Child Soldiers: A Brief Legal Overview

The concept of “child soldier” – the involvement of children (through recruitment or otherwise) in the violence and brutality of armed conflict – is abhorrent to most adults who consider the issue. This is confirmed by the fact that there are a number of international conventions and other mechanisms that condemn the practice and that create an international framework to combat it.

Who are child soldiers? The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (see below) defines a child as a person under the age of eighteen. However, in order to restrict recruitment into the armed forces of a State Party to the Convention, and for the requirement that States Parties “take all possible measures to ensure” that children “do not participate directly in hostilities “, the Convention uses the minimum age of fifteen years (Article 38).

The Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the involvement of children in armed conflict (see below) uses the age of eighteen to condemn the recruitment of children or their use in hostilities by armed groups other than armed forces. armed forces of a State (Article 4).

The Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (see below) includes, within the definition of “war crimes”, the crime of recruiting or enlisting children, or using them to actively participate in hostilities, either by the armed forces. nationals or by any armed group (Articles 8 (2) (b) (xxvi) and 8 (2) (e) (vii)). For these purposes, a child is a person under the age of fifteen.

Where are child soldiers used? Child soldiers can be found both in government armed forces and in armed groups that oppose the central governments of their countries. The Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers, which was launched in 1998 by various groups, including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, reports that the majority of children under the age of 18, who are involved in conflict, are associated with armed groups. . .

The Coalition reports that Africa has the highest number of child soldiers. Children are being used in armed conflicts in countries such as Burundi, the Central African Republic, Chad, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Somalia and Sudan. It also reports on child soldiers in various Asian countries, such as Myanmar and Indonesia, in the Middle East, and in Latin America.

Because the Coalition campaigns for a complete ban on all military recruitment and use of persons under the age of 18, its website notes that the United States and other Western countries such as Austria, Australia, France, Germany, the United Kingdom and Canada are countries that recruit children (that is, people under the age of 18) into their armies.

How are child soldiers used? Most of the publicity surrounding child soldiers has focused on their use in non-Western countries by both armed groups and government armed forces. Such publicity makes it clear that in these countries child soldiers are used to fight and kill, participating directly in combat. They can also be used to loot and destroy property; place mines and explosives; to explore, spy and act as decoys. Girls are widely reported to be used for sexual and domestic chores, as well as for these other purposes.

Important international conventions: The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child entered into force in September 1990. As noted above, article 38 of that Convention deals with the issue of children in the context of a country’s armed forces and hostilities. in general. In paragraph 4, the article establishes that “States Parties shall take all possible measures to guarantee the protection and care of children affected by armed conflict.”

The Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Involvement of Children in Armed Conflict entered into force in 2002. It requires States Parties to “take all possible measures” to ensure that members of their armed forces under the age of 18 “do not take a direct party to hostilities “(Article 1) and requires that children under that age are not compulsorily recruited (Article 2). (Voluntary recruitment of children between the ages of 15 and 18 into the armed forces of a State is not prohibited by the Convention or the Protocol.)

Article 3 of the Optional Protocol requires that States parties that allow the voluntary recruitment of persons under 18 years of age maintain certain safeguards (including guaranteeing the informed consent of the child’s parents or legal guardians). States parties must also take “all possible measures” to prevent the recruitment and use by armed groups of children under the age of 18, including taking the necessary legal measures “to prohibit and criminalize such practices”.

Convention No. 182 of the International Labor Organization on the prohibition of the worst forms of child labor and immediate action for its elimination entered into force in November 2000. The Convention defines the child as a person under 18 years of age. Ratifying States must take urgent steps to ensure the prohibition and elimination of the worst forms of child labor, including the “forced or compulsory recruitment of children for use in the armed forces.”

App: A body of independent experts, the Committee on the Rights of the Child, was established in accordance with article 43 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child. The Committee monitors the implementation of the Convention and the Optional Protocol on the involvement of children in armed conflict. States Parties must submit periodic reports to the Committee.

The Special Court for Sierra Leone (created by the United Nations and the government of Sierra Leone in 2002) delivered the first international court convictions for the crime of recruitment and use of child soldiers.

The Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC) entered into force on July 1, 2002. The first trial before the ICC, which began, after long delays, on January 26, 2009, deals with war crimes recruitment and enlistment of children. soldiers under 15 years of age and use them to actively participate in armed conflicts. This trial, described as a landmark event in the development of international law, should draw greater public attention to the issue of child soldiers.