Child soldiers : fighting the wars of adults *

The UN Secretary-General has condemned child soldiering as a “damaging and despicable practice” and several UN Security Council resolutions have denounced it. About half the world’s governments have formally committed themselves to end under-age recruitment or to do so in the future. Most major armed political groups, under increasing international pressure, have pledged (although often failed) to end their use of child soldiers. Yet, despite near-universal condemnation, hundreds of thousands of children have fought and died in almost every major conflict in the world.

Today child soldiers are fighting in at least 17 countries around the world. In all the conflicts some children have been forcibly recruited, others have enlisted voluntarily as a means of survival in war-torn regions after family, social and economic structures had collapsed. Many joined because of poverty, unemployment, lack of access to education or to escape domestic violence, abuse and exploitation.

Child soldiers perform a range of tasks such as participation in combat, laying mines and explosives, spying, acting as decoys, couriers or guards, portering, cooking and sexual slavery. They are at risk of death and great physical and mental damage. Despite growing recognition of girls’ involvement in armed conflict, girls are often deliberately or inadvertently excluded from rehabilitation programs. Girl soldiers are frequently subjected to rape and other forms of sexual violence as well as being involved in combat and other roles.

Although there is still a long way to go, during the last four years progress has been made in developing a legislative and policy framework for protecting children caught up in armed conflict through the adoption by the international community of a series of international legal mechanisms. They include the following :

The Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the involvement of children in armed conflict prohibits the direct use of under-18s in hostilities, the compulsory recruitment of under-18s by governments and any recruitment of under-18s by non-government armed groups.

The Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court defines the recruitment of children under 15 as a war crime and provides for the prosecution and punishment of offenders.

International Labour Organization (ILO) Convention 182 defines the forced or compulsory recruitment of any person under 18 for use in armed conflict as one of the worst forms of child labour.

Red Hand Day 2004, 12. Februar 2004, Albertus-
Magnus Gymnasium Köln (Cologne), terre des
hommes Deutschland e.V.

The Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers works to prevent the use of children as soldiers and to promote their demobilisation, rehabilitation and social reintegration. It is comprised of national, regional and international organisations and coalitions in Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin America and the Middle East. It was founded in 1998 by Amnesty International, Defence for Children International, Human Rights Watch, the Terre des Hommes International Federation, the International Save the Children Alliance, Jesuit Refugee Service, the Quaker United Nations Office and World Vision International.

The Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers has been at the forefront of efforts to ban the recruitment of child soldiers while encouraging sustainable networks to promote demobilisation and reintegration of former child soldiers. Terre des Hommes is currently the Vice-Chair of the Coalition.

* The information contained in this page comes from the Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers