Children in the military Children (defined by the Convention on the Rights of the Child as people under the age of 18) have been recruited for participation in military operations and campaigns throughout history and in many cultures. Children in the military, inclu ...

are children (defined by the

Convention on the Rights of the Child The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (commonly abbreviated as the CRC or UNCRC) is an international human rights treaty which sets out the civil, political, economic, social, health and cultural rights of children. The Co ...

as persons under the age of 18) who are associated with military organizations, such as state armed forces and non-state armed groups. Throughout history and in many cultures, children have been involved in military campaigns. For example, thousands of children participated on all sides of the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

and the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...

. Norman Davies
''Rising '44: The Battle for Warsaw,''
Pan Books 2004 p.603 Children may be trained and used for combat, assigned to support roles such as porters or messengers, or used for tactical advantage as human shields or for political advantage in propaganda. Children are easy targets for

military recruitment Military recruitment refers to the activity of attracting people to, and selecting them for, military training and employment. Demographics Gender Across the world, a large majority of recruits to state armed forces and non-state arme ...

due to their greater susceptibility to influence compared to adults. Some children are recruited by force while others choose to join up, often to escape poverty or because they expect military life to offer a

rite of passage A rite of passage is a ceremony or ritual of the passage which occurs when an individual leaves one group to enter another. It involves a significant change of status in society. In cultural anthropology the term is the Anglicisation of ''rite ...

to maturity.

Pre-20th century

Throughout history and in many cultures, children have been extensively involved in military campaigns. The earliest mentions of minors being involved in wars come from antiquity. It was customary for youths in the Mediterranean basin to serve as aides, charioteers and armor bearers to adult warriors. Examples of this practice can be found in the Bible, such as David's service to King Saul, in Hittite and ancient Egyptian art, and in ancient Greek

mythology Myth is a folklore genre consisting of narratives that play a fundamental role in a society, such as foundational tales or origin myths. Since "myth" is widely used to imply that a story is not objectively true, the identification of a narra ...

(such as the story of Hercules and Hylas), philosophy and literature. In a practice dating back to antiquity, children were routinely taken on a campaign, together with the rest of a military man's family, as part of the baggage. The Roman Empire made use of youths in war, though it was understood that it was unwise and cruel to use children in war, and Plutarch implies that regulations required youths to be at least sixteen years of age. Despite this, several Roman

legionaries The Roman legionary (in Latin ''legionarius'', plural ''legionarii'') was a professional heavy infantryman of the Roman army after the Marian reforms. These soldiers would conquer and defend the territories of ancient Rome during the late Republi ...

were known to have enlisted children aged 14 in the

Imperial Roman army The Imperial Roman army was the military land force of the Roman Empire from about 30 BC to 476 AD, and the final incarnation in the long history of the Roman army. This period is sometimes split into the Principate (30 BC – 284 AD) and the Do ...

, such as Quintus Postunius Solus who completed 21 years of service in

Legio XX Valeria Victrix Legio XX Valeria Victrix, in English Twentieth Victorious Valeria Legion was a legion of the Imperial Roman army. The origin of the Legion's name is unclear and there are various theories, but the legion may have gained its title ''Valeria ...

, and Caecilius Donatus who served 26 years in the Legio XX and died shortly before his honorable discharge. In medieval Europe young boys from about twelve years of age were used as military aides ("

squires In the Middle Ages, a squire was the shield- or armour-bearer of a knight. Use of the term evolved over time. Initially, a squire served as a knight's apprentice. Later, a village leader or a lord of the manor might come to be known as a " ...

"), though in theory, their role in actual combat was limited. The so-called Children's Crusade in 1212 recruited thousands of children as untrained soldiers under the assumption that divine power would enable them to conquer the enemy, although none of the children entered combat. According to the legend, they were instead sold into slavery. While most scholars no longer believe that the Children's Crusade consisted solely, or even mostly, of children, it nonetheless exemplifies an era in which entire families took part in a war effort. File:Lemuel Cook-2.jpg,

Lemuel Cook Lemuel Cook (September 10, 1759 – May 20, 1866) was one of the last verifiable surviving veterans of the American Revolutionary War. Early life and education Cook was born on September 10, 1759, in Litchfield County, Connecticut, to Henry Cook ...

(1759–1866) served 1775–1784 in the

American Revolutionary War The American Revolutionary War (April 19, 1775 – September 3, 1783), also known as the Revolutionary War or American War of Independence, was a major war of the American Revolution. Widely considered as the war that secured the independence of t ...

