Forcible child transfer - historical analysis and human experience of a global phenomenon - case studies from the 20th and 21st centuries

This thesis aims to shed light on the global phenomenon of forcible child transfer. For many centuries children around the world have been forcibly separated from their families and communities by transferral from one group to another within the state. This practice is still happening today and potentially amounts to the crime of genocide (UN Genocide Convention, Article 2(e)). The forcibly transferred children are confronted with physical, mental, and sexual violence; their identity is forcibly changed; and their rights are taken away. The impact of the practice is grave. The children are confronted with short-term and long-term consequences such as potentially lifelong trauma and a lack of of belonging. Adopting a comparative approach, this thesis focuses on the Middle Eastern region in the 20th and 21st centuries. It will look at the Armenian Genocide, the Dersim Massacre, and the Yazidi Genocide. To cover the global dimension of the practice it will further explore the cases of the ‘Stolen Generations’ in Australia, ‘Los Niños de los Desaparecidos’ in Argentina, and ‘Die Kinder der Landstrasse’ in Switzerland. By analysing these different historical case studies of forcible child transfer, this thesis will argue that there is a pattern within the practice and that it is a practice that can potentially occur anywhere in the world, independently of context, geography, and time, provided certain features are present. This thesis will connect historical analysis of the practice of forcible child transfer with the children’s experiences of forced separation. At the centre of the thesis are the stories of the forcibly abducted children.