A/HRC/39/49 the Working Group emphasizes that victims hurt by the violent acts of these children may have suffered greatly and that they equally deserve justice and reparation. F. Gender perspective 40. Boys and girls serve different tasks in armed groups. The majority of girls are recruited for sexual purposes. Research shows that girls abducted by armed groups are almost universally raped.17 In the contexts of the Syrian Arab Republic and Iraq, girls and women appear to be used by armed groups as part of the recruitment appeal to boys and men. For groups with state-like ambitions, marrying off girls and women also helps ensure a future generation of supporters and bolsters their nation-building projects. 18 Girls’ participation in armed groups is considered central to sustaining a force because of their productive and reproductive labour. 19 Like the boys, girls associated with armed groups often carry out tasks such as cooking, domestic work and looting. Girls are also forced to participate in combat or carry out suicide missions. In addition, as a result of sexual violence, including rape and sexual slavery, many girls experience forced pregnancy and give birth without any assistance or care. They also have to rear their children, who are expected to become new members of the group. As a result, many girls suffer from sexually transmitted diseases, complications of pregnancy, gynaecological diseases and chronic health problems. 41. Once returned to their communities, girls and women who are perceived to have had sexual relations with members of armed groups, especially those who have brought back their children by combatants of the armed groups, are especially stigmatized. These girls are severely hampered in their reintegration into the local community. Many of the girls are abandoned by their families, despite the fact that they were victims of abduction, rape and other human rights violations. Since most communities consider the children of combatants of armed groups as objects of shame, often the girls are forced to choose between their child and their community. 20 Consequently, many girls, although returned to their communities, are isolated or homeless. G. Private military and security companies and former child soldiers 42. As wars and military functions continue to be “outsourced” to private military and security companies in order to reduce cost, some companies have reportedly recruited former child soldiers to take part in active combat or guard the military facilities of a State party to the conflict. Owing to the multiple layers of contracts involving subcontractors on the ground, the lack of effective oversight and the absence of a proper vetting process, it is very difficult to know the exact number of former child soldiers recruited by private companies. 43. The Working Group is concerned about allegations of recruitment of former child soldiers from Sierra Leone and Uganda by private military and security companies to execute military operations in Afghanistan, Iraq and elsewhere. The motivations of former child soldiers to engage with private military security companies can result from a failure to reintegrate, especially if the former combatant is not economically reintegrated into the society; for example, if there is a lack of alternative job opportunities. In this context, there is a clear economic motivation from the perspective of these companies, since former child soldiers are considered cheap labour and these former combatants have experience in combat and armed conflict in general. For instance, a Ugandan former child soldier 17 18 19 20 Susan McKay and Dyan Mazurana, Where Are the Girls? Girls in Fighting Forces in Northern Uganda, Sierra Leone and Mozambique: Their Lives During and After War (Montreal, Rights and Democracy, 2004). O’Neil and Van Broeckhoven, “The road to a better future”. Schauer and Elbert, “The psychological impact of child soldiering”. Redress Trust, Victims, Perpetrators or Heroes? Child Soldiers Before the International Criminal Court (London, 2006). 11