. File:SamuelDowning.jpg, Samuel Downing (b. 1762) served in the American Revolution. File:Adam Link, aged 102, one of the survivors of the Revolution LCCN2013645055.tif, Adam Link (1762–1864) served in the American Revolution. File:Daniel Waldo loc.tif, Daniel Waldo (1762–1864) served 1778–1779 in the American Revolution. File:William Hutchings.jpg, William Hutchings (b. 1764) served in the American Revolution. File:Alexander Millener.jpg, Alexander Milliner (b. 1759 or 1770) served in the American Revolution. UnionPowderMonkey

Young boys often took part in battles during early modern warfare. When Napoleon was faced with invasion by a massive Allied force in 1814 he conscripted many teenagers for his armies. Orphans of the Imperial Guard fought in the Netherlands with Marshal MacDonald and were between the ages of 14 and 17. Many of the conscripts who reported to the ranks in 1814 were referred to as Marie Louises after the Empress Marie Louise of France; they were also known as "The Infants of the Emperor". These soldiers were in their mid-teens. One of their more visible roles was as the ubiquitous " drummer boy". During the age of sail, young boys formed part of the crew of British Royal Navy ships and were responsible for many essential tasks including bringing powder and shot from the ship's magazine to the gun crews. These children were called "powder monkeys". Child soldier in the US Civil War

During the American Civil War a young boy, Bugler John Cook, served in the US Army at the age of 15 and received the Medal of Honor for his acts during the Battle of Antietam, the bloodiest day in American history. Several other minors, including 11-year-old

Willie Johnston William McClure Johnston (born 19 December 1946) is a Scottish former professional footballer, best remembered for his time at Rangers and West Bromwich Albion. He made 22 international appearances for Scotland and was selected for their 1978 ...

, have also received the Medal of Honor. By a law signed by Nicholas I of Russia in 1827 a disproportionate number of Jewish boys, known as the

cantonist Cantonists (Russian language: кантонисты; more properly: военные кантонисты, "military cantonists") were underage sons of conscripts in the Russian Empire. From 1721 on they were educated in special "canton schools" (К ...

s, were forced into military training establishments to serve in the army. The 25-year conscription term officially commenced at the age of 18, but boys as young as eight were routinely taken to fulfill the quota. In the final stages of the Paraguayan War, children fought in the Battle of Acosta Ñu against the Allied forces of Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay. The day is commemorated as a national holiday in Paraguay. During the Boshin War, the pro-''shōgun'' Aizu Domain formed the , which was made up of the 16 to 17-year-old sons of Aizu samurai. During the Battle of Bonari Pass and the Battle of Aizu, they fought the Satcho forces who supported the Imperial cause. A detached unit of Byakkotai was cut off from the rest of the unit and retreated to Iimori Hill, which overlooked Aizu-Wakamatsu Castle. From there, they saw what they thought was the castle on fire. 20 of the detached unit committed ''seppuku'' while one was unsuccessful. He was saved by a local peasant.

World War I

The youngest known soldier of World War I was

Momčilo Gavrić Momčilo Gavrić ( sr-Cyrl, Момчило Гаврић; 1 May 1906 – 28 April 1993) was the youngest Serbian soldier, he became a soldier at the age of eight.

, who joined the 6th Artillery Division of the Serbian Army at the age of 8, after Austro-Hungarian troops in August 1914 killed his parents, grandmother, and seven of his siblings.Momčilo Gavrić – najmlađi vojnik Prvog svetskog rata
("Večernje novosti", 31 August 2013) In the West, boys as young as 12 were caught up in the overwhelming tide of patriotism and in huge numbers enlisted for active service. Others enlisted to avoid harsh and dreary lives. Typically many were able to pass themselves off as older men, such as George Thomas Paget, who at 17 joined a Bantam battalion in the Welsh Regiment. In the Gallipoli campaign, otherwise known as "Çanakkale", children as young as 15 fought in the trenches. 120 children fought in the "15'liler" or "The 15s" company, with no known survivors.

Spanish Civil War

Many child soldiers fought in the Spanish Civil War:

World War II

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

children under the age of 18 were widely used by all sides in formal and informal military roles. Children were readily indoctrinated into the prevailing ideology of the warring parties, quickly trained, and often sent to the front line; many were wounded or killed. The lack of a legal definition of a child, combined with the absence of a system for verifying the ages of prospective child recruits, contributed to the extensive use of children in the war.

After World War II: Historical examples by region

These are historical examples. For instances of children in the military today, see

Africa

Algeria

During the

Algerian civil war The Algerian Civil War ( ar, rtl=yes, الْحَرْبُ الْأَهْلِيَّةُ الجَزَائِرِيَّةُ, al-Ḥarb al-ʾAhlīyah al-Jazāʾirīyah) was a civil war in Algeria fought between the Algerian government and various Is ...

(1991–2002) children were recruited frequently by Islamist armed groups fighting the government. A government-allied militia—the Legitimate Defence Groups (LDG)—also used children, according to some reports. Although the rules for joining the LDG were the same as the army, in which only adults were recruited (by

conscription Conscription (also called the draft in the United States) is the state-mandated enlistment of people in a national service, mainly a military service. Conscription dates back to antiquity and it continues in some countries to the present day un ...

) the LDG applied no safeguards to ensure that children could not join up. The extent of child recruitment during the war remains unknown.

