Facts and Figures on Child Soldiers

The number of child soldiers globally

Although it is impossible to accurately calculate the number of children involved in armed forces and groups, it is clear that there are many tens of thousands of child soldiers. Child soldiers exist in all regions of the world and, almost inevitably, wherever there is armed conflict.

It is likely that the number of child soldiers is fewer than in 2004 when the Coalition published its last Child Soldiers Global Report. Since then, tens of thousands of child soldiers have been released from fighting forces following peace agreements and demobilization programs in Afghanistan, Burundi, Côte d’Ivoire, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Liberia, Southern Sudan and elsewhere. However, in the meantime, conflicts in countries such as Central African Republic, Chad, Iraq, Somalia and Sudan (Darfur) have broken out, reignited or intensified and child recruitment there increased.

Where child soldiers were involved in armed conflicts

Children were actively involved in armed conflict in government forces or non-state armed groups in 19 countries or territories between April 2004 and October 2007. These were: Afghanistan, Burundi, Central African Republic, Chad, Colombia, Côte d’Ivoire, the DRC, India, Indonesia, Iraq, Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territory, Myanmar, Nepal, Philippines, Somalia, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Thailand and Uganda.

Peace agreements brought an end to internal conflicts in Aceh/Indonesia in 2005 and in Nepal in 2006. As a result the use of children in hostilities ended in both situations, although child soldiers with the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) had not been formally discharged.

Government armed forces which used children in armed conflicts

The number of governments that used children in armed conflict only marginally declined – down from 10 in the period 2001-2004 to nine in 2004-2007.
In Myanmar boys below the age of 18 continued to be forcibly recruited into the army in large numbers and were used in active combat as well as other roles. Children also took direct part in hostilities in government armed forces in Chad, the DRC, Somalia, Sudan/Southern Sudan and Uganda. In addition, there were reports that the Yemeni armed forces used children in fighting against a militia in early 2007. The Israeli defence forces used Palestinian children as human shields on several occasions. A number of under-18s were deployed to Iraq by the British armed forces between 2003 and 2005, although most were removed from the theatre of war within a week of their arrival.

At least 14 governments also recruited, and in some cases used in hostilities, children in auxiliary forces, civilian defence groups or in illegal militias and armed groups acting as proxies for official armed forces. These included Chad, Colombia, Côte d’Ivoire, the DRC, India, Iran, Libya, Myanmar, Peru, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Uganda and Zimbabwe. In Burundi, Colombia, the DRC, India, Indonesia, Israel, Nepal and Uganda children – often captured, surrendered or escaped from armed groups - were also used as spies, informants or messengers.

The recruitment and use of children by non-state armed groups

The vast majority of child soldiers are in the ranks of non-state armed groups. Dozens of armed groups in at least 24 countries have recruited under-18s and many have used them in hostilities.

Armed groups such as the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and the National Liberation Army (ELN) in Colombia, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in Sri Lanka, and the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) in Uganda are well known for having recruited and used children over many years. Others receive less international attention. In southern Thailand the separatist group National Revolution Front-Coordinate (BRN-C) recruits under-18s and uses them in various roles including propaganda and in support of military operations. In India, child recruitment by Maoist groups is reported to have increased since 2005 and there were persistent reports of child soldier use by groups in Jammu and Kashmir and northeastern states. In the Philippines and Myanmar children are associated with armed groups involved in protracted low-level conflicts with state forces.

In countries such as Central African Republic and Chad there are numerous irregular groups which are characterized by unclear, shifting alliances and activities that are often more criminal than political. In situations such as Kenya and Nigeria criminal groups involving children have been used for political purposes. In Afghanistan, Iraq, the Occupied Palestinian Territory and Pakistan, children were used by armed groups in suicide attacks.

The challenge of releasing and reintegrating child soldiers

Tens of thousands of children have left armed forces and groups since 2004 as long-running conflicts in Sub-Saharan Africa drew to a close. Although many thousands were demobilized through official disarmament, demobilization and reintegration (DDR) programs, many more child soldiers self-demobilized.
Lessons learned about the priorities and needs of children during official DDR processes were often ignored by planners and implementers. Fear of stigmatization and other obstacles prevented tens of thousands of children from registering for DDR programs. The long-term financial and political support needed to successfully reintegrate former child soldiers was frequently lacking and community programs – known to provide the best chance for recovery of war affected children including child soldiers – have not been well supported. Inadequate provision for long-term reintegration of former child soldiers was reported from Afghanistan, Burundi, Côte d’Ivoire, the DRC, Guinea, Liberia and Southern Sudan.

