistance to the DRC, a country whose own military uses child soldiers, and which is actively obstructing the search for and capture of Kony and the LRA.

When making this point, it's important to note that the Ugandan army's U.S.-backed pursuit of Kony isn't necessarily the best solution either. The Ugandan Army has its own record of serious human rights problems, and the merits of a military intervention for humanitarian purposes is a larger discussion outside of the scope of this post.

These problems with the implementation of the Child Soldier Prevention Act are something concerned citizens could petition their government to address that goes beyond “don’t stop what you’re already doing.” We can tell them not to make laws about child soldiers one year and then issue waivers to go on funding the use of child soldiers the next. However much Invisible Children might be subject to valid criticism, they have mounted an incredibly widely reaching advocacy campaign on a deeply important human rights issue. They now have an opportunity to make it effective, to use the millions of supporters they have – the casual, non-experts who feel deeply about the use of children in war – to make a real ask, one that gets right to the heart of the issue. I hope they will at least consider doing it.