Burundi

Children were kidnapped and used extensively during the civil war of 1993–2005. In 2004 hundreds of child soldiers were in the Forces Nationales pour la Libération (FNL), an armed rebel, Hutu group.Child soldiers global report 2004: Africa Regional overviewChild Soldiers International
. Children between the ages of 10 and 16 were also conscripted by the Burundese military.Child soldiers global report 2004: Africa Regional overviewChild Soldiers International
. After the Arusha peace accord of 2001 and the Pretoria agreement of 2003 eventually brought the conflict to an end in 2005, the new constitution committed to not using children in direct combat. The parties to the conflict no longer recruited children in large numbers, but many remained active in the FNL, which had denounced the peace accord. By 2006, a reintegration program organized by

UNICEF UNICEF (), originally called the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund in full, now officially United Nations Children's Fund, is an agency of the United Nations responsible for providing Humanitarianism, humanitarian and Devel ...

had led to the release of 3,000 children from the military and armed groups. According to Child Soldiers International: , Burundi no longer appears on the UN list of countries where children are used in hostilities.

Chad

Between 2007 and 2012, children were used extensively by the Chadian military as participants in armed conflict. They were also integrated into various rebel forces, including the

United Front for Democratic Change United may refer to: Places * United, Pennsylvania, an unincorporated community * United, West Virginia, an unincorporated community Arts and entertainment Films * ''United'' (2003 film), a Norwegian film * ''United'' (2011 film), a BBC Two fi ...

(''Front Uni pour le Changement'', FUC), local self-defense forces known as ''Tora Boro'' militias, and two Sudanese rebel movements operating in Chad: the

Justice and Equality Movement The Justice and Equality Movement (JEM; ar, حركة العدل والمساواة, ') is an opposition group in Sudan founded by Khalil Ibrahim. Gibril Ibrahim has led the group since January 2012 after the death of Khalil, his brother, in Dec ...

(JEM) and the G-19 faction of the Sudanese Liberation Army (SLA). After the government signed an action plan with the United Nations, children were released from service and were no longer recruited. By 2014, Chad had been removed from the UN list of countries that use child soldiers in war.

Côte d'Ivoire

During Côte d'Ivoire's civil war of 2002–2004, "children were recruited, often forcibly, by both sides", and were also abducted by armed groups fighting the civil war in Liberia between 1999 and 2003. The ''Patriotic Youth –'' armed groups that included children in large numbers – received the active support of the government. Thousands of children saw membership of an armed group on either side of the war as a way to earn a living, although they were often unpaid, having to acquire money through extortion or begging. They were provided with automatic weapons, and girls were frequently abducted as sex slaves. Attempts to reach a peace agreement repeatedly failed, and although after 2006 children were gradually released from military groups, approximately 2,000 children remained. After President

Laurent Gbagbo Koudou Laurent Gbagbo
, FPI website . (

Eritrea

During its 30-year war for independence with Ethiopia (1961–1991) the

Eritrean People's Liberation Front The Eritrean People's Liberation Front (EPLF), colloquially known as Shabia, was an armed Marxist–Leninist organization that fought for the independence of Eritrea from Ethiopia. It emerged in 1970 as a far-left to left-wing nationalist group ...

was "widely acknowledged" to have used children extensively as soldiers, according to the Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers (now

Child Soldiers International Child Soldiers International, formerly the Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers, was a UK-based non-governmental organization that worked to prevent the recruitment, use and exploitation of children by armed forces and groups. As of 7 June ...

). Once independence had been won, the Eritrean armed forces recruited and used children again during the two-year border war with Ethiopia in 1998. There were many reports of child recruitment and use (including conscription from age 15), but there is little information today about the extent of the practice, which is due in part to the absence of effective birth registration and age-verification system at the time. The UN reported in 2002 that children were no longer being used systematically by the Eritrean armed forces, and the government acceded to the Optional Protocol on the involvement of children in armed conflict in 2005. Child recruitment continued, however; Human Rights Concern Eritrea reported in 2013 that all schoolchildren in 11th grade (approx. age 16) were made to spend the year at a military training camp, after which they were routinely recruited into the armed forces.

Ethiopia

According to the

Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers Child Soldiers International, formerly the Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers, was a UK-based non-governmental organization that worked to prevent the recruitment, use and exploitation of children by armed forces and groups. As of 7 June ...

in 2001 there were "credible reports" that the Ethiopian armed forces used thousands of children in its two-year border war with Eritrea between 1998 and 2000: Children were also forcibly recruited in groups from public places. The lack of a functioning birth registration system has made it difficult to estimate the number of children affected, but it is clear that the use of children was widespread; for example, most Ethiopian prisoners of war in one large

prisoner of war A prisoner of war (POW) is a person who is held captive by a belligerent power during or immediately after an armed conflict. The earliest recorded usage of the phrase "prisoner of war" dates back to 1610. Belligerents hold prisoners of wa ...

camp in Eritrea were estimated to be aged 14–18. The main opposition group in the 1990s, the

Oromo Liberation Front The Oromo Liberation Front ( om, Adda Bilisummaa Oromoo, abbreviated: ABO; English abbreviation: OLF) is an Oromo nationalist political party formed in 1973 to promote self-determination for the Oromo people inhabiting today's Oromia Region and ...

, also systematically recruited children, including by force. In 2008 it was reported that children were no longer used for military purposes in Ethiopia, and in 2014 the government ratified the Optional Protocol on the involvement of children in armed conflict.