In some cases official DDR programs made no provision for children or otherwise discourage their participation. In Indonesia only adults associated with the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) benefited from DDR packages that followed the 2005 peace agreement. In the Central African Republic, out of the 7,500 combatants that went through the official DDR program following armed conflict in 2002-03, only 26 were children. In Colombia, restrictive criteria for accessing the government-run DDR program effectively excluded many child soldiers. In other situations, such as India, Myanmar and Thailand, no arrangements existed to facilitate the release of children from armed groups or to assist their reintegration.

The fate of girl soldiers

Girls continued to be involved in fighting forces in combat and non-combat roles in countries including Central African Republic, Chad, Nepal, Philippines and Sri Lanka. Armed groups in Colombia, Côte d’Ivoire, the DRC and Uganda were among those known to have subjected girl soldiers to rape and other forms of sexual violence.

Girls associated with armed forces or groups have been widely excluded from DDR programs. Figures from national DDR programs reflect extraordinarily low figures for girls’ participation. In Liberia, 3,000 girls were officially demobilized through the formal DDR process that ended in November 2004. Around another 8,000 did not take part. In the DRC, just 3,000 or just 15 per cent of the total number of girls estimated to have been involved in the conflict were officially demobilized by the end of 2006 when the national DDR program drew to a close.

Justice initiatives

The International Criminal Court (ICC) issued arrest warrants against members of the LRA in Uganda in 2005 and subsequently against three members of Ituri-based armed groups in the DRC. The warrants included charges relating to the enlistment, conscription and direct use in hostilities of children under the age of 15. The first ever ICC trial, that of former Congolese armed group leader Thomas Lubanga Dyilo who is charged with child recruitment and use, is due to begin in June. In Sierra Leone, the guilty verdicts in 2007 by the Special Court for Sierra Leone against three members of the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (AFRC) and one member of the government-backed Civilian Defence Forces (CDF) represented the first ever convictions by an international court on charges relating to the recruitment and use of children.

With the exception of two cases in the DRC, no one is known to have been prosecuted by national-level courts for recruiting and using children.

Truth commissions in Sierra Leone, Timor-Leste and Liberia have addressed the issue of child soldiers and former child soldiers have participated in their proceedings.

Child soldiers in detention

In a number of countries children suspected of involvement in armed groups have been arbitrarily detained and some were reported to have been subjected to ill-treatment or torture. In Burundi, scores of children, some as young as nine years old have been detained for alleged links to the National Liberation Forces (FNL) for prolonged periods and some were severely beaten. In India, there was evidence that in areas of armed conflict children were detained, often in violation of national legislation designed to protect children. In Israel, hundreds of Palestinian children have been held under military provisions: incidents of ill-treatment and torture were reportedly common. In Iraq there were reports of abuse in facilities run by the Multi-National Force-Iraq where hundreds of children accused of security offences were detained. In the Philippines, detailed policies on the treatment of children captured, surrendered or escaped from armed groups have been ignored by the military and children held beyond officially sanctioned time-limits and in some cases ill-treated. In the USA, a detainee facing trial before a military commission, who was captured in Afghanistan in 2002 when he was 15-years old, alleged that he was ill-treated in US custody both in Afghanistan and in the US Naval Base in Guantánamo Bay.

In the DRC and Myanmar child soldiers have been sentenced to terms of imprisonment for desertion from the armed forces. In the DRC several children convicted of military offences remained in prison under sentence of death.

The trend towards a “straight-18” standard for military recruitment

Of the 120 states that have ratified the Optional Protocol, almost two thirds have committed themselves to setting a minimum voluntary recruitment age at 18 or higher. In the past four years, the minimum age for voluntary recruitment into the armed forces has been raised to 18 in Chile, Italy, Jordan, the Maldives, Sierra Leone, Slovenia and South Korea.

Sixty-three countries permitted the voluntary recruitment of under-18s by their armed forces. In Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom calls to raise the minimum recruitment age to 18 have been resisted on the grounds of manpower requirements. In the USA, following a dramatic number of under-18s joining the military, and general recruitment bonuses, increased enlistment bonuses were introduced and educational standards for recruits lowered.

Elsewhere, safeguards to ensure that minimum recruitment ages were respected were undermined by inadequate measures to determine the age of recruits. In countries such as Bangladesh, Botswana, Ethiopia, Guatemala, Guinea, India, Kenya and Zambia, the risk of inadvertent underage recruitment was created by low birth registration levels. In Paraguay, lack of birth registration facilitated forced conscription of children as young as twelve years old. In countries such as Afghanistan and Yemen, inadequate verification procedures to determine the age of new recruits meant that under-age soldiers were likely to be serving in security forces.