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Spring 2004

Comparative Human Rights
Lecture Series

he UNESCO Chair has established a regular lecture series that brings to the University a wide array of human rights scholars, educators, advocates, and policy makers, to address human rights issues from historical and global perspectives.

China Keitetsi

"Sometimes I feel as if I am 6 years old, and sometimes as though I am 100 years old because of all that I have seen." - China Keitets

Tursday, October 17, 2006
12:30-1:45 P.M.
Arjona Room 105
University of Connecticut
Storrs, CT 06269


China Keitetsi was abducted by soldiers at the age of eight, and was forced to fight and endure sexual abuse for 11 years. Keitetsi, who grew up in Uganda, East Africa, now advocates on behalf of child soldiers worldwide.

Keitetsi was abducted in 1984 by the National Resistance Army led by Yoweri Museveni, who later became president of
Uganda. She was exploited for 11 years until she escaped at
the age of 19.

She will talk about her life experiences – the trauma of abduction, the loss of childhood, the sexual abuse to which she was subjected, and the enduring impact of the atrocities she both witnessed and was forced to commit.

“I would like to share with the audience how sad it is when one feels very old and yet also feels like a child,” she says, “how we struggle every day to learn to live with the loss of our childhood; how we struggle to love our bodies and live with virtually no sense of dignity because of the abuses we endured; and how it feels to never have a proper sense of belonging.”

She says that in many ways women and girls suffer harsher abuse than their male counterparts – experiencing not only the brutality of combat, but also sexual exploitation. At 14, she gave birth to her first child, a baby boy. Just months later, she was forced to return to the army. When she was 19, she rejected the sexual advances of a senior officer. In retaliation, he accused her of having sold weapons to the enemy, an allegation that could have had dire consequences, and she had to flee for her life.

Keitetsi is now an international advocate for children who are kidnapped and forced into war. She has testified before the United Nations Security Council, and has traveled around the world to speak about the plight of child soldiers. Although her personal experiences took place in Uganda, she has taken up the cause of child soldiers all over the world. The United Nations estimates that as many as 300,000 children may be serving in armies in more than a dozen countries in Africa and Asia.

Her autobiography They Took Away My Mother and Gave Me a Gun is a bestseller in Germany under the title, Sie nahmen mir die Mutter und gaben mir ein Gewehr. Mein Leben als Kindersoldatin. The English-language edition (published in South Africa) is called My Life as a Child Soldier. Keitetsi’s story can be found at: http://xchild.dk. You can also visit: http://www.chinak.org/

Please visit make sure to visit Keitetsi website at: http://www.chinak.org/

Lecture is sponsored by the UNESCO Chair & Institute of Comparative Human Rights Office. Lecture is being held in conjunction with the 7th Annual Comparative Human Rights Conference taking place on Tuesday, October 24, 2006 at the University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT. For additional information, please visit www.unescochair.uconn.edu. Lecture is co-sponsored by the Office of the Vice Provost for Enrollment Management and the University of Connecticut Branch Campuses.