Liberia

In Liberia's civil wars (1989–1995, 1999–2003) all factions abducted children for direct combat, forced labour, and sexual slavery. It was the common practice of commanders to give children drugs and threaten them with execution in order to enhance their obedience; for example, soldiers were frequently given

valium Diazepam, first marketed as Valium, is a medicine of the benzodiazepine family that acts as an anxiolytic. It is commonly used to treat a range of conditions, including anxiety, seizures, alcohol withdrawal syndrome, muscle spasms, insomnia, a ...

before a battle, known as "bubbles" or "10-10". Children were often persuaded or forced to commit grave human rights violations against civilians, including rape, torture, and the abduction of other children for military use. Children as young as 10 were used in direct combat. United Nations disarmament, demobilisation and reintegration programs repeatedly failed when children quitted them, often to return to their former military unit, and after fighters rioted in protest at the absence of a financial reward for being disarmed. A chronic lack of resources for reintegration also prompted child soldiers to enrol in other armed groups as a means of gainful employment. By 2004 more than 20,000 children needed to be demobilised and reunited with their communities. However, by October 2004 10,000 children had been released from their military units and were part of reintegration programs. By 2006 children were no longer being used by any military groups in the country, although armed groups from Côte d'Ivoire and Guinea continued to abduct Liberian children. , children were no longer being used for military purposes in Liberia, and its armed forces were recruiting only adults over the age of 18. The use of child soldiers in Liberia was epitomised by The Small Boys Unit, established by Liberian President Charles Taylor. The boys were not provided with sustenance, but were expected to engage in "snake patrol", looting surrounding villages. Taylor and others were later tried before the

Special Court for Sierra Leone The Special Court for Sierra Leone, or the "Special Court" (SCSL), also called the Sierra Leone Tribunal, was a judicial body set up by the government of Sierra Leone and the United Nations to "prosecute persons who bear the greatest responsibil ...

because of his involvement in recruiting child soldiers.

Rwanda

Nyanzale displaced persons camp children

An estimated 20,000 children took part in hostilities during the 1990s, including the 1994

Rwanda genocide The Rwandan genocide occurred between 7 April and 15 July 1994 during the Rwandan Civil War. During this period of around 100 days, members of the Tutsi minority ethnic group, as well as some moderate Hutu and Twa, were killed by armed Hutu ...

when many children were involved in committing atrocities. 5,000 children were in the national army, while others, including many street children, joined or were made to join armed groups. After the genocide, 4,500 children were detained on suspicion of participating in atrocities, and were incarcerated for several years without charge or trial; some were sent to the Gitagata Re-Education Centre for males below 14 years of age. In the late 1990s, children were widely recruited again, often by force, to fight in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). Initial demobilisation and reintegration programmes failed after many schools banned former child soldiers and a high rate of unemployment rendered them vulnerable to re-recruitment by militia groups. In 2003, as the Rwandan military presence in the DRC reduced, so did the demand for child soldiers. The government introduced new legislation to raise the minimum enlistment age 18 and the armed forces stopped recruiting children. Nonetheless, armed groups continued to do so, albeit to a reduced extent, for their operations in the DRC.

Sierra Leone

During the

Sierra Leone Civil War The Sierra Leone Civil War (1991–2002), or the Sierra Leonean Civil War, was a civil war in Sierra Leone that began on 23 March 1991 when the Revolutionary United Front (RUF), with support from the special forces of Liberia, Liberian dictato ...

(1991–2002) thousands of children were recruited by government armed forces and non-government armed groups, particularly the anti-government

Revolutionary United Front The Revolutionary United Front (RUF) was a rebel group that fought a failed eleven-year war in Sierra Leone, beginning in 1991 and ending in 2002. It later transformed into a political party, which still exists today. The three most senior surv ...

(RUF) and the

Armed Forces Revolutionary Council The Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (AFRC) was a group of Sierra Leone soldiers that allied itself with the rebel Revolutionary United Front in the late 1990s. While the AFRC briefly controlled the country in 1998, it was driven from the cap ...

(AFRC), and the pro-government

Civil Defence Forces The Civil Defense Forces (CDF) was a paramilitary organization that fought in the Sierra Leone Civil War (1991–2002). It supported the elected government of Ahmed Tejan Kabbah against the rebel groups Revolutionary United Front (RUF) and Armed For ...

