Between 300,000 and 500,000 child soldiers are being exploited worldwide in over 30 conflict areas. Both girls and boys usually between the ages of 14 and 18 but as young as 9, are recruited to serve as combatants, spies, messengers, porters, or sex slaves in both government and non-government armed groups. Extreme poverty and lack of education opportunities, often caused by armed conflict, allow recruiters to manipulate the children into joining the armies by promising them steady means of survival. However, some children do not “voluntarily” join, but are abducted and forced to become soldiers. The wide availability of small, easy-to-use arms facilitates the exploitation of child soldiers in armed conflict.  The problem is most critical in Africa, where an estimated 100,000 children are fighting in Uganda, Sudan, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), and Chad among others. While government armies do engage in the exploitation of child soldiers, the majority of child soldiers are used by armed political groups, often opposed and rebelling against the government. These groups include the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) in Sierra Leone, the National Liberation Forces in Burundi, and the Lord’s Resistance Army in Northern Uganda, among others. It is especially challenging for the international community to prevent the use of child soldiers by non-governmental groups because as non-state actors, the groups are not bound by international human rights law. The Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers held a forum in June of 2006 to discuss alternative approaches of demobilizing armed groups.

The campaign against the use of child soldiers has had great success since 2002 with the UN’s Optional Protocol to the Convention on Human Rights of the Child. The resolution raises the minimum age for direct participation in armed conflict from 15 years to 18 years, thus prohibiting compulsory recruitment for children less than 18 years. Also, it forbids non-state actors to recruit any child under the age of 18.

There are also demobilization, disarmament, and reintegration (DDR) programs being put in place all over the world to help rehabilitate child soldiers. The Multi-country Demobilization and Reintegration Program (MDRP) , based in the Great Lakes region of Africa, works in 7 countries to disarm and reintroduce combatants into their communities.

In accordance with the Optional Protocol, ratified by the US in 2002, Congress introduced the Child Soldiers Prevention Act of 2007. According to the Human Rights Watch, of the nine countries who participate in the recruitment and use of children in armed conflict, eight receive US military assistance. Over half of these countries are located in Africa: Chad, Burundi, Cote d’Ivoire , Democratic Republic of Congo, Sudan, and Uganda. The Child Soldiers Prevention Act of 2007 restricts the assistance given to countries who engage in the recruitment and use of child soldiers. The US will only provide these countries with military assistance to correct this problem.

AFJN encourages you to contact your Senator and Representative to support the Child Soldiers Prevention Act of 2007.