(CDF). Children were often forcibly recruited, given drugs and used to commit atrocities. Thousands of girls were also recruited as soldiers and often subjected to sexual exploitation. Many of the children were survivors of attacks on villages, which were routinely ordered to hand over their children to armed groups. By 2001, an estimated 10,000 children were being used for military purposes by government armed forces and various armed groups, particularly the RUF. After 2002, when the war was declared over, an extensive United Nations disarmament, demobilisation and reintegration programme reunited most former child soldiers with their communities, although it drew criticism for neglecting the needs of women and girls. In June 2007 the

found three men from the rebel Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (AFRC) guilty of war crimes, crimes against humanity, and other serious violations of international humanitarian law, including the recruitment of children under the age of 15 years into the armed forces. With this the Special Court became the first ever UN-backed tribunal to secure a conviction for the military conscription of children. , children were no longer being used for military purposes in Sierra Leone, and its armed forces were recruiting only adults over the age of 18. In his book '' A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Child Soldier'',

Ishmael Beah Ishmael Beah (born 23 November 1980)UNICEF''Youth leadership profiles'' unicef.org; retrieved 15 February 2007. is a Sierra Leonean author and human rights activist who rose to fame with his acclaimed memoir, ''A Long Way Gone''. His novel ''Radi ...

chronicles his life during the conflict in Sierra Leone. In ''Armies of the Young: Child Soldiers in War and Terrorism'' anthropologist David M. Rosen discusses the murders, rapes, tortures, and thousands of amputations committed by the RUF Small Boys Unit. The film ''

Blood Diamond ''Blood Diamond'' is a 2006 American political war action thriller film directed and co-produced by Edward Zwick and starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Jennifer Connelly, and Djimon Hounsou. The title refers to blood diamonds, which are diamonds min ...

'' is set during the civil war. The issue is also explored in the ''

Bones A bone is a rigid organ that constitutes part of the skeleton in most vertebrate animals. Bones protect the various other organs of the body, produce red and white blood cells, store minerals, provide structure and support for the body, an ...

'' episode, ''The Survivor In The Soap''.

Uganda

Over a period of twenty years the rebel

Lord's Resistance Army The Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), also known as the Lord's Resistance Movement, is a rebel group and heterodox Christian group which operates in northern Uganda, South Sudan, the Central African Republic, and the Democratic Republic of the Co ...

(LRA) has abducted more than 30,000 boys and girls as soldiers or sex slaves.

Joseph Kony Joseph Rao Kony (likely born 1961) is a Ugandan militant who founded the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), a Christian fundamentalist organization, designated as a terrorist group by the United Nations Peacekeepers, the European Union and various ...

began the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) in 1987, originally to protect northern Ugandans from the 1986 military coup by the People's National Resistance Army. Stating that he "received messages from God" Kony began attacking his own people, the Acholi, to establish a new theocratic government in Uganda based on the principles of the "Ten Commandments of God". This attempt by the LRA to gain control of the Ugandan government via roaming armies used boy- as well as girl-children as soldiers, such as

Grace Akallo Grace Akallo (born 1981) is a Ugandan woman who was abducted in 1996 to be used as a child soldier in the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), a rebel military group led by Joseph Kony. At the time of her abduction, Akallo was 15 years old and atte ...

. The LRA expansion into South Sudan, the Central African Republic and the Democratic Republic of Congo has used large numbers of children as active combatants and participants in extreme violence. On the 21October 2008 an appeal by the UN Security Council was made asking for the LRA to cease all military action in the DRC immediately. On 14June 2002 Uganda deposited its instrument of ratification of the

Rome Statute The Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court is the treaty that established the International Criminal Court (ICC). It was adopted at a diplomatic conference in Rome, Italy on 17 July 1998Michael P. Scharf (August 1998)''Results of the R ...

, and on 16December 2003 the Government of Uganda referred the situation concerning northern Uganda to the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC). The ICC investigated the situation and on 14October 2005 issued indictments against Lord's Resistance Army leader Joseph Kony and four other commanders for war crimes: Vincent Otti; Raska Lukwiya (indictment terminated, deceased); Okot Odhiambo; and

Dominic Ongwen Dominic Ongwen (born 1975) is a Ugandan former child soldier and former commander of one of the brigades of the Ugandan guerrilla group Lord's Resistance Army (LRA). He was detained in 2014 and in 2021 the International Criminal Court convict ...

. The warrant for Kony, Otti and Odhiambo includes the alleged crime of the forced enlisting of children contrary to the Rome Statute Art. 8(2) (e)(vii). The National Resistance Army also made use of child soldiers. Between 2003 and 2007, non-state armed groups fighting the LRA also used children. In 2007 the Ugandan government agreed an action plan with the UN to end the use of child soldiers and in 2008 the country no longer appeared on the UN list of countries that recruit and use children.

Libya

Reports from the

Syrian Observatory for Human Rights , image = Syrian Observatory for Human Rights Logo.jpg , image_size = 200px , caption = The logo of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights , type = NGO , founded_date = , founder ...

stated that as of September 2020,

Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a list of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolia, Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with ...

have sent to

Libya Libya (; ar, ليبيا, Lībiyā), officially the State of Libya ( ar, دولة ليبيا, Dawlat Lībiyā), is a country in the Maghreb region in North Africa. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, Egypt to Egypt–Libya bo ...

18,000

Syrian Syrians ( ar, سُورِيُّون, ''Sūriyyīn'') are an Eastern Mediterranean ethnic group indigenous to the Levant. They share common Levantine Semitic roots. The cultural and linguistic heritage of the Syrian people is a blend of both indi ...

mercenaries, including 350 children, for the

Second Libyan Civil War {{Infobox military conflict , conflict = Second Libyan Civil War , partof = the Arab Winter, Libyan Crisis (2011–present), Libyan Crisis, Iran–Saudi Arabia proxy conflict, War on terror, and Qatar–Saudi Arabia diplomat ...

. Report from the ''Syrians for Truth and Justice'' organisation also showed that children included at the Syrian mercenaries that Turkey sent to Libya. In addition, report from the

Al-Monitor Al-Monitor ( ar, المونيتور) is a news website launched in February 2012 by the Arab American entrepreneur Jamal Daniel and based in Washington, DC, United States. Al-Monitor provides reporting and analysis from and about the Middle East. ...

citing sources in Libya also stated that Syrian children were being sent to Libya to fight along with the Turkish-backed forces.

Americas

El Salvador

During the civil war between 1980 and 1992 the Salvadoran military and the main opposition group, the '' Frente Farabundo Martí de Liberación National'' (FMLN)'','' recruited children extensively. The recruitment was frequently carried out by force and focused on economically suppressed regions. A fifth of the army's personnel were aged under 18, as were a quarter of the FMLN. In a group of 278 former FMLN child soldiers interviewed for a study, the average age of recruitment was 10 years. The large majority of child recruits on both sides were living in poverty, and had been largely deprived of formal education. Many children who were not recruited by force joined of their own volition, mainly either to improve their circumstances or because they believed in the cause. After the civil war came to a close, rehabilitation and reintegration programmes for children mostly failed; the majority of FMLN children were not involved in them, and the large majority of those who were dropped out of them. A decade after the peace accord former child soldiers were still experiencing nightmares, depression, anxiety, and related signs of psychiatric trauma. Today, the Salvadoran military no longer sends children to war, but it still recruits and trains them from the age of 16.

Middle East

Iran

During the

Iran–Iraq War The Iran–Iraq War was an armed conflict between Iran and Iraq that lasted from September 1980 to August 1988. It began with the Iraqi invasion of Iran and lasted for almost eight years, until the acceptance of United Nations Security Council ...

(1980–1988) the armed forces used children widely; the extent of the practice is not known but the number of children involved is thought to be in the tens of thousands. Armed groups associated with the government advertised widely for male children from age 14 to join them, and the country's Supreme Leader,

Ayatollah Khomeini Ruhollah Khomeini, Ayatollah Khomeini, Imam Khomeini ( , ; ; 17 May 1900 – 3 June 1989) was an Iranian political and religious leader who served as the first supreme leader of Iran from 1979 until his death in 1989. He was the founder of ...

, urged children to fight at the front. According to the Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers (now

): The children involved were overwhelmingly from slums and poor villages, and some participated without the knowledge of their parents, including Mohammad Hossein Fahmideh. Thousands of children took part in

human wave The human wave attack, also known as the human sea attack, is an offensive infantry tactic in which an attacker conducts an unprotected frontal assault with densely concentrated infantry formations against the enemy line, intended to overrun and ...

attacks, leading to widespread deaths and injuries. The total number of all Iranian casualties is estimated to be 200,000–600,000,Dunnigan, A Quick and Dirty Guide to War (1991)Dictionary of Twentieth Century World History, by Jan Palmowski (Oxford, 1997)Clodfelter, Micheal, Warfare and Armed Conflict: A Statistical Reference to Casualty and Other Figures, 1618–1991Chirot, Daniel: ''Modern Tyrants: The Power and Prevalence of Evil in Our Age'' (1994) of which approximately a third were aged 15–19 (and 3 percent under 14), according to one assessment. After the war, the ''

Basij The Basij ( fa, بسيج, lit. "The Mobilization"), Niru-ye Moghāvemat-e Basij ( fa, نیروی مقاومت بسیج, "Resistance Mobilization Force"), full name Sâzmân-e Basij-e Mostaz'afin ( fa, سازمان بسیج مستضعفین, "The ...

,'' an official militia organisation, continued to recruit children from age 15, focusing on those living in poverty and sometimes recruiting them by force. In 2004, the ''Basij'' was estimated to have as many as a million members of all ages. '' Ansar-e Hizbollah'', an armed group tolerated by the government, also recruited children widely in the 2000s, with no age restriction. , the Iranian armed forces continue to enlist from age 16 and the government has not yet ratified the

Optional Protocol on the involvement of children in armed conflict The Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the Involvement of Children in Armed Conflict (OPAC), also known as the child soldier treaty, is a multilateral treaty whereby states agree to: 1) prohibit the conscription ...

Iraq

The government of

Saddam Hussein Saddam Hussein ( ; ar, صدام حسين, Ṣaddām Ḥusayn; 28 April 1937 – 30 December 2006) was an Iraqi politician who served as the fifth president of Iraq from 16 July 1979 until 9 April 2003. A leading member of the revolution ...

maintained 'boot camps' of civilian youths between the ages of 12 and 17 that involved small arms training and Ba'athist political indoctrination. Iraqi opposition sources and the US State Department reported that children who refused faced punishment. The state incorporated male children as young as ten into the '' Futuwah'' and '' Ashbal Saddam'' youth movements and then subjected them to military training, sometimes for 14 hours a day. P. W. Singer has compared the groups to the ''Hitler Jugend''. In the

Gulf War The Gulf War was a 1990–1991 armed campaign waged by a 35-country military coalition in response to the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait. Spearheaded by the United States, the coalition's efforts against Iraq were carried out in two key phases: ...

12-year-old boys fought for the Iraqis. Children also participated in the

. In the

2003 invasion of Iraq The 2003 invasion of Iraq was a United States-led invasion of the Republic of Iraq and the first stage of the Iraq War. The invasion phase began on 19 March 2003 (air) and 20 March 2003 (ground) and lasted just over one month, including 26 ...

, US forces fought children at Nasariya, Karbala, and Kirkuk, and the US sent captured child combatants to

Abu Ghraib prison Abu Ghraib prison ( ar, سجن أبو غريب, ''Sijn Abū Ghurayb'') was a prison complex in Abu Ghraib, Iraq, located west of Baghdad. Abu Ghraib prison was opened in the 1950s and served as a maximum-security prison with torture, weekly exe ...

. In 2009 a UN report on the post-war Iraqi occupation stated that the

Iraqi insurgency Iraqi insurgency may refer to: * Iraqi insurgency (2003–2011), part of the Iraq War ** Iraqi insurgency (2003–2006), 2003–2006 phase of the Iraqi insurgency ** Iraqi civil war (2006–2008), multi-sided civil war in Iraq * Iraqi insurgency (20 ...

had used children as combatants; it noted, for example, a suicide attack against Kirkuk's police commander by a boy aged between 10 and 13.

Asia

Cambodia

In the 1970s the ''

Khmer Rouge The Khmer Rouge (; ; km, ខ្មែរក្រហម, ; ) is the name that was popularly given to members of the Communist Party of Kampuchea (CPK) and by extension to the regime through which the CPK ruled Cambodia between 1975 and 1979. ...

'' exploited thousands of desensitised, conscripted children in their early teens to commit mass murder and other atrocities during the

Cambodian civil war The Cambodian Civil War ( km, សង្គ្រាមស៊ីវិលកម្ពុជា, Romanization of Khmer#UNGEGN, UNGEGN: ) was a civil war in Cambodia fought between the forces of the Communist Party of Kampuchea (known as the Khme ...

and subsequent genocide. The indoctrinated children were taught to follow any order without hesitation. After it was deposed in 1979, the ''Khmer Rouge'' fought a

guerrilla war Guerrilla warfare is a form of irregular warfare in which small groups of combatants, such as paramilitary personnel, armed civilians, or irregulars, use military tactics including ambushes, sabotage, raids, petty warfare, hit-and-run tactic ...

against the new government, and until at least 1998 relied heavily on child recruits, including forced recruitment by abduction. During this period, the children were deployed mainly in unpaid support roles, such as ammunition-carriers, and also as combatants. Cambodia's state armed forces also recruited children widely. Throughout the 1990s the army was recruiting children from the age of 10 and using them in armed conflict, mainly as porters and spies, and also as combatants. Four percent of the army were children, according to an estimate in the ''

Cambodia Daily ''The Cambodia Daily'' is an English and Khmer language news site that writes and aggregates news about Cambodia. It was originally an English-language daily newspaper based in Cambodia from 1993 to 2017, and was considered a newspaper of record ...

''. Many children had fled the ''Khmer Rouge'' without a means to feed themselves and hoped that joining the government forces would enable them to survive, although local commanders frequently denied them any pay. Children often capitalised on the lack of an effective birth registration system to lie about their age in order to enlist. Other children, some as young as 8, were forced to join. By 2000, the Cambodian government had signed the

Optional Protocol on the Involvement of Children in Armed Conflict The Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the Involvement of Children in Armed Conflict (OPAC), also known as the child soldier treaty, is a multilateral treaty whereby states agree to: 1) prohibit the conscription ...

and its armed forces resolved to recruit adults only. Meanwhile, the ''Khmer Rouge'' had collapsed with the death of its leader,

Pol Pot Pol Pot; (born Saloth Sâr;; 19 May 1925 – 15 April 1998) was a Cambodian revolutionary, dictator, and politician who ruled Cambodia as Prime Minister of Democratic Kampuchea between 1976 and 1979. Ideologically a Marxist–Leninist a ...

, in 1998. By 2004, children were no longer being recruited in the country, although the demobilisation programmes were inadequate, according to

, failing to offer appropriate rehabilitative support to released children.

Sri Lanka

Between 1983 and 2009 Sri Lanka's government fought a civil war with the

Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE; ta, தமிழீழ விடுதலைப் புலிகள், translit=Tamiḻīḻa viṭutalaip pulikaḷ, si, දෙමළ ඊළාම් විමුක්ති කොටි, t ...

(Tamil Tigers). For its entire duration the Tamil Tigers and other armed groups made routine use of child recruits, typically aged 14–17 and sometimes under 10.Bureau Report
LTTE rebels make child recruitment illegal: Report
'',

Zee News Zee News is an Indian Hindi-language news channel owned by Subhash Chandra's Essel Group. It launched on 27 August 1999 and is the flagship channel of the Zee Media Corporation. The channel has been involved in several controversies and has ...

27 October 2006 Some children enlisted to escape deprivation or racism, or during compulsory military training at their school when they were exposed to recruitment propaganda. Others were recruited by force when walking home from school or after the Tigers pressurised families to surrender one child, as per its policy. In 2001, international sources estimated that 40 percent of Tamil Tiger personnel were children, contrary to official statements insisting that the organisation did not use them. Sri Lankan soldiers nicknamed one unit the "Baby Battalion", due to the number of children in it. Although state armed forces recruited only adults over the age of 18, they supported the

Karuna group Tamil Makkal Viduthalai Pulikal (TMVP) ( ta, தமிழ் மக்கள் விடுதலைப்புலிகள், en, Tamil Peoples Liberation Tigers), previously known as the "Karuna Group", is a political party in Sri Lanka. It ...

, a Tamil splinter organisation opposed to the Tamil Tigers, to recruit children by force. The government also used detained Tamil Tiger children for propaganda by exposing them to the media. The first international initiative to demobilise and reintegrate children into their communities began in 2003, but was halted in 2004 because the Tigers failed to keep their commitment to release children from their ranks. The organisation began to release children in 2004, but continued to enlist several thousand, albeit in progressively smaller numbers, until at least 2007. The Tamil Tigers were defeated in 2009 and all other parties to the conflict stopped recruiting children in the same year.

Europe

Chechnya/Russia

During the

First Chechen War The First Chechen War, also known as the First Chechen Campaign,, rmed conflict in the Chechen Republic and on bordering territories of the Russian FederationФедеральный закон № 5-ФЗ от 12 января 1995 (в реда� ...

, Chechen separatist forces included a large number of boys and girls, some as young as 11. According to the UN: "Child soldiers in Chechnya were reportedly assigned the same tasks as adult combatants, and served on the front lines soon after joining the armed forces." In 2004 under-18s were still believed to be involved in a range of armed groups in the war against Russia; some allegedly took part in suicide bombings.

p. 217

United Kingdom

In the 20th century, the

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against F ...

commonly recruited boy seamen aged from 15 up for active service; boys aged 13 or 14 were recruited for other duties. Children aged 17 were sent to the

Falklands War The Falklands War ( es, link=no, Guerra de las Malvinas) was a ten-week undeclared war between Argentina and the United Kingdom in 1982 over two British dependent territories in the South Atlantic: the Falkland Islands and its territorial de ...

in 1982 (where three were killed) and the

in 1990–91 (where two were killed). 17-year-olds were also deployed as

NATO The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO, ; french: Organisation du traité de l'Atlantique nord, ), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental military alliance between 30 member states – 28 European and two No ...

peacekeepers in the former Yugoslavia during the 1990s. Having initially resisted international negotiations to prevent the deployment of children, the UK agreed to deploy adults only when it signed the

in 2000, but remained committed to recruiting and training children from age 16. Between 2003 and 2010, 22 personnel aged 17 were sent to Afghanistan and Iraq, reportedly in error. During the

Troubles The Troubles ( ga, Na Trioblóidí) were an ethno-nationalist conflict in Northern Ireland that lasted about 30 years from the late 1960s to 1998. Also known internationally as the Northern Ireland conflict, it is sometimes described as an " ...

in Northern Ireland (c. 1960s to 1998) it was common for paramilitary groups to recruit and use children, including as combatants. Five children in Republican

paramilitary groups A paramilitary is an organization whose structure, tactics, training, subculture, and (often) function are similar to those of a professional military, but is not part of a country's official or legitimate armed forces. Paramilitary units carr ...

, seven in Loyalist paramilitary groups, and five in the

British armed forces The British Armed Forces, also known as His Majesty's Armed Forces, are the military forces responsible for the defence of the United Kingdom, its Overseas Territories and the Crown Dependencies. They also promote the UK's wider interests, s ...

, died during the conflict. The youngest, Cathleen McCartland, was recruited by the

Irish Republican Army The Irish Republican Army (IRA) is a name used by various paramilitary organisations in Ireland throughout the 20th and 21st centuries. Organisations by this name have been dedicated to irredentism through Irish republicanism, the belief tha ...

(IRA) and was aged 12 when she was killed in Belfast.

References

External links

Reference: Child soldiers worldwide

Child Soldiers World Index
(2018), child soldier world map and statistics * Child Soldiers International, historical reports: *
Child Soldiers Global Report: 2004
*
Child Soldiers Global Report: 2008
*
Louder than words: 2012
{{adopt Age and society Child labour Human rights abuses Military sociology History of childhood

Pre-20th century

World War I

Spanish Civil War

World War II

After World War II: Historical examples by region

Africa

Algeria

Burundi

Chad

Côte d'Ivoire

Eritrea

Ethiopia

Liberia

Rwanda

Sierra Leone

Uganda

Libya

Americas

El Salvador

Middle East

Iran

Iraq

Asia

Cambodia

Sri Lanka

Europe

Chechnya/Russia

United Kingdom

See also

General

Well-known cases of children used for military purposes

Documentary film

Popular culture

References

External links

Reference: Child soldiers